RoJo's Mercantilist Problem

We've run hot and cold on Senator Ron Johnson ever since he got elected.  McConnell appears to have stomped all over "Rebel Ron" within 12 months of his first election, and he learned how to be a good little Establishment player, albeit somewhat conservatively oriented.  (If you want play-by-play on RoJo's elected career, simply search "RoJo" on this blog.) 

Anyhow.  RoJo has been thinking about being Governor of Wisconsin.  So he spoke to a gaggle of commercial real-estate agents. 

What did Ron have to say?

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson argued for shipping more manufacturing jobs overseas this week in a presentation to commercial real estate agents. 

The Republican from Oshkosh described the ability to outsource manufacturing jobs as one of the benefits of the global economy. 

"From my standpoint, when we don’t have enough workers in this country right now, that’s a real limitation to our economic growth," he said, according to a video of the event. "To me, it makes no sense for American workers to produce high-labor-content products. Let the billions of people around the world do that and provide us these goods — high quality, dirt cheap.

"That to me is economically efficient. Unfortunately, we’re probably going to retrench from that, that type of policy, and I don’t see how it’s going to particularly work."...

Ron's tin god is "economically efficient" mercantilism.  It's a black-magic theory that impoverishes everyone it touches.  He's also in La-La-Land about "high quality", as all sorts of US manufacturers will be happy sad to tell you.  You know, the ones who agreed to Specification A and found they were getting Specification B--without notice--after the warranty claims started piling up. 

But I digress.

You know why "there aren't enough workers" in the US, Ron?  Because "workers" saw the jobs going offshore and knew that their children would not HAVE jobs here--so why have children?  That's a part of it--not all of it--but it's definitely in play.

Offhand, Ron, I don't think that sort of talk is going to defeat Rebecca Kleefisch in a primary.  But--given what we know--maybe that's for the best.