Why is our Government Sending our Jobs Overseas
By louisehartmann
In the wake of President Obama's promise to keep more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency run by a hand-picked Obama appointee has created a $22 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT, in South Asia. After these tech workers are trained, they will be placed with outsourcing vendors that provide business services to American companies looking to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent's low labor costs. This is being run by the US agency for international development, an agency whose mission is to help other nations develop into modern and functional economies in the hope that by raising their standards of living we will also raise the possibility of Democracy in their countries - and make them our friends in the process. In many ways over the years USAID has done a good job of this, helping countries to develop their own manufacturing sectors for their own people. But to use the resources of AID to help Sri Lanka, in this case, build IT and call centers for American countries is quite simply insanity.
Comments
#2
oops posted here by mistake.. moved post to Daily Topics
#3
It seems the free trade policy which Democratic president bill clinton set the stage for, is at the heart of "How can this be?" I tried to see it's benefits when he was pushing, pushing during his presidency. i never really could, but one can see the results. It seems equally destructive to the overall life of the country as the recent court decision to equate corporations with people. So shame on William Jefferson Clinton, political shape shifter, wanton oportunist, spineless democrat. Architect of the destruction of the middle class.
To place blame fairly, It was Reagan and Ford who were asleep at the wheel when Japan started marketing their cars, televisions, and VCR's at below market cost which, as a result, put the American companies out of business(at least TV and VCR). This was a huge blow to American productivity and exports at the time. It was only later that Clinton came along and sold his presidency to the corporations pushing, pushing his Free Trade Agenda .
#4
The jobs of the future for the middle class that will grow are police and military as our country sinks further into economic dispair. Police and military are very middle class, yet they mostly vote against for Republicans and againt their own middle class needs. Police and military are necessary to protect the interests of the financial elite and to keep revolutionary middle at bay
#5
Somehow the tremendous inequality between the rich and the poor, and the disproportionate distribution of wealth where the top few percent own most of it, has to be remedied. Perhaps there is a talented bookwriter out there who could appeal to the masses while at the same time illumine them that we are all, essentially, being screwed. Perhaps a strong voice, although recent history is littered with good men, who once given the power, ..............Perhaps a brilliant internet blogger who would communicate the big secret (we are all being screwed) at a grass-roots level. Perhaps a romantic revolution in outrage over the desecration of the earth. Something has got to give, cause the times are truly dark now.
#6
The more and more you want to believe in President Obama; the harder they make it. It really does seem like that they are testing the limits of how far the base will go.
Not much farther!! What team are they on?
#7
I contacted members of Congress and the Governor of Colorado shortly after they passed TARP and asked them why they took the buy American clauses out of the TARP? How can they possibly explain it? Where are the new laws taxing corporations and changing the tariff laws penalizing corporations? It was this issue that started me on a path of activism, not just a very polite letter now and then to a politician but real political activism. It's inconceivable your own government would give your job away and then ask for your vote and billions more and that's exactly what they are doing. And we have a President who let them take those buy American clauses out, he signed the bill after all, so that tells me right there that there weren't going to be many jobs from the billions spent to supposedly save the economy.
#8
Looked on Wikipedia to justify protectionist policies to cement my arguments with co-workers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism
But, based upon Wikipedia, there aren't many positive outcomes, if any, to be had from such policies. Seems like the online resource is heavily edited by "free trade" people.
What garbage.
#9
We all need to read between the lines, so called "free trade" is anti-US employment. Free trade is cheap trade and what's happening now and what's been happening for 30 years is a concerted attack against US jobs and workers. They've been trying to create Mexico or India in America by working harder to protect overseas jobs than they work to protect our jobs. By "they" I mean both Washington and your own state government. So very shortly, within a year when there is no more employment benefits for what I call the permanent 10-18% unemployment in the US, you'll start to see the shanty towns and the poverty you see in places like Mexico in your own country.
#10
Yeah, they've actually asked for "volunteer" editing and you can see on some subjects the "right" has been volunteering to change history by redefining subject matter. It's been slow but I've noticed it as well.
#11
And there's more of the same coming folks! Inside "The Beltway" the buzz is that HRC replaces Biden as VP in 2012; It's a Blue Dog future or worse. So what do you want a broken arm or a broken leg? These are not choices at all! And, did you all catch the Royal Wedding, Chelsea and her investment banker husband? We now have our oligopoly devolving into a full fledged aristocracy! The Clintons, the Bushes, the Rockefellers, Morgans, et. al.
"Corrupted by wealth and power, your government is like a restaurant with only one dish. They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side. But no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen." - Huey Long
#12
I'm afraid, that there is really little anyone can do. What is happening, is living standards are moving towards equilibrium. Technology has had alot to do with it. Today, one can build a factory in a country with no experienced manufacturing base of labor, because a new state of the art factory involves pushng the green button when you come to work, and the red one when you leave. We want middle class wages to push that button.
#13
It's interesting to see how many people want us to be like other countries without actually visiting them to see how they live. The world needs a middle class, period. In countries where this is no middle class the poor are not even close to the poor in our country. I mean it is downright horrible. Why does our government want us to be like them? Control? casino en ligne ~ Poker, slots and Keno can all be found at this casino en ligne and in fact so can all the other casino games you love to play.
#14
This is my biggest pet peeve against both parties. Clinton even admitted that Nafta was a mistake let alone the trade with the Chinese. It seems no matter who gets into power, the middle class keeps sinking further into the economic abyss. If the Democrats do not pass powerful legislation to control the importation of cheap chinese junk into our country by the end of President Obamas term, I can never support the Dems or the Republiconmen ever again. The 15% unemployed could go to work in no time if there were terriffs on foreign made products from dictatorships like China. Capitalism means nothing without democracy. We have no "business" trading with China. Stop listening to neocon economists and their free-trade-religion they keep pedaling to us---"the free market can solve all problems", this idea is boloney. No modern industrialize country can compete with 3 cents an hour.
#15
You are so right! Look at Texas which has actually done a little better than most states during the recession i've heard on news sources like Fox. But actually only big business is doing well because large numbers of big business is actually owned or partially owned by foreigners. Texas has the largest proportion of business owned by foreigners than any other state in the Union. These countries are sucking us dry. And of course Texas is a so-called right-to-work state. Little or no unions. A hugh working poor in Texas keeps business going. The rest of the country slowly being forced into a Texas like economy.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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