Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America

From the very beginning, Senator Dorgan, the author, speaks from his heart and soul about what is wrong with America, and what can be done about it. You can sense his strong sense of duty and the obligation he feels toward his fellow Americans, and the frustration he feels in being thwarted by a republican-dominated congress. (This book was finished before the recent congressional election that gave congress back to democrats.) Senator Dorgan laments the exodus of jobs to countries that have broken their trade agreements with us, and have made our trade deficit soar. This exodus has not only caused three million Americans to lose their jobs, but it has also compromised our national security. Parts for our bombs and planes are made in foreign countries. It has allowed countries to flood ours with their imports while keeping ours out by tariffs. Mexico is exporting contaminated and decayed meat that is lining our meat counters. And Dorgan attacks the now familiar Walmart because they pay their workers so poorly and a health care plan that costs so much, they must use public assistance. He is concerned about a congress that represents corporations rather than their constituents. He is concerned about a congress that allows them to export jobs and commodities and then charge them a low tax rate of only 5.4 percent to bring the money back into the country. He is angry that pharmaceuticals are allowed to export their products where they are sold at less than half the price charged to Americans. He is also angry that they claim the cost is for research when they are spending so much on marketing. (Anyone ever see a commercial with two people in separate bathtubs--when the moment is right?) This book is well-written. The author's tone shows a sense of urgency and frustration without being strident. Nowhere in his writing did I detect that he was attempting to promote a socialist state, or a "cradle-to-grave" government as one reviewer suggests. Senator Dorgan is all for leveling the playing field so that our products and jobs can compete fairly in the world. His theme is similar to what the ancient Greeks said: Everything in moderation and nothing to excess. For the senator this includes trade and capitalism. I am very stingy with five stars. Out of 124 reviews to date, I have given less than ten, about half of that for books. This is not Leon Uris' Armageddon or Herman Wouk's "Caine Mutiny." It is five stars because I learned a great deal, and because it is an important book. I think it is important enough for you to read it. Please. Take this book and buy it.

Last night I sat up until the wee, small hours reading this slender book by an American Senator. Byron Dorgan, a senator from North Dakota, is surprisingly honest for a politican, something that I find remarkable in this day and age. In this slender book of about two hundred pages or so, Senator Dorgan takes a hard look at what is happening in the United States today. And he's not shy about pointing at his own class -- i.e. politicians -- and saying there is something terribly rotten here. After introducing himself and his background, Senator Dorgan goes forth to talk about the economic policies that are currently driving the US economy. To say that I was shocked and appalled by some of the data he presents was an understatement. I found myself getting angrier the more I read, especially when I discover that most corporations pay only five percent in income tax, if that much. Most of them have set up offshore shelters in the Caymans, most particularly, at what is known as the Ugland Building on Church Street, where more than 12,000 companies have set up as their 'offical place of business.' Many of those companies manage to outsource jobs with the American government's blessing of massive tax credits, usually with dire news for the average American worker. But that's not the worst of it, it seems. American wages and workers are being steadily driven into the ground by cheap labour found overseas, generous tax-breaks for the wealthy, and a callous disregard for those of us out there who work. Dorgan saves his ire for two particular sorts -- the mega-corporations, especially Wal-Mart and their policy of substandard wages, no benefits, no health insurance and shipping in vast quantities of cheap goods from China. The other is the ultra-rich executives who squander their obscenely large paychecks on gestures of extreme bad taste -- the most vile I read about was an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David that was p'ssing Stoli vodka for the eager guests to lap up. Many of these executives wink at fraud that would send the rest of us to the slammer for decades, and get off with a bit of a fine and a slap on the wrist from the government, many of whom are being bankrolled by these same companies when it comes time for re-election. And that's just a little taste of what I was reading about. By the end of the book I was royally mad, and ready to find the nearest elected official and do a bit of a smash-dance on their face. Of course I didn't, I sat down and decided to vent here. There's bits about the oil crisis, and the war in Iraq -- I find it highly suspicious that Vice President Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton, the company that holds most of the government contracts in Iraq -- the conditions of workers in Asia, where most manufacturing jobs are ending up, the fact that most Americans can't afford the prices of prescription drugs, and the fact that not only is the country getting mired in debt, but that the odds are great that when the debt

Byron Dorgan really hits the nail on the head with this book. It should appeal to everybody whether or not they are "blue" or "red". Why? What good is having a political point of view if there are no good jobs? I will admit that this review is very biased on the subject. I live in Michigan. This state leads the nation in job losses. There seems to be a conspriacy of Democrats, Republicans, and business leaders in this state to ship jobs to any place but here. I've seen the towns of Flint, Saginaw, and Detroit turn into hopeless areas with no jobs. Is this the future of America? This reviewer hopes not! I was lucky enough to run across this book at my local book store. I sat down and read it all in one evening. This book reminds me of an economics argument I got into with a professor. He said jobs should go to where people are willing to work for little money. I retorted "that's pretty big talk for a government worker who has college tenure". Sheeze, I agree with this book. There is no reason to have trade with China if all they are going to do is sell us second rate goods and loan us money to for our deficits. There is no reason to have total free trade with many nations because they don't have enviormental laws, employment rights laws, and many other job protections that the citizens of this nation spent years building. Last, lots of businesses, like GM, love to run overseas for cheap labor. However, they forget the danger of nationalism. The large corporations of America lost millions of dollars when industries were nationalized by Cuba in the early 1960s. The trouble is if some company lost a factory to nationalization then they would expect corporate welfare to bail them out. America is in a perfect storm for losing jobs. This book explains why we will be losing jobs until some of the solutions of this book are done. I like this book and give it five stars. Byron Dorgan has done an excellent job explaining all the government and business policies that result in the loss of real good jobs in America. This is a wish that will never happen: all government policy makers and corporate executives should read this book. If a professor has not read this book they should lose their tenure!

"Moving jobs to China and running profits through the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes undermines American workers and threatens out future" - so begins Senator Dorgan's "Take This Job and Ship It." Our trade deficit now increases by $2 billion/day, and our total deficit (federal government and trade) is $1.2 trillion/year. In 1970 the biggest U.S. corporation was G.M. - for most employees, it was a ticket to lifetime employment, and for all it provided good wages, pensions, and health care. Today it is Wal-Mart, with an average salary of $18,000, 70% turnover the first year, and large numbers without benefits. About three million have already lost their jobs to out-sourcing, and Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board estimates 42-56 million jobs could be sent abroad, while many of those remaining will be competing with those paid much less in foreign lands. Dorgan goes on to assert that about 750,000 U.S. jobs have been lost via NAFTA, and the three largest imports from Mexico are autos, auto parts, and electronic - displacing high-skilled American jobs, contrary to pre-implementation projections. Even Fig Newtons are now imported from Mexico. We have gone from a $1.3 billion surplus with Mexico in 1994 to a $45 billion deficit. Meanwhile, the U.S. poverty rate increased for the fourth straight year (to 12.7%) in 2005. The problem is no longer limited to blue-collar workers. Senior software engineer salaries have been driven down by outsourcing from $130,000 to $100,000 in a few years (IF one is still employed). Airline maintenance has also been exported. Meanwhile, while corporations make record profits through outsourcing, their tax payments dwindle. From 1945 to 2000 the share of income taxes paid by corporations dropped from 35% to 10%. Companies that move jobs overseas can reinvest those profits there and pay no U.S. income taxes; or, they can repatriate the money and pay only 5.25% federal tax. (To be fair, they probably had also already paid local taxes, but these usually are less than in the U.S.) For readers that like irony, Dorgan points out that U.S. drug companies now manufacture overseas (low costs and taxes) - yet, claim reimported drugs from Canada are dangerous. As for claims that they need high prices in the U.S. to fund research - Dorgan asserts that 36% of U.S. medical research is funded by NIH. Another example is Cuba - "free trade" is good, except involving Cuba. It just so happens that the majority of Cuban expatriates live in Florida - a key state in 2000, 2004, and probably the 2008 election as well. (The U.S. embargo also provides Castro with a great excuse for the poor performance of the Cuban economy.) Recommendations: 1)Let's determine the national security implications of outsourcing - especially manufacturing. 2)Repeal the tax breaks for exporting jobs. 3)Address "imported" pollution (eg. from China). 4)Limit or end the trade deficit - possibly by Buffett's Plan. Dorga