Robert Schmetzer – 7/3/07

This page was last updated on July 3, 2007.

Outsourcing America; Robert Schmetzer; Beaver County Times; July 3, 2007.

I critiqued five previous Schmetzer letters and they are usually broken records. A 2004 letter asserted Republicans were “driving Americans into the ground.” That letter claimed the GOP planned “to reflect their commitment to defend our homeland by reintroducing the draft in 2005” despite the fact Democrats were the only guys talking about reinstating the draft. Recent letters resurrected the Cheney/Halliburton talking point, lobbied for VP Cheney’s impeachment, and lobbied for surrender in Iraq. Breaking the trend was a letter lobbying for a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare system.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Attention, white-collar workers!

“While you have been sitting back watching what has been happening to your blue-collar neighbors’ jobs here in America, thinking that because you’re a professional and more skilled there is no need to worry.

“Take note. The latest surge of jobs heading to India might well include yours.

“High-end outsourcing is the new wave, and it’s pulling away the professional work of well-educated Americans who’ve been enjoying six-figure salaries, nice homes and the good life.

“Such outfits as Citigroup, Boeing and Eli Lilly to name a few are moving. The jobs are accounting, legal research, architectural drafting, high tech computer jobs, investment banking, aircraft design, clinical testing of drugs, etc.

“Economist Alan Binder [sic], a former top official at the Federal Reserve, said, ‘We have barely seen the tip of the offshoreing [sic] iceberg, the eventual dimensions of which may be staggering. Up to 42 million American workers (about one-third) are looking at a rude awaking.’”

[RWC] Don’t count on Mr. Schmetzer for accuracy. First, the name is “Blinder,” not “Binder.”

Second, according to Mr. Blinder’s article, the correct quote is, “We have so far barely seen the tip of the offshoring iceberg, the eventual dimensions of which may be staggering.” It appears Mr. Schmetzer picked up the rest of what he quoted from some other website or article.

“What’s the middle-class future then? Binder [sic] said it’s to ‘do jobs that have to be done in person, like policeman or doctor.’ We will surely need more policemen to contain all of us who can’t be doctors. And exactly how are the rest of us going to pay for that doctor?”

[RWC] I don’t know where Mr. Schmetzer got this alleged quote. It wasn’t in the aforementioned Blinder article and a Google search got no hits. The Blinder article speaks of the unlikelihood of offshoring most doctor and police services (and janitors, crane operators, etc.), but not the alleged quote cited by Mr. Schmetzer.

“Our politicians have got to quit pretending that this is not a problem and start developing policies to revitalize America’s middle class.”

[RWC] While Mr. Schmetzer was busy quoting Mr. Blinder, here’s one he omitted. “That said, we should not view the coming wave of offshoring as an impending catastrophe. Nor should we try to stop it. The normal gains from trade mean that the world as a whole cannot lose from increases in productivity, and the United States and other industrial countries have not only weathered but also benefited from comparable changes in the past.”

Note Mr. Schmetzer doesn’t describe the policies he would recommend.