please review my New Year's editorial on bringing jobs back to America

[w8liftinglady]

for facts,spelling and punctuation.Thanks,as always!


2011 is upon us. After debating resolutions for myself,I began to wonder what ONE resolution would serve Americans best. After much thought,it occurred to me-if we were to return industry to America,the rest of our dilemmas might fall into place.

Since 2000,The United States has lost over three million factory jobs,over two million customer service jobs and over two million IT jobs. These jobs were shipped to companies in countries who paid their workers less,offered no benefits,and did little to protect their workers(including the employment of children). In exchange,the company heads were able to keep more money,while our average national salaries decreased.

40 years ago,a factory job was a way for a citizen who lacked a college education to support his/her family,buy a home,and save a little for their retirement. This was related directly to labor activities earlier in the 20th Century. Those who went to college were able to make a little more money,have a little nicer house,and save a little more. Company CEOs generally made forty times the salary of their average worker,had nicer houses,and saved more. Hard work was rewarded to people from all walks of life. That has all changed with NAFTA,CAFTA and off shoring.

Corporations have discovered there is a buck to be made by shipping jobs overseas. They have also discovered that it is to their benefit to invest their profits in The Cayman Islands and other foreign countries instead of The United States,to avoid taxes.
PBS produced "Tax Me if You Can:Gimme Shelter" which described this.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tax/reform/cron.html
As a result,CEOs have seen their salaries inflate to 400 times that of their employees.

Because of this,two percent of Americans became outrageously wealthy,while 98 percent saw their income and benefits decrease. More Americans became unemployed,underemployed,uninsured and uninformed. We remain in perpetual wars because there are no jobs to come home to for the troops and no income to be made on native soil by United States corporations. We can not buy American-made products anymore.We can't afford to educate our children above a high school level without extreme debt-especially middle-class working families. There is no guarantee that a college education will be worth more than the paper it's printed on any more,as these jobs have been exported as well.

I hope the new Congress will examine this closely and work diligently to reverse importation and tax shelters while restoring American manufacturing. It will require commitment from Americans to favor American-made products and a commitment from our government to reward companies who work diligently to keep their jobs in America. We will need to review our manufacturing needs and encourage research and development into new areas that will benefit our nation for generations to come.

This will be a start on the road to recovery in our country.I hope our elected officials agree.