I watching 60 Minutes last week as I have done on many a Sunday nights for the past 35 plus years. I have to admit that the broadcast while still miles better than the competition has slipped a bit. But what caught my interest was the segment with Jeff Imelt the CEO of General Electric and President Obama's job czar.
The job czar position being one who advises the president on the best way to generate jobs. It would seem like a no brainer to appoint Imelt who runs one of the largest multi-national companies in the world, GE. GE makes everything from washing machines to jet engines for commercial and military aircraft to turbines to locomotives. Until recently they also owned a majority stake NBC/Universal which they recently sold (the majority) to Comcast. So naturally Imelt is a good choice for the job czar position that Obama has appointed him to, right?
The segment started out by showing a factory that Imelt was walking through that was recently built in the United States and provided jobs for US works at $13.00 plus an hour. The piece also followed Imelt around the globe to Brazil where GE has a large and growing presence and to China where they are partnering with that country to produce an airliner which may compete with Boeing and Airbus. At the end of the 15 minute report Imelt looks at Lesley Stahl, and inquires as to why the American people are not rooting for GE? He says that in Germany, the German people are rooting for Siemens (a Germany company). He cannot understand why the US people are not rooting for American companies and GE specifically?
Now it is understood that these reports are edited and since the segment included many global locations, it was taped over a several week period. But really, Mr. Imelt? You wonder why Americans don't root for GE's success?
Let's help you answer your question:
As one of the most stable companies in the modern era, GE's stock plummeted during financial melt down. Was it because it was following the rest of the market down? No. It was because GE Capital, GE's financial unit was caught up in the financial crisis much like the rest of Wall Street. That one unit dragged down the rest of the company and caused GE stock to fall to below $10 per share. Nothing like endearing the American public to your company by helping them loose hundred of millions of dollars in stock value by malfeasance of a destabilized financial division. But that is just for starters and is ancient news.
ABC News reports that GE laid off 19,000 workers in 2009. Now according to Mr. Imelt GE is growing again. He further acknowledged that he is putting people back to work again in the US. But he is growing even faster in Brazil where a whole city has sprung up to service the needs of GE's growing worldwide business. Guess where the workers are being hired?
It is widely known that GE paid no US taxes in 2010. They were not alone. Neither did Ford or Ebay and several other notable US logos. It is also widely known that GE hires former IRS and tax law experts who have expertise in the tax code to help Congress write tax legislation that helps benefit GE. Additionally GE and other US companies park billions of dollars of off shore profits that will never enter this country and therefore are not subject to US taxation. Yet with all this favorable treatment and having paid no taxes in 2010 Imelt still would like to see a "tax holiday" for businesses who want to bring that money back to the US. He further acknowledges that he does not know whether this additional benefit would lead to any significant US job growth.
Note that nothing in the behavior listed above is necessarily exclusive to GE. Other companies engage in the same or similar activity. Additionally, nothing GE has done is illegal, however the fact that their lobbyists and tax experts are writing or supporting tax legislation that is directly benefiting them is something that you or I would find impossible to do.
So why is America not rooting for GE Mr. Imelt? Well to begin with I do not know that this is exactly true. I am sure your investors and employees are firmly behind you. But I am pretty sure that if you are 1 of the 19,000 who were laid off and your job is in Brazil, China or India you are not exactly rooting for GE. If you lost thousands of dollars in GE stock because GE wrote off bad loans, then you are not rooting either. If Americans see technology transferred to China that might result in a loss of even more US jobs in the future you probably are not rooting for GE. If as an average American you see this happening over and over again by American companies like GE and at&t (they proudly told their stockholders that they would cut 40,000 US jobs if the acquired T-Mobile USA), then you might begin to understand why Americans are not rooting for American companies like GE. Ask the employees of Airborne Express who had their company purchased by DHL. DHL eventually shut down their US hub and put hundreds out of workers out of a job and caused a ripple effect of foreclosures, financial devastation and even suicide. Ask the employees of Whirlpool who had their jobs moved to Mexico. Ask the thousands of nameless workers who get pink slips for no other reason than some corporate accountant decides that a division is not profitable enough so they close it.
Americans love to root for something. They especially love to root for the home team. Just ask many football, baseball, hockey and basketball fans who either live near or grew up near the local team. Ask any student who roots for their school well after they have graduated. Ask the workers who built automobiles in the US just to see manufacturing go just across the border to Mexico in the name of maximized profits. We are a fiecely loyal bunch.
But loyalty is not blind and we are not going to cheer for companies that continually send jobs away from America. It is just becoming more difficult to figure out exactly who the home team is. Contrary to popular worldwide opinion Americans are not stupid. We see what is going on in corporate America. But you know as well as anyone that, at one time, people did root for GE. So, Mr. Imelt if you indeed don't feel like we are rooting for your company maybe now is the time, and your opportunity as the job czar, to give us a reason to root for GE and American business again.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Something Just Does Not Seem Right
My parents were both immigrants. My mother was a refugee who learned and embraced a new culture and language and became an American citizen. My father did the same. So I understand the challenges of breaking through barriers cultural, religious and otherwise to be considered a American citizen. This was done in a time that was often considered even less hospitable and kind to immigrants than what is faced today. It is only recently that political correctness became part of the American lexicon.
But there something that really bothers me that is coming from both the right and the left. While it cannot yet be called a trend, the two cases illustrated in the following paragraphs really are troubling.
This concerns illegal immigrants and illegal immigration. This is not a case of racism but one of survival for the middle class. I will begin by saying that we need immigrants legal and otherwise in this country. "Otherwise" meaning that we should have a formal guest worker program but do not. The only program I agreed with proposed by G.W. Bush in his eight years was a guest worker program that was dismissed by his own party. As a result we have a very weak immigration and immigration enforcement policy here. Though we are 250 years away from our country's founding, the US was and to a large extent is a nation of immigrants.
But there are cases today where business owners, farmers for example who say that they are having to let crops rot because they cannot get anyone to pick them. Americans do not want those jobs (perhaps another column sometime) and illegal immigrants are now too afraid to come to this country or apply for those jobs because they do not want to be harassed or deported. Arizona and Alabama are two states that have taken it upon themselves to write immigration policy that restricts illegal immigration beyond that of national guidelines and in large part will hurt their economies.
It is a huge failing of this country and a national disgrace that our national legislative body does not produce legislation to address the obvious needs of business owners who have relied on illegal immigration to support their businesses. It is naive, by the way, to think that this work would be done by Americans. This type of work has not been done by American workers for years. The prices for fresh fruit and hotel rooms just to name a few of the goods and services reliant on illegal labor would skyrocket if we paid Americans to complete the tasks required.
But here is where I have a huge problem. Note that I have not called these people "undocumented." They are not undocumented. They are illegal. No temporary work permit or citizenship, then you are an illegal alien. I would like to consider myself an open minded citizen of the world, but that is not the way the world works. If I go to Germany or Mexico or Japan I am a guest. That means I stay for a defined period whether I am working or vacationing there. They do not welcome you in as a citizen of the world and allow you to receive publicly funded health insurance, apply for work or get an education that citizens of their country are entitled to.
Two examples are what have me thinking: Just this week Jerry Brown, a democrat and Governor of California signed a bill that would allow illegal immigrants to accept private scholarship money for a college education. The hope here is this will lead to a second step which will allow those same illegal immigrants to receive public money and grants for a college education. The second example is claim by Rick Perry, republican Governor of Texas that he proud to extend in-state status to illegal immigrants who are accepted to public Texas state universities. He made no apologies for extending this benefit to illegal immigrants at a recent republican debate.
Would I be against these example in either case if there were unlimited funds or unlimited slots for college? No. But the reality is that there is just so much money and so many available seats in today's colleges and universities. Who does this hurt the most? The middle class who is already under siege as a group.
Private and public funds are limited. If you make $90,000, firmly middle class, and have two children to send to college you are already under water. As a bread winner you are too wealthy to receive grants and loan options are limited. If your child is not an overachiever who will be receiving scholarships, good luck. The only way to attend post high school education is to borrow, go to a community college or go without. Stories of students leaving college with six figure debt are becoming common. So if you hear as I did that illegal immigrants are now eligible to receive private college funding are you wondering why the middle class once again is being left out in the cold? What do we tell these people? If you live out of state and want to send your child to a public university in Texas are you wondering why your student will have to pay more than someone who is not even a citizen of the US or Texas? It just does not seem right.
I have heard some who were brought here illegally as children claim that they know nothing else than the American way of life and consider themselves Americans. I truly do feel for these individuals and think that there should be a path to citizenship for them. But the fact remains that their parents made a tragic decision and they unfortunately, according to our laws are not Americans. Should American tax payers foot the bill both literally and figuratively for the mistakes of their parents while themselves having to tell their children that college is unaffordable? The answer should be no. Maybe in another time but now with deficits and shortfalls in budgeting for education reaching emergency proportions, we simply cannot absorb those who are not here illegally.
Could you send your child to Ecuador or Germany and expect to receive local grants for college? Doubtful.
No one is entitled to a free college education in this country. People who did not plan for their children's higher education are feeling the same pain, with no relief, and no one is sending their children to school. Yet somehow those how are here illegally are getting a chance that our citizens are not. Sometimes the answer should just be no.
But there something that really bothers me that is coming from both the right and the left. While it cannot yet be called a trend, the two cases illustrated in the following paragraphs really are troubling.
This concerns illegal immigrants and illegal immigration. This is not a case of racism but one of survival for the middle class. I will begin by saying that we need immigrants legal and otherwise in this country. "Otherwise" meaning that we should have a formal guest worker program but do not. The only program I agreed with proposed by G.W. Bush in his eight years was a guest worker program that was dismissed by his own party. As a result we have a very weak immigration and immigration enforcement policy here. Though we are 250 years away from our country's founding, the US was and to a large extent is a nation of immigrants.
But there are cases today where business owners, farmers for example who say that they are having to let crops rot because they cannot get anyone to pick them. Americans do not want those jobs (perhaps another column sometime) and illegal immigrants are now too afraid to come to this country or apply for those jobs because they do not want to be harassed or deported. Arizona and Alabama are two states that have taken it upon themselves to write immigration policy that restricts illegal immigration beyond that of national guidelines and in large part will hurt their economies.
It is a huge failing of this country and a national disgrace that our national legislative body does not produce legislation to address the obvious needs of business owners who have relied on illegal immigration to support their businesses. It is naive, by the way, to think that this work would be done by Americans. This type of work has not been done by American workers for years. The prices for fresh fruit and hotel rooms just to name a few of the goods and services reliant on illegal labor would skyrocket if we paid Americans to complete the tasks required.
But here is where I have a huge problem. Note that I have not called these people "undocumented." They are not undocumented. They are illegal. No temporary work permit or citizenship, then you are an illegal alien. I would like to consider myself an open minded citizen of the world, but that is not the way the world works. If I go to Germany or Mexico or Japan I am a guest. That means I stay for a defined period whether I am working or vacationing there. They do not welcome you in as a citizen of the world and allow you to receive publicly funded health insurance, apply for work or get an education that citizens of their country are entitled to.
Two examples are what have me thinking: Just this week Jerry Brown, a democrat and Governor of California signed a bill that would allow illegal immigrants to accept private scholarship money for a college education. The hope here is this will lead to a second step which will allow those same illegal immigrants to receive public money and grants for a college education. The second example is claim by Rick Perry, republican Governor of Texas that he proud to extend in-state status to illegal immigrants who are accepted to public Texas state universities. He made no apologies for extending this benefit to illegal immigrants at a recent republican debate.
Would I be against these example in either case if there were unlimited funds or unlimited slots for college? No. But the reality is that there is just so much money and so many available seats in today's colleges and universities. Who does this hurt the most? The middle class who is already under siege as a group.
Private and public funds are limited. If you make $90,000, firmly middle class, and have two children to send to college you are already under water. As a bread winner you are too wealthy to receive grants and loan options are limited. If your child is not an overachiever who will be receiving scholarships, good luck. The only way to attend post high school education is to borrow, go to a community college or go without. Stories of students leaving college with six figure debt are becoming common. So if you hear as I did that illegal immigrants are now eligible to receive private college funding are you wondering why the middle class once again is being left out in the cold? What do we tell these people? If you live out of state and want to send your child to a public university in Texas are you wondering why your student will have to pay more than someone who is not even a citizen of the US or Texas? It just does not seem right.
I have heard some who were brought here illegally as children claim that they know nothing else than the American way of life and consider themselves Americans. I truly do feel for these individuals and think that there should be a path to citizenship for them. But the fact remains that their parents made a tragic decision and they unfortunately, according to our laws are not Americans. Should American tax payers foot the bill both literally and figuratively for the mistakes of their parents while themselves having to tell their children that college is unaffordable? The answer should be no. Maybe in another time but now with deficits and shortfalls in budgeting for education reaching emergency proportions, we simply cannot absorb those who are not here illegally.
Could you send your child to Ecuador or Germany and expect to receive local grants for college? Doubtful.
No one is entitled to a free college education in this country. People who did not plan for their children's higher education are feeling the same pain, with no relief, and no one is sending their children to school. Yet somehow those how are here illegally are getting a chance that our citizens are not. Sometimes the answer should just be no.
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