Bear Flag Republic Radio WeblogLiving out on the left coast |
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LIVE webcam Cumbres & Toltec rail yard in Chama, New Mexico.
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Saturday, March 6, 2004
Jon Udell points to one of the major reasons US workers are vulnerable to offshoring: corporate health care expenses.
[John Robb's Weblog] comments < 2:08:25 PM 
>U.S. Health care costs make it cheaper to move work offshore. U.S. employers and workers are burdened by many extra costs that are non-existent in our competitors' countries, including environmental laws, different tax systems, high health care costs, high insurance costs, unionized workers .... while our foreign "free trade" competitors are free of those hindrances. Which makes it difficult for U.S. workers to compete with offshore destinations. Another story (not linked) says that the offshoring we've seen so far is just a drop compared to what will hit us over the next few years. We could see 10% unemployment and dropping salaries in the U.S. Regarding high health care service pricing in the U.S., all mainstream political solutions boil down to "Health care costs too much so let's find someone else to help pay for it" and never get around to addressing ways of reducing health care expenditures. Until we do that, we have no solutions. Health care remains on target to soon consume 20 cent of every dollar in our economy. Health care is cheaper for employers in Canada, in large part, because it is paid for out of worker tax dollars, not out of employer's before tax expenses. So nationalized health care pushes health care expenses from employers on to general tax payers. As we continue to "globalize", the U.S. will be forced to become more like them - nationalized health care, higher taxes on workers, reduced wages, and perhaps fewer worker and environmental protections to help lower the costs of doing business to a level at which U.S. firms can compete with them. [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology] comments < 2:02:29 PM
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