Yglesias Misses the Point. Again. [with correction]

Rules requiring firms to restrict employment to their country of origin would be hideously inefficient if applied on a global basis, and they would be every bit as devastating to American employees of foreign firms as offshoring by American firms is to workers who lose their jobs here. (One might also ask where the borders of corporate patriotism ought to be. If it’s wrong for a Michigan-based car company to have a supply chain that extends to Mexico, why is Ohio OK? After all, it hardly makes a difference to a laid-off worker where exactly his job went—the bad news is that he lost his job.)

Over the long run, we’re all going to be more prosperous if we live in a world where firms are allowed to locate work where it’s most efficient to locate it. This is exactly why, despite some tough ads, the Obama administration has not proposed any policies to restrict firms’ freedom to shift work across state or national boundaries.

Romney’s unwillingness to make the case for outsourcing reflects, in part, political timidity. But more broadly, it underscores that although he’s been an eager participant in contemporary capitalism, he’s not willing to mount a policy response to its vicissitudes.

Offshoring Is Fine. Why won’t Mitt Romney defend Bain’s record?Matthew Yglesias, Slate, yesterday afternoon.

It’s surely true that rules requiring firms to restrict employment to their country of origin would be hideously inefficient if applied on a global basis, and they would be every bit as devastating to American employees of foreign firms as offshoring by American firms is to workers who lose their jobs here.

But, to my knowledge, the only one who’s equated the absence of* government policy (of necessity on this issue, statutes) that would restrict corporate employment to the country of the corporation’s origin, and a private equity firm’s investment in companies that specialize in assisting American corporations with offshoring employment, is Yglesias.  Even Romney apparently recognizes the distinction. Not sure why Yglesias doesn’t.

It’s one thing to argue that utterly unfettered globalization of employment by corporations worldwide ultimately has a positive effect on the American economy—as Yglesias does. But it’s another thing entirely to actually convince a majority of the public that this is so even in light of current trends and actual facts. 

And it’s one thing to argue that laws that forbid companies from relocating jobs from the company’s home country to another one would have a negative side to it because of possible retaliatory laws in other countries, and another thing to equate that with decisions by corporations themselves about whether to offshore or not. (And, setting aside the obvious constitutional bar to prohibiting a corporation’s relocation of jobs from one state to another, it’s a lot easier for families to relocate from Michigan to Ohio than from Michigan to Mexico.)

The thing that Yglesias doesn’t get is that Romney’s claiming that his private-sector career demonstrates his ability to create not just wealth for investors but jobs en masse for the public. There’s really no way for him to make that claim persuasively, because it plainly isn’t true. He can defend offshoring as a corporate strategy, but corporate strategy is a different matter than economic strategy.

Unless, of course, Romney wants to argue that encouraging offshoring by American corporations is good government policy. Hope he does.  But then, I’m a Democrat.

*Sentence corrected to insert the words “the absence of”.