A MODEST PROPOSAL

I have many relatives who are union members. They are mostly in the construction arena, but some are also in manufacturing. All are upset at the idea of American jobs going overseas to take advantage of cheap labor.

To be honest about it, I am also upset about the use of cheap overseas labor. I have given this some thought and have a modest proposal that would create a win-win situation for everyone.

The United States government has the power to lay taxes and duties on imports. This power should be used in the following manner: Anyone wishing to import a product to the USA would be required to provide data regarding the amount workers are paid to produce the item and the percentage of the cost of the item that labor represents. (Included with this data would be certification requirements and authorization for USA verification of the data.) An import duty would then be established which would bring the price of the product up to what it would be if the manufacturer were paying its workers US Minimum Wage. The duty collected would go to the United States government general fund.

An overseas manufacturer could avoid paying this duty by simply paying its employees the US minimum wage. By doing so they would still sell their product at the same price in the USA and would still make the same profit margin. The advantage to US workers is that, due to their superior productivity, they would be able to compete with products imported under this scheme. Perhaps even more importantly, those off shore workers who would be receiving US minimum wage would suddenly have a much higher standard of living and would be able to buy more products of all sorts including more products produced in the USA!

The best way to make the worlds economy stronger for everyone is to raise the standard of living for everyone, not to try to hold down some segment of the worlds population for the benifit of a few.

This proposal would place no mandate on any company or any government to pay higher wages to their employees. They could simply opt to pay the import duty, in which case, US workers would recieve the benefit of my proposal. Of course, most manufacturers would see the wisdom of paying the money at home rather than paying it to Uncle Sam.

Please feel free to forward this proposal to you congressional delegation in both the House and the Senate.