By
Robert Reich
 |
| "Made in the USA?" Not. Here's where Trump should practice what he preaches. |
Donald
Trump gave a speech February 17 at South Carolina’s Boeing facility, where the
new 787 “Dreamliner" was unveiled.
He said the plane was “built right
here” in South Carolina, and that “our goal as a nation must be to rely less on
imports and more on products made here in the U.S.A.“
That’s
pure fantasy. I’ll let you know why in a moment.
He
also called for "a very substantial penalty to be paid when they fire
their people and move to another country, make the product, and think that they
are going to sell it back.”
And
said he’ll lower taxes and get rid of regulations that send our jobs to those
other countries. "We want products made by our workers in our factories
stamped by those four magnificent words, ‘Made in the U.S.A.’”
Trump
doesn’t seem to know anything about global competition, and what’s really
holding back American workers.
In
fact, almost a third of Boeing’s Dreamliner comes from abroad.
And
not from low-wage countries. In fact, the Dreamliner’s components come from
countries with high taxes and high regulations, good wages, strong unions,
excellent schools including technical education, and universally-available
health care.
For
example:
2.
French firm Messier-Dowty makes the
aircraft’s landing-gear system.
3.
German firm Diehl Luftfahrt Elektronik
supplies the main cabin lighting.
4.
Swedish firm Saab Aerostructures
manufactures the access doors.
5.
Japanese company Jamco makes parts
for the lavatories, flight deck interiors and galleys.
6.
French firm Thales makes its electrical
power conversion system.
7.
Thales selected GS Yuasa, a Japanese
firm, in 2005 to supply it with the system’s lithium-ion batteries.
Oh,
and the first delivery of the Dreamliner is scheduled to take place next year –
to Singapore Airlines.
Currently there are 149 orders for it from worldwide
customers including British Airways and Air France.
In
other words, contrary to Trump, the Boeing Dreamliner is made all over the
world and will be sold all over the world.
Trump’s
“America First” economics is pure demagoguery. We get a first-class workforce
by investing in Americans’ education, training, infrastructure, and healthcare
– and rewarding them with high union wages.
We
don’t boost the competitiveness of American workers through xenophobic grandstanding.
ROBERT
B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving Capitalism." He is also
a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause,
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the
award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY FOR ALL.