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I would like to nominate this moron for Ahole of 2006. Why wait?
Working Man said:
His blurb on 20/2o proved to me that the Editors are asleep at ABC and that Stossel is a waste of flesh, Outsourcing Jobs from America, the myth behind it.
He contends that outsourcing jobs is not bad for America, but great.. He believes that it strengthens the US..
I won't waste my time to argue why he is wrong..
LinkNo. 4 MYTH: Outsourcing Is Bad for American Workers
We've been hearing a lot lately about how American workers are suffering because companies are "outsourcing" their jobs to other countries. During the presidential campaign, both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., told voters they were concerned about keeping jobs here at home. And CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has made complaints about outsourcing a running theme of his nightly news program.
Dobbs' new book, "Exporting America," says the government should limit free trade and immediately outlaw outsourcing of government contracts.
"Just because of cheap labor, we're destroying our middle class. That is just stupid," Dobbs said, adding, "Being stupid is un-American."
Wait a second. It's restricting outsourcing that would be un-American and stupid.
You may not like it that someone in India takes your customer service call, but outsourcing helps the middle class by bringing lower prices and faster service. Take E-Loan, for example. It gives customers a choice of whether to get their loan paperwork processed in America in 12 days or in India in 10 days. An incredible 87 percent of customers in the United States choose the faster loan processing offered by sending their paperwork to India.
And look at clothing lots of it is made abroad these days and Lou Dobbs sees that as a terrible thing. "This country cannot even clothe itself. Ninety-six percent of our apparel is imported," he said.
But that's OK. We have more choices for less money. The Labor Department's price index for clothing has been going down and down over the past decade.
But still, what about all those American workers who lose their jobs to people overseas? We asked the AFL-CIO labor federation for some of their best examples of outsourcing and the first people they referred us to were Shirley and Ronnie Barnard. They both lost their jobs when a Levi's plant in Powell, Tenn., closed down two years ago and moved production to Mexico.
The Barnards say keeping their heads above water has been a struggle. Shirley told us about her frustrations, saying, "You've done something for 20 years, got up, went to work every day, and then all of a sudden you don't have any place to go and nobody needs you anymore."
Tough Business Realities
Bill Portelli, who runs the California-based company Collabnet, says outsourcing has helped him keep his company alive in the United States. He has hired programmers in India who are paid less than half what he would have to pay American programmers. "It doesn't cheat Americans out of jobs. If I hadn't hired the people in India, I would have had to lay people off," he said.
He didn't end up laying any Americans off as a result of outsourcing, because outsourcing saved Collabnet so much money the company was able to expand in America. "Basically I've created jobs in America. I built better products, created jobs, been able to raise salaries," Portelli said.
A Dartmouth study found that outsourcers actually create jobs in America at a faster rate than companies that don't outsource. The same study found that companies that outsourced abroad ended up hiring twice as many workers at home.
Allowing outsourcing creates opportunity. It's easy to see the pain of the workers who are laid off; it's harder to see the benefits of free trade, because those benefits aren't news.
It's true that in the last four years, America has lost more than 1 million jobs, but those were years when we had a recession. Look at the big picture. Since 1992, America has lost 361 million jobs, but during that same time we also gained 380 million jobs. Millions more than we lost.
That should be hopeful for people like Shirley and Ronnie Barnard. While it's true that they had to dig into savings and still worry about their long-term security, last year Shirley Barnard eventually found a new job as a secretary. The new position pays more than her old job at Levi's, and the Levi's work was harder hot, noisy and physically difficult. She says that her new job is much easier.
Her husband and some other former co-workers are still looking for work, but she told us some of her former Levi's colleagues are now working in better jobs than they had before. "Some of them have got, really got excellent jobs that they would never have even left Levi's for if the plant hadn't closed," she said.
And what happened to that Levi's plant? It's now being converted to a college. There will be new jobs for faculty and administrative staff, and right now there are construction jobs for workers building the new campus. This won't be talked about on the evening news, but these jobs are a product of outsourcing too.
Still, people like Lou Dobbs talk about the outsourcing crisis. However, in reality outsourcing is not a crisis. The crisis will only come if we try to stop it.
IMO it's not, but then I'm NOT a union man.gop_jeff said:Outsourcing means cheaper goods for consumers. How is that bad?
Bootz puppet! :blah2: :blah2:Hobbit said:The problem with outsourcing is that endless corporate regulations and an oppressive tax system have made working entirely within the U.S. unprofitable. If this keeps up, we won't be able to compete in the world market. If you want the jobs to come back, lift the regulations and end corporate income tax. Corporations can't pay taxes, anyway, and any tax against them is really a tax on the consumers. Some regulation is good for all involved, but the system we have right now is just oppressive.
Mr. P said:Bootz puppet! :blah2: :blah2:
But it's all true!
Mr. P said:IMO it's not, but then I'm NOT a union man.
I agree.gop_jeff said:And therein lies the crux of the issue. The whole outsourcing issue is consumers (all of America) vs. unions (a small, shrinking percentage of Americans). Consumers will win every time.
It's possible, now probable is a whole nother issue.Hobbit said:I thought that way long before I heard Boortz, though I never thought anything so radical as eliminating the income tax was possible until I started listening to Boortz. I pretty much grew up thinking income tax had always been around.
dilloduck said:Well hire a Mexican to waste your time for ya--at least we can hear your side of the issue.
William Joyce said:I liked a lot of his stuff earlier, and he makes some good libertarian points. I disagree on outsourcing. It does NOT make America better. I'm with my man Pat Buchanan on that one.
Working Man said:
His blurb on 20/2o proved to me that the Editors are asleep at ABC and that Stossel is a waste of flesh, Outsourcing Jobs from America, the myth behind it.
He contends that outsourcing jobs is not bad for America, but great.. He believes that it strengthens the US..
I won't waste my time to argue why he is wrong..
Agreed, except for UAE company at our ports! Same with any kind of 'homeland security' issue. Should be USA only. That would be my only caveat.-Cp said:Can you tell me how our economy has suffered from outsourcing? Last I checked, it helps makes companies here more competitive on the global market by lowering prices...
Kathianne said:Agreed, except for UAE company at our ports! Same with any kind of 'homeland security' issue. Should be USA only. That would be my only caveat.
Fmr jarhead said:The ports you are referring to are already being handled by an international London based company....there is just going to be a change of ownership....if a better US offer came then I am sure they would consider it.
How about the following ports....already outsourced (by another international based company)...or are you just afraid of the UAE, because you know nothing about them?
North America
Baltimore
Charleston
Houston
Jacksonville
Los Angeles
Miami
New Orleans
Oakland
Port Elizabeth
Port Everglades
Portsmouth
Savannah
Tacoma
What's wrong with them? (other than the usual union snafus and slowdowns?)
Kathianne said:Personally don't think we should be outsourcing this type of security at all, even to Britain. Should hire American firms for security, period.
