Thousands of federal jobs may go abroad, U.S. says

Statesman ^ | 9/11/03 | Marilyn Geewax

[familyofman]

We can defintely outsource Congress and save ourselves a tidy little sum in the process. Maybe even get ourselves a POTUS willing to work for $5 a day!!!

[meadsjn]

If this story is true, this will be Bush's only term, and he'll be the last Republican president.
And the country itself will be history within two years.

[Ditto]

Many unemployed technology workers are blaming their job losses on employers -- including Dell Inc., Intel Corp., Motorola Inc., Computer Sciences Corp. -- who send work to low-wage countries, such as India and Ireland.

Ireland is a "low-wage country"? I don't think so.

[EagleMamaMT]

Thanks for the ping! I'm beginning to think GWB doesn't want a second term. Between looking the other way on offshoring/outsourcing, the H1B and L1 visas and messing with the overtime laws, not to mention the porous borders issue, he seems to be digging a hole he can't climb out of on Election Day 2004.

[CSM]

I always lurk these subjects and see the same general comments regarding outsourcing of jobs to overseas markets. I don't generally agree with it, but litigation by workers, health care, and wages go up every year. Yet most of our society is not willing to pay the additional costs for a product that adequately compensates a mfg. for that product. What else can they do?

[jackbill]

I believe this article to be total BS designed to slam Bush. Look here:

I agree with you. This is a very "thin" piece of crap, and not worth getting all excited about. In addition to the emphasis that you put on certain words, consider the following:

Harris Miller, president of the trade group Information Technology Association of America, nodded "yes" Thursday when asked whether that move inevitably would mean some federal jobs would go to contractors or subcontractors operating over- seas.

Did that sentence say anything about "jobs going overseas"??? Many "contractors and subcontractors" - GM, Ford, Boeing, Halliburton, ad nauseum, "operate" overseas. That doesn't mean that a specific contract will be performed "overseas". Especially if the contract specifically states that the work must be done in the U.S., and I would hope that every such contract would have that clause. Otherwise the bureaucrat writing the contract should be put against a wall and shot.

[Allegra]

Well, it appears Sam is taking a $20.00/hr employee from their "position", outsourcing it to a foreigner for $2/hr, and placing the worker on 2/3 of the original pay at +/-$13/hr unemployment benefits which - to the money-blinded economist - appears as a 25% reduction in "expenditure".

Their way to "trim", you think?

Uh huh...and eventually, this will drastically reduce the income tax revenue here in the U.S. Wonder if those idiots have thought of that yet?

[meadsjn]

So how far do we allow it to go before we call it treason?

According to my map, that sign was way back yonder. Only thing up ahead is where the bridge ain't no more.

[azhenfud]

"...this will drastically reduce the income tax revenue here in the U.S. Wonder if those idiots have thought of that yet?"

Why that would require fore-thought, something grossly scarce in Washington Dunce Capitol. ;-)

[1rudeboy]

Don't you think, with the rampant waste and duplication of effort in Washington, D.C., that it's a little disingenuous to argue that federal employees should keep their jobs solely on the basis that they pay income tax?

[sauropod]

In the line of work I'm in, it would be a security violation to do something like that.

Of course, we could always hire mercenaries to fight our wars. Maybe we could procure some SCUDs for our ABM program? /sarc

[John Lenin]

Good, less demoRAT voters.

[Joe Hadenuf]

As the government sells and exports our jobs overseas, they continue to allow millions of illegal aliens to flood into our country.

Something is very, very wrong here.

[Joe Hadenuf]

YES it is! This ought be Breaking News! This is orders of magnitude more important to Americans than Arafat being expelled by Israel.

I agree, many times more critical and important to American's.

[Ditto]

You really have to question the credibility of an article that calles the world's 8th largest economy on a per-capita GDP basis a "low-wage country"

This is from the CIA "World Fact Book".

 

Rank Order - GDP - per capita

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Countries, for which no information is available, are not included in this list.

Rank	Country	GDP - per capita	Date of Information
1	Luxembourg	$ 44,000	2002 est.
2	United States	$ 37,600	2002 est.
3	Bermuda	$ 35,200	2002 est.
4	Cayman Islands	$ 35,000	2002 est.
5	San Marino	$ 34,600	2001 est.
6	Norway	$ 31,800	2002 est.
7	Switzerland	$ 31,700	2002 est.
8	Ireland	$ 30,500	2002 est.
9	Canada	$ 29,400	2002 est.
10	Belgium	$ 29,000	2002 est.
11	Denmark	$ 29,000	2002 est.
12	Aruba	$ 28,000	2002 est.
13	Japan	$ 28,000	2002 est.
14	Austria	$ 27,700	2002 est.
15	Australia	$ 27,000	2002 est.
16	Monaco	$ 27,000	1999 est.
17	Netherlands	$ 26,900	2002 est.
18	Germany	$ 26,600	2002 est.
19	Finland	$ 26,200	2002 est.
20	Hong Kong	$ 26,000	2002 est.
21	France	$ 25,700	2002 est.
22	Sweden	$ 25,400	2002 est.
23	United Kingdom	$ 25,300	2002 est.
24	Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)	$ 25,000	2002 est.

[FreedomCalls]

There are some Texas border towns that already conduct their town council meetings entirely in Spanish.

[harpseal]

I'm beginning to think GWB doesn't want a second term.

I do not claim to be privy to such information but I have been going on the presumption he seeks to be re-elected.

[MissAmericanPie]

Bush isn't really a liberal and an anti-American sell out. This is merely another of his sly moves that when fully revealed will be good for all his fellow countrymen.

I keep being told, don't watch what he says, watch what he does. Been doing that since 2000 and I find less and less comfort and reassurance and more and more cause for panic, lol.

[Steve_Seattle]

You make a good point about the wording of this article. It could be one more attempt by the media to distort what is really happening. Giving work to companies that have overseas operations is not necessarily the same as sending specific jobs overseas. We need more info on this before we reach any conclusions.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

To all you displaced Tech Workers: http://www.washtech.org.

They will keep you up to date on all this offshoreing malarky and H1B visa situation and their newsletter is FREE...