[traumer]

Welcome to Walmart !

Do you want fries with that.... ?

[redhead]

Yep. THIS GUY said something similar last week. It helped ME to understand this subject...

[A. Pole]

The jobs belong to the employers .. not to you!

Really? So before the employer finds someone willing to work how exactly this job exists? Employer provides the capital, employees provide the labor. Both sides are needed.

Second - whatever employer owns is defined by the laws/state. The private property is a legal construct sustained by the rest of society, same way as a corporation is a construct. Destroy the society - you will lose the constructs.

[MissAmericanPie]

This is the most outrageous screed of lame, vile, twisted, insulting to ones intelligence, pile of manure I have ever read.

[Walkin Man]

If you do not have the particular set of job skills that an employer needs, of if you have priced your labor out of the marketplace, guess what? It's not the employer's fault. The fault lies with you. Either develop a new set of job skills that are actually in demand, or adjust your pricing.

An industrial worker in communist China makes 30 or 40 cents an hour, the slave laborer make 0 cents an hour, a PhD in India makes maybe 20 grand a year.

You tell me how an American industrial worker or white collar hi-tech worker can compete against those wages.

HOW???????

This country was not set up just to benefit CEO's and multi-national corps while the rest of us live in cardboard boxes under the nearest bridge!

Our government is charged with "promoting the general welfare" of the American people.

I believe that US corps should have the right to hire whom they like but the government has the obligation to promote the general welfare of ALL the people so these companies that outsource or move operations offshore should lose any tax breaks they had been given in the past and be forbidden to do any work of any kind for the US and any state government.

Plus their product should have an extra tax put on it as well because of the economic damage that these companies do to America.

Like another poster said, if the Republicans think they are going to win elections by telling formerly middle-class, formerly productive taxpayers, formerly base Republican voters, that this destructive off-shoring - outsourcing process is GOOD FOR THEM and their now bankrupt families, the Republicans WILL be voted out of office and the Rat party will again gain an iron grip over this country once again.

You Republicans NEVER LEARN do you?

I hope those 6 thousand dollar shower curtains and 2 million dollar birthday parties that you Republican free traitors are fighting for seem worth it to you after the next 8 years of demoRat rule over this country!

[joesbucks]

It's the employer's job until he loses his. The minute his syndicator yanks the plug on his show, then there will be some sort of outcry from him. Remember Savage when ABC dumped him. Suddenly it wasn't their program and job, but some sort of hit on him. And even if it was a hit on him. it was still their "job" to give it or take it.

[OXENinFLA]

bump!

[Leatherneck_MT]

Personally I would rather see Taxes on businesses cut Drastically (80 to 90 percent)

I would also like to see Government get the hell out of the lives of businesses so that they can do what they need to do to make money instead of wasting time and money on bullshit regulations. Also get rid of that idiotic Minimum Wage law.

Then maybe our jobs would stay here instead of being shipped overseas.

[Outsourcing=Competition]

Jobs flourish here because we're prising open markets.

[Landru]

"Jobs...and the economy. Those seem to be the issues that are driving many, if not most, of those who are supporting the Kerry candidacy."

Very first sentence says it all, kiddo.

One can agree or argue this until they're blue in the face, but, as far as I'm concerned this issue's "Custom Made" for the lazy, lying, shiftless, opportunistic 'Rats -- & their lamestream media subsidiaries -- to demagog ad nauseum ad infinitum.

And if anyone thinks -- for one moment -- people will ask any one of the *reasoned* questions this author posits, while they & their neighbor's livlihoods are concurrently being eliminated & sent to 3rd world locations overseas?

...think again.

[technochick99]

And yet isn't another one of the biggest complaints about service in this country is when a worker tells us (through words or action or attitude), 'hey it's not my job'.

There is somewhat of an implied contract between an employer and employee in which the employee is often told to think of the job and other employees as one big family. Of course it isn't, but the only way to get workers to care about their jobs is to make them buy into the idea, and to make them feel a sense of 'ownership' over their job and tasks/processes.

Our civil society is based on trust, and this type of thing can be very damaging. My concern is that the government subsidizes 'our' American countries to use non-US citizens as their work force. That alone makes it 'not fair/free trade', not even considering the restrictions put on us by other countries.

Regardless of what side you are on, I think it behooves all to remember that most voters cast their vote on emotion.

[Steve_Seattle]

"manufacturing jobs"

Yes, we are losing manufacturing jobs, and have been for decades, yet somehow the country seems to be prospering. We were losing manufacturing jobs even during the boom 1990's. Are manufacturing jobs the greatest jobs in the world? They have often been criticized as being unskilled or semi-skilled, repetitive, assembly-line jobs, boring and stultifying. Underlying a lot of the criticism of corporations, on both left and right, seems to be a nostalgia for the days of the solitary craftsman. So one of you corporate critics tell me how we get back to THOSE days.

[stig]

Congratulations, whiners. At a time when America if fighting World War IV, the war against Islamic terrorism ... you're going to vote for a candidate who wants to treat terrorism as a freaking law enforcement problem because you've made some pitiful jobs choices. Pitiful.

Why should I bother fighting World War IV if it's not for a better life here in the US. The Corporations get a whole lot of benefit from being in the US. From selling their crap in the US. So if they don't want to pay their employees or even hire any why should we fight at all to make the world a safer place??

Corporations have no right of US protection either. Why should we spend any money making their buildings more secure. Why should we add dime to anything for them?? I think Mr. Boortz better rethink why any of our young soldiers should fight any war?? So they can come home and work for peanuts? I'm beginning to think that the right is losing its battle. It's OK to say that NAFTA didn't work as planned. It's insanity not to protect your technology jobs when it's technology that allowed us to take over 2 countries with less causulaties in the history of warfare.

It may be futile to try to protect the American way of life but to go down without a fight is certainly unamerican! We have become a nation of cowards too afraid to get the corporations upset. Let them move to Bermuda. Let's tax all products from any foreign corporation. Tariff everything that comes through our ports. I don't think the corporation want that. But just as Mr. Boortz thinks we don't have a right to jobs by the same logic corporations have no implicit right not to be taxed! We can get the money out of them one way or another. Also corporations have no right for government contracts. We can hurt their bottom lines pretty quickly by denying them government contracts.

There is no way to defend the outsourcing of American jobs. Republicans should just stop trying you make the rest of the party look bad.

[Jim Noble]

Other than Secretary of State and a few other positions, what does the President have to do with "jobs"?

[DustyMoment]

While I agree with the contention that the jobs belong to the employers, not the government, there is a serious disconnect with the economic model involved in exporting American jobs.

Let's evaluate some facts. For decades, American workers have been rated as among the most productive in the world. This productivity has driven a national economy that has allowed us to become the world's largest consumer nation.

When American companies export jobs to countries with lower wage scales, several things need to happen. The workers whose jobs were exported obviously need to obtain new ones. For many, that means accepting positions that pay substantially less than they were making in their previous occupation. Since they make less than they used to, they must lower their standard of living. Some may end up declaring bankruptcy since they can't support they debt they accrued from their former salary with their current lower salary. As more American workers readjust their standard of living, they begin consuming less; fewer luxuries, more necessities. At some point, this readjustment begins to affect our ability, as a nation, to maintain our current position as the world's largest consumer nation. The focus will shift to other countries better able to purchase more goods while America, facing its new reality, will find itself unable to negotiate previously lucrative prices for consumer goods.

Now, IF (a big IF), American corporations were to lower their prices for goods on an equivalent level to reflect the lower incomes many workers are having to accept after their jobs have been exported, we could likely retain our position as the world's largest consumer nation. But, that's not what we are seeing. We are seeing many high-paying jobs being exported to low-wage nations and the folks who formerly held those jobs having to take lower paying jobs while the prices remain high. The ultimate end result is that over-paid CEOs will rake in higher salaries in the short-term until the economic bubble bursts from the devastating effects of the domino theory. At that point, American CEOs will have successfully levied America into Third World territory and we will fall from our current position as world leader and a free nation.

We don't necessarily need government intervention into the job market, but the corporations exporting those jobs should be required to demonstrate that the offshore recipients of those jobs are as capable as Americans at performing the same jobs with the same efficiency. Anecdotal evidence disagrees with the contention that offshore workers are as efficient and productive as American workers. It remains to be seen how long this trend will last. When NAFTA was passed, many companies couldn't wait to ship jobs to Mexico. For most, after dealing with poor quality in the products sent to Mexico for manufacture or assembly, the jobs were quietly returned to the US after a couple of years on average. We may just have to wait this one out.

[William Terrell]

Sure the jobs belong to the corporations, but the corporations belong to and are creatures of United States, which is us, and all that implies.

[fightu4it]

A good start: #1. There shouldn't be anyone in this country on a work visa just because they will work 'cheaper' than one of our own citizens.

[lewislynn]

Many companies are enticed by different levels of government to locate or re-locate to their area by reduced fees, lower or no property taxes, the taking of private property, reduced energy costs, sewer and water fees...the list is endless and it's all done for the sake of hiring local workers, to help the local economy.

Those companies that are enjoying those perks on the backs of taxpayers and the local citizens DO owe a debt to the workers and citizens and should have all their perks rescinded with retroactive payment due for the costs incurred by the taxpayers.

What else can the government do (besides turn a blind eye to or legalize, illegals)?

EPA, EEOC, ADA, IRS, OSHA.....to name a few.

[novacation]

He is correct since Americans are more concerned about saving a buck than keeping this a soveriegn nation.There is no way to compete with the slave wages paid in turd world countries.I just talked to a friend who told me AOL's customer service is in Bombay India.This does not bode well for our future. But it's good for Bush and Kerry and the other globalists.

[jpsb]

This rant of an article, and the support it is getting on this forum, is proof that the dumbing down of America is just about complete. Since we are now to stupid to know what is and is not in the best interests of our Republic I expect the loss of our wealth and freedom to accelerate.

The author is a fool.