Richard Gottlieb

The Lou Dobbs Effect

The other night, after, once again, turning off Lou Dobbs and his "Exporting America" rant, I begin thinking about this phenomenon of demonizing American corporations and their leaders who are accused of “exporting American jobs.” 

 It made me think of the French peasants during the industrial revolution who threw their wooden shoes, called “sabot”, into the mechanical looms (hence the name “sabotage). They were trying to stop the unstoppable; a revolution in how business was done. Never mind that the move to industrialization dramatically decreased the price and increased the availability of products that once only the rich could afford, it was costing these workers their jobs. Well, they broke a few machines but the industrial revolution was bigger than they were.

Lou Dobbs, to me, by constantly attacking the globalization of business is like one of those sabot wearing peasants. Except, instead of throwing wooden shoes into the gears, he is throwing explosive words into the global conversation. He will cause some problems, but I believe he will be about as successful as those peasants.

Globalization and jobs are, however, important issues. The toy industry, as we now know, was one of the early adapters of globalization. Interestingly, due to the concerns about toy safety, will our industry go full circle and will American toy jobs begin to migrate back home? More on that in my next blog.

Posted by Richard Gottlieb on September 4, 2007 | Comments (1)