On Thursday, December 1st, 2016, President-Elect Donald Trump announced that he had successfully reached an agreement with Carrier–a company that produces air conditioners and parts–to keep 1,000 jobs in The United States. More specifically, in Indiana, where before these jobs were being outsourced to Mexico. This is a step in the right direction for America’s economy, which has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs to outsourcing between 2000 and 2014. Although the 1,000 jobs saved are only a miniscule fraction of the 5 million plus jobs lost since 2000, the deal marks a small boost in the country’s economy.
The deal struck between President-Elect Trump and Carrier entailed a $7 million dollar multi-year incentives package, and a promise that Trump will lower corporate taxes overall.
Since the end of the 1990s, manufacturing jobs in the US have declined, and since their lowest point ever in 2010, jobs have made a slight rebound (up 8%), yet have not made a full recovery to what they were in 2000.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/30/us/politics/trump-manufacturing-jobs-indiana-carrier.html
A diagram showing the decline in US manufacturing jobs since 2000.
Americans should be positive because of this job save, but should they be worried as well?
Senator Bernie Sanders thinks so.
Senator Sanders said in an op-ed in The Washington Post that “In essence, United Technologies (the parent company of Carrier) took Trump hostage and won.” The concern that Senator Sanders and Americans may have is that if corporations want big tax-cuts and incentives, all that they will have to do is threaten President-Elect Trump to outsource jobs in order to get them. During Trump’s campaign, he threatened to hit Carrier with a 35% tariff if it moved jobs to Mexico, but the negotiation that took place ended up being less stringent.
In total, United Technologies was planning to outsource 2,100 jobs to Mexico. Another plant situated nearby the Carrier plant employs 700 workers, and plans to outsource them to Mexico, as this plant was not part of the original Trump deal.
The question is: should Americans be worried about corporations taking advantage of their soon-to-be president, or should they be content with the jobs that are staying, no matter what it takes?
Read More Here:
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/01/news/economy/bernie-sanders-oped-trump-carrier-washington-post/
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/01/news/economy/bernie-sanders-oped-trump-carrier-washington-post/