- Military Arms Race Dominates Dubai Air Show
- Hugo Chavez: US Plot Behind Tensions With Colombia
- Dow Gains 2.5% for Week; Disney Jumps
- Tax Credit Sparking First-Time Home Sales: Realtor Group
- Dow Up 100 Points, Led by Disney
- 9/11 Suspects to Be Moved to NYC Detention Center
- Financial Reform May Be Fading in Congress: Obama Aide
- Editor's Introduction: The Carbon Challenge
- Stocks Claw Higher, Led by Disney
- Key 9/11 Suspect to Be Tried in New York
MOST SHARED
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- CNBC TRANSCRIPT: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
- Analysis: APEC Nations Back Face-Saving Climate Plan
- Finding Value and Growth In The Green Sector
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- China's Role as Lender Alters Dynamics for United States
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Should China Be Forced to Free-float the Yuan?
- Shift Into High-Quality Stocks Could Move Market Higher
- Military Arms Race Dominates Dubai Air Show
- China: Low US Interest Rates Threaten Recovery
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Hedge Fund Billionaire Paulson Reports New Citi Stake
- Court Rejects 'Clawbacks' for Alleged Stanford Victims
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- Oil Next Week: What Traders Will Be Watching
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Dollar General Trades Higher After Its IPO
Text Size 
Where does the government get off telling a private company they should fire hardworking, qualified employees, solely because of where they're from?
That is exactly what Chuck Grassley, Republican from Iowa, did when he sent a letter last week to Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
], telling them they had a "moral obligation" to retain American workers and fire foreign workers first.
This is the nastiest form of pseudo-patriotism, and frightening government intervention to boot.
First, a publicly traded U.S. company has only one obligation — to its shareholders. For that reason they should retain their most-valued employees, and let go of their least-valued employees, regardless of where they are from. If I'm a Microsoft shareholder, do I want them to pay MORE for someone of LESS value? That is the implication of Representative Grassley's request. Understand this, companies serve America best, when they are at their most competitive.
If American companies start making decisions based on supposedly "patriotic" reasons, rather than for strategic reasons, investors will slowly but surely abandon them. They will become weaker, not stronger. The stronger a company is, the more employees it will have, or in this case, retain.
More From CNBC.com
- Greenberg: AIG Has Lost Its Way, Needs to Be Rebuilt
- TARP Executive Pay Limits to Be Set at $500,000
- Limiting Executive Pay Is a Bad Move
- Obama Officials Struggle Over 'Bad Bank' Plan
- GOP Offers Stimulus Plan
- Bear in Three Letters -- DOW
Before you tell me I am cold-hearted, and don’t care about Americans, let me be clear, I am as patriotic as the next person. But the answer to keeping Americans employed is to keep them competitive. Fixing our failing education system, for one, would be a place to start, rather than telling Microsoft how to run its business.
What’s even more horrendous about this request from Grassley, is that he is a Republican. He is emblematic of a Republican party that has abandoned the very principles it supposedly stands on. Representative Grassley, do you or don't you believe in the free movement of labor, capital and goods?
Comments? Questions? Write to us at
Print
Email
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
- A wealthy, distracted Texas driver crashed his million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car into a salt marsh, say police.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes