Give power to the American worker

Cesar F. Lumba, Las Vegas

Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014 | 2 a.m.

I would like to add to Jeff Danziger’s lament in “Where the jobs are,” his column in Monday’s Las Vegas Sun.

I would go further than Danziger’s points.

What do we Americans and citizens of industrialized countries do about the near-absolute advantage China, India and others have over us?

Do we just tell our children stories about how great life was in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s?

No, we shouldn’t and we won’t. We can protect our manufacturing industries — what’s still here — and even bring back some of the manufacturing we have lost.

American consumers have to force the issue, bypassing our elected representatives. We must insist that the American multinationals start bringing manufacturing back to our shores. We must insist on an amendment in the World Trade Organization charter that allows countries to erect tariffs for the purpose of protecting their decimated industries.

American consumers are also America’s workers. We must be at the forefront of economic nationalism

Granted, the net effect will be higher prices, but today’s youth will be willing to pay the higher prices because they will have good jobs. That is the trade-off.

The emphasis in economic planning must be employment stability, not cheap goods. I call the new economics “employnomics,” or Employment Economics.