It seems there are three hot topics in the world today, the economy, the environment and human rights. The US fueled housing market collapse has hit the hole world, and it has pushed the environment and human rights out of the spotlight. I, as an American, have a quick and easy fix for the US economy, the environment, and the human rights of the various people around the world. Make it illegal for US companies to put money into any company that doesn't meet the labor law requirements set forth for US employees nor the environmental standards US companies are required to meet when manufacturing in the US. So, a shoe manufacturer in Thailand will have to pay their Thai employees the US minimum wage, the employees will not have to work more than 40 hours a week without mandatory overtime, they will get a preset number of paid holidays every year (not to be fewer than the US Postal Service grants it's employees), they also will not be able to dump toxic dies into the local waterways, etc. I'm not saying the US labor laws are superior to every country that US companies deal with, nor am I saying they are the most held to highest environmental standards, but the labor laws and environmental standards the US has is superior to that of many developing nations that big corporations like to outsource to. This would apply to companies bearing the US company's name as well as any company that receives direct or indirect funds from the US company. So, US Bigshot Inc. could not get around this by buying their discombobulaters from Foreign Littleguy Co. and then having them assembled in Foreign Assembly Line Corp. The US company would be held responsible for the working conditions and the environmental impacts of not only the companies with their names on them, but also for all of the companies that receive money from them... directly or indirectly.

Here's how I think this would fix the US economy. US companies outsource many of these jobs because facilities in other countries don't have to follow the same somewhat strict, and costly, labor and environmental regulations imposed on them within the US. If these jobs were going to cost as much in Country A as they cost to keep jobs within the US, the jobs wouldn't leave, in fact they would start coming back. The American people would then have more jobs, more jobs mean more money, more money means the US starts getting an influx of actual US money into their economy rather than borrowing billions from others.

Here's how I think it would help the world's environment and the rights of all humans. These countries that have been living off of jobs sourced from the US business would have to change to meet US standards of business, or their economies would collapse (lets face it, countries that live on outsourced jobs, will struggle to survive if those jobs are in danger of leaving). Human rights will become a big issue for every country that relies on this type of economic income and environmental standards will be enforced instead of just laid out on paper and ignored.

There are problems with this idea, mainly, how would you enforce something like this. Well, that in itself would create hundreds, maybe thousands of jobs, as it would require heavy regulation (Oh no! He just said the 'R' word - he must be a socialist) and very heavy consequences for companies trying to break the rules. Ignorance of what's happening at subsidiaries and contract companies would have to be inexcusable and punished as heavily as having first hand knowledge. Another problem, the price of goods would increase. This problem I see as less daunting as more people will have jobs to pay for this increase.

Anyway, that's my idea. Look at is as a rant, or however you want, but, as is, big business sees no responsibility to the US economy or the improvement of it, their only desire is to cut costs and make share holders happy with higher returns, at any cost. They will cut jobs where they are expensive and send them out to the lowest bidder, regardless of how that lowest bidder will keep their costs that low.