Home of Today's Common Sense

 Published Brownsville Herald May 17, 2007

I appreciate the many of you have spoken to me in meetings, at the mall or grocery or just by e-mail. There are some that agree but many that don’t. Most importantly you all read “Today’s Commonsense” and it precipitates a thought process and hopefully more interest in the community. That is my goal! All my articles are currently archived on the Internet with the glorious mistakes at WWW.TodaysCommonsense.com. The content only changes bi-weekly when my column is published but has still had more than 110,000 visits and requests for reprints of particular columns in the last three years of newspaper publication. I thank you all for that. It is a sign that my goal is being met. In my column on these pages, dated March 11, 2007, I mentioned that I had challenged the students in Custom Broker Abel Medina’s class in Export – Imports where I substituted. I asked for an essay relating to “Are jobs leaving the U.S. as a result of global trade?” I offered an award of $50 for the best and Attorneys Peter Zavaleta and John Shergold also offered $25 each. We have received a number of takers to the challenge. Carlos Rodriguez. Opinions Editor at the Brownsville Herald evaluated them. Maria Vasquez received the $50.00 award for the best essay. Jorge Delgado and Brenda Cavazos received checks for $25.00 each for the two runner up essays. The three winners presented issues and data in a way that caused me to rethink the issue as more complex than I had formerly thought. I believe they earned the awards and wish them every success in the future. I had previously dealt with the issue in an article titled “Less Jobs – Bunk” dated March 10, 2004 where I made the assertion: “With regard as to why jobs leave the United States, it has more to do with International Trade dynamics. The prevailing theories are Heckscher and Ohlin’s The Theory of Factor Proportions: A country that is relatively labor (finance) abundant should specialize in production and export of that product that is labor (finance) intensive and Vernon’s  The product cycle Theory: A country that has a comparative advantage in the production and export of an individual product changes over time as the technology of the products’ manufacture, matures.
It means things are manufactured by countries that can do it most efficiently and at less cost; which changes over time as the need for the product and the technology needed to make that product change. Each company/location in the cycle needs to evolve in products and technology or it will die. Less evolution in things like new machines, new worker skills and knowledge, etc. means fewer jobs in that business.” In applying that theory it also suggests, for instance, that the reason for decline in the auto industry is that there have been few innovations and examples of higher technology to justify the manufacturing function remaining in a nation that has provided that as their position in the cycle of new products. I would also suggest that our Congress for the past 30 or so years has speeded up the exportation of manufacturing by playing election politics with our futures. They have catered to the special interests that have opposed expanding the numbers of immigrant visas to supply the expanding economy. The current educational cycle in Brownsville is coming to a close and this semester has closed at UTB/TSC. I have been critical in past columns of the “partnership” of a Community College with the State University which I still feel has resulted in the loss of the identity of a community college and I do not accept that it is a proper use of the local taxing authority funds to support the University. With that said, I am overjoyed at the results of the partnership and the enormous strides forward that the community has made as a result of the partnership and the excellent use of the “Bond Issue funds”. Over the years, I took graduate business courses from an excellent program right here in Brownsville which I consider every bit as good or better than those I took at the formerly “Ivy University” – Rutgers in New Jersey. I especially liked the adjunct instructors that also had current experience in the subject matter being taught. 

I was also permitted to instruct in an earlier version of the International Trade program, where I learned at least as much as the students.  The instruction, facilities and surroundings at our “Community University” are competitive with any of the others in my mind. The opportunity to learn is clearly provided and then it is up to the student!   

I am also planning on taking advantage of another of the University’s facilities at the ITEC center. My international consulting business is expanding to the point where I need a formal office and I have been privileged to be able to locate at ITEC. I look forward to joining the community here.

Don’t forget to read the students’ essays in the Brownsville Herald Opinions Section of May 27, 2007.   

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