It appears that some lawmakers would like to restrict the number of jobs going overseas. I do agree that it is a bad thing to see U.S. jobs going to other countries. But I wonder about some of the proposed solutions. Computerworld reports that some legislators would like to see us force the Defense Dept. to require goods purchased to contain at least 65% U.S. contents. Or perhaps prohibit contracts where work will be performed by non-U.S. workers.

Some folks feel that our trade agreements with other countries deal too much with protecting intelectual property rights and not enough with human rights issues, issues which allow some foreign countries to operate at a much lower cost than us. I agree with that to a small degree. The human rights issue is a large one for me. But we cannot forget that one of the core issues surrounding the loss of so many jobs in the U.S. is the over regulation of the work environment. This drives our cost up, perhaps being a much larger impact than the lower cost of the foreign workers. So rather than point the finger at our trade agreements (which do need to be fixed some places), why not look internally? Why not stop forcing companies to pay for the Family Leave Act or allow silly lawsuits from temp workers who want the same benefits as full-time employees? Or remove some of the ridiculous power of the unions? Workers Compensation (in Ca. at least) is insane. Companies are not being lured by foreign countries, they're being chased out by our own.

I can't imagine a law (or group of laws) rprohibiting trade helping in any great way. The same way prohibiting the export of strong encryption did not help stem the outflow of that technology; all this did was remove profit from our own companies.

Perhaps the real solution is to have less laws, not more. And maybe this will remove the big red target from the backs of American companies.