State jobs move offshore as firms continue to economize

The New Haven Register (Connecticut) ^ | April 14, 2003 | Maria Garriga

[ModernDayCato]

Jeez...can't imagine what the problem is here:

Accustomed to a $120,000 annual salary, John A. Bauman of Meriden now waits for his last unemployment check while rallying fellow laid-off workers to join The Organization for the Rights of American Workers...

Those days are gone, Johnny...get over it.

Unfortunately (not so much in Meriden), you do have to earn quite a bit to live in this state, which recently ranked #1 in the nation for taxes.

[Jhoffa_]

I don't remember all this screaming when it was just blue collar jobs moving offshore. I remember hearing the professionals say that was good, because they could get cheap stuff.

The times, they are a changin..

[CanadianFella]

Down the road, American citizens will be unemployed and forced down to lower levels," he said. "The (stockholders) aren´t benefiting, it´s only the executives.

WRONG. Economic ignorance is a bliss...

[last_one_standing]

THis is why the economic slump is no short-term thing. You cannot sell cars, houses and computers to auto workers and other people who will not find replacement work for the jobs that went overseas.

This will only stop when they make as much as we do. Businessmen know no loyalty to countries - only shareholders.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Mister, I have seen it happening in 15 counties of Tennessee. Real jobs at living wages are being destroyed by sending the work to nations that pay slave wages. Real income of Americans is headed down as unemployment rates go up.

At the same time, illegal immigrants are taking many of the jobs still left for Americans to do. Illegal Mexicans live 20 to a house and sleep on the floor and work for half or less than do Americans. The only way Americans can compete is to live 20 to a house and sleep on the floor.

[dirtboy]

bump to mark for later

[dirtboy]

Banding together: Accustomed to a $120,000 annual salary, John A. Bauman of Meriden now waits for his last unemployment check while rallying fellow laid-off workers to join The Organization for the Rights of American Workers, a group that he formed in December, along with James R. Pace Jr. of Bethany.

The Meriden-based organization immediately drew the attention of the Indian media.

"When we first kicked off our Web site, it was flooded with viruses from India," Bauman said, speculating that some Indian groups were upset because the site calls for legislators to limit the number of work visas issued.

Ping

[RogueIsland]

WRONG. Economic ignorance is a bliss...

Actually, he has been proved right time and time again in the real world. Of course, those who prefer textbook pure economic models pretend the real world doesn't exist if it contradicts their pet thesis.

[Digger]

Willie, our perspectives will be vindicated, in fact, sooner than later.

[thetruckster]

"THis is why the economic slump is no short-term thing. You cannot sell cars, houses and computers to auto workers and other people who will not find replacement work for the jobs that went overseas.

"This will only stop when they make as much as we do. Businessmen know no loyalty to countries - only shareholders."

Well, you must be proud. You said quite a mouthful.

[Leisler]

Wasn't labor cheeper in India in the '70's? 1770's that is. And the 1870's and in the 1970's and every year inbetween. So, how did we get richer? This is where the "we stole from the American Indians" argument comes in.

Now I get it. D'oh!

[Grut]

Businessmen know no loyalty to countries - only shareholders.

Which is why it is good to be a shareholder.

[meadsjn]

Down the road, American citizens will be unemployed and forced down to lower levels," he said. "The (stockholders) aren´t benefiting, it´s only the executives.

WRONG. Economic ignorance is a bliss...

Please explain how the statement you criticized reflects ignorance.

The stockholders are not benefitting when eight trillion dollars is missing from the economy, as reflected by the devaluation of market equity. Five trillion of that lost money can be accounted for by the absence of the five million lost high tech and engineering jobs at an average of $100,000 salary with a multiplier effect of x10.

Since 70% of our economy is driven by consumer spending, this current depression can be directly attributed to this drop in consumer income since 2000.

The executives have benefitted because they operate on a hit-and-run principle. They contract for specific terms, make short-term decisions which rewards them at the long-term expense of their company and the overall economy, then they exit with their loot.

If economic ignorance is bliss, it will only be so temporarily. Repeating those tired cliches from a Danny Devito 'B' movie does not make for sound economic policy.

Rule #2: Second effects count.

[Nowhere Man]

Yeah, I see it all the time too, a lot of banks have their processing centers in India as well, I've seen it myself. When I was working in the sector placing orders with mobile notaries to close loans, I saw names on the orders and said, "boy those names are funny looking" and I figured they were Indian names. I do understand that businesses need to find ways of doing things for the lowest cost but in other ways this is deteremental because it puts Americans out of work. Even if you ignore that part, what if something happens to the computer system in India where they have a power outage, terrorist attack, nuclear war with the Paks, you name it, you're crippled. I often joked that "if there was a nuclear war between the Indians and the Paks, in a way it would be a good thing, we can bring the jobs back here." B-P Sometimes I don't think it would be a bad idea. B-P I know there is fallout and stuff but I remember Red China lighting off H-Bombs as a kid (I was born in 1966) didn't affect us here too much. B-P

Although I do give President Bush my support and I support our policies in the Middle East, I think we need to take a look at our outsourcing policies, our H1-B polices and whatnot and assess our risks if we continue down this path. One of my concerns is that we are creating more out of work Americans, potentially unreliable systems that can bring things to crashing halt, and so on.

[meadsjn]

What has happened is textbook pure economics, if the truth were, or could be, told.

The economic fantacy is the global "the old rules no longer apply" line of Barbara Streisand we have heard since the beginning of the Clinton crime spree.

[CasearianDaoist]

More to the point, if the Republicans don't address it then the Democrats will.

[meadsjn]

if the Republicans don't address it then the Democrats will.

The Democrats may promise something of the sort, but this is a problem created BY Democrat policy. Their solution will be to relocate the disenfranchised to government housing and continue selling out the US citizens to the UN and Third World, until America is a faded memory.

The Republicans can't address it (other than talk about piddly targeted tax cuts) because if the American populace were to catch on to how badly they have been sold out, the people would rise up and exterminate the liberals and neo-cons like the insects they are.

So instead, we will have to settle for a managed redistribution of wealth by the lawyers of both sides, and hope the people remain calm and continue tilling the soil.

[Euro-American Scum]

More to the point, if the Republicans don't address it then the Democrats will.

Don't expect either of them to address it. Republicans want the cheap labor that offshoring affords them for their corporate constituency.

Democrats get a built-in constituency of oppressed third-world peoples of color that translate into voters.

In the process, the American working class gets reduced to the level of some third-world shanty all the time buying into the rhetoric of both the left and the right.

The only way this blows up in their faces is when nobody can buy the homes, cars, and gadgets that these companies will be producing with their slave labor. And don't think a handful of super-wealthy corporate executives will be able to support the entire American economy. Furthermore, don't believe for a minute American goods will have a market overseas. American money, yes. American commerce, no.

Of course, by then it will be too late.