Walter E. Williams

Among George Orwell's insightful observations, there's one very worthy of attention: "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." Let's look at a few examples of corrupted language, thought and information.

Pretend you're a customs inspection agent. There's a cargo container awaiting a ship bound for foreign shores. You ask the shipper, who works for a big corporation, what's in the container. He answers, "It's a couple of thousand jobs that we're exporting overseas to a low-wage country."

What questions might you ask? How about, "What kind of jobs are in the container?" or, "Are they America's high-paying jobs?" Most people would probably say: "You're an idiot! You can't bundle up jobs and ship them overseas!"


Let's turn to the next part of the exporting jobs nonsense, namely that corporations are driven solely by the prospect of low wages. Let's begin with a question: Is the bulk of U.S. corporation overseas investment, and hence employment of foreigners, in high-wage countries, or is it in low-wage countries?



Walter E. Williams
