Posted on 03/17/2004 6:48:09 PM PST by MannyP
Powell Reassures India on Technology Jobs By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: March 17, 2004
EW DELHI, March 16 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, encountering the other side of a tempestuous debate in the United States, sought to assure Indians on Tuesday that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country.
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In discussions with Indian leaders and college students, Mr. Powell found that the issue of the transfer of American jobs to India by leading technology companies was as emotional in India as in the United States.
But whereas American politicians have deplored the loss of such jobs, it was clear that the anxiety in India focuses on threats by some members of Congress to try to stop the transfer by legislation.
Responding to a questioner in a session with students who asked if he supported or opposed outsourcing, Mr. Powell said: "Outsourcing is a natural effect of the global economic system and the rise of the Internet and broadband communications. You're not going to eliminate outsourcing; but, at the same time, when you outsource jobs it becomes a political issue in anybody's country."
Mr. Powell told the students what he had said to reporters earlier in the day after a meeting with Foreign Minister Yaswant Sinha: an appropriate American response to outsourcing was to press India to open up to imports of American investments, goods and services.
He said one purpose of his trip was to explain to India that because outsourcing had created a political problem in the United States, India could help by lowering its trade barriers. He said he was making that request, not as a condition for the United States allowing outsourcing to continue, but because it was in India's interest to be more open.
In February, Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, stirred a political outcry when he called the outsourcing of jobs a long-term "plus" for the economy. While Mr. Powell said Tuesday that "it is the reality of 21st century economics that these kinds of dislocations will take place," he was quick to add that the Bush administration would work to train people for new jobs.
In Washington, the White House endorsed Mr. Powell's comments.
"The secretary made clear in his remarks that we are concerned when Americans lose jobs, and we are focused on creating jobs for American workers, and the best way to do that is to open markets around the world, including in India," said Claire Buchan, a spokeswoman for the White House.
But David Wade, a spokesman for Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Mr. Powell's comments demonstrated how the Bush administration has "failed to fight for American workers."
It's as if all our leaders are CLUELESS.
I was noticing that the CRB spot index is up over 20% versus a year ago. Is general inflation in the offing?
Employment issues + $3 gasoline + inflation does not result in winning an election...
Oh brother...we're going to "press" them after the fact.
And shouldn't India do so in reciprocation? They're not.
"The best way to create jobs" is to reduce the costs of doing business, for American business, and that is best done by reducing government regulation.
As we have seen, a reduction of the interest rate --- "the gas pedal" --- does not work when the opportunity for using a reduced interest rate, in American industry, has been scrubbed away by confiscatory taxation and regulation.
Now, reducing the the burden of government, on American businesses, requires that a President, and the Congress, and the Judiciary (who think that they rule over everybody), shall have to match reductions in their costs operation, with the reductions in the business world, instead of, as has been their want, to bloat their way to ever-increasing taxing of the real working class --- the actual producers in the private sector; which is to say, federal layoffs should have kept up some pace with layoffs in the private sector, but they have not.
In fact, with the exception of employees in the budget area at the President's discretion with regard to national defense, he has not layed off any kind of hundreds, let along thousands, nor even hundred thousands of people ... has has been the fate of several hundreds of thousands in the private sector who have remained burdened with paying taxes with which to keep the comfortable 'government class' of alleged-workers up to their necks in benefits, in order for the President to appease socialists: the Senate Democrats, for example.
The President should have long ago been working to make lean and efficient, the federal government, but he has not.
I hasten to add, for all those who claim Bush to be like Reagan, in this area, Bush is most definitely not; because President Reagan, in constrast to President Bush, was adamant about attending to the needs that we reduce government bloat, inefficiency, etc.
Bush has little, if any experience with telling Senate Democrats (and some Republicans), "No!"
Bush has NOT been reducing the size of the non-uniformed government payroll.
Bush has NOT been talking, as a matter of day to day policy, about reducing the waste that is the want of government.
Those many areas where government is a tax upon the private sector, to the point of its having to leave town.
Funny, that; there are communities across the country, where some townspeople have figured out that government taxation and regulation drives away jobs.
Karl Rove ought to visit some; maybe, just maybe, before the elections.
Colin Powell, too!
A rare example of politicians willing to do the unpopular thing to promote long-term benefit for the majority. Powell is right on target on this issue. It is short term pain, no doubt about it. But freeing up human resources to retrain and re-engage in the marketplace in a new function provides NEW goods and services that were not previously being provided due to lack of resources or motivation; and therefore grows the economic pie larger.
"The secretary made clear in his remarks that we are concerned when Americans lose jobs, and we are focused on creating jobs for American workers, and the best way to do that is to open markets around the world, including in India," said Claire Buchan, a spokeswoman for the White House.
Other nations are converted to free-market capitalism as they share the rewards. Partners in capitalism, sharing the rewards, have more at stake and more to lose -- and are therefore less likely to become adversaries -- and we are less likely to have to be looking at them down the end of a rifle. If one is able to stay this course long enough, the payoff -- economic, political, and otherwise -- will be enormous.
But David Wade, a spokesman for Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Mr. Powell's comments demonstrated how the Bush administration has "failed to fight for American workers."
Anytime the government is fighting for me, it makes me nervous. Just provide a level playing field, enforce the rules, ensure access to training and resources, and stay out of people's way.
Rubbish! This does not imply that we have to move our high tech jobs over to India. One of these days we are going to have to embrace the fact that the global integration of economy will destroy this nation. When we lose our technical edge do you think that people like India will "help us out." Powell is not doing his job, he is suppose to represent American citizens, not Indian ones.
Our forefathers never would have stood for this. The elites in this country will destroy in a generation what it took 13 to build up.
The Indians are laughing as they import more American careers, they are laughing at Powell and they are laughing at us.
Powell has it backwards. Economic policy is tool for national security, not a doormat. It is embarassing to see him overthere kowtowing to a third world country that opposed us throughout the Cold War and that even now is developing high tech weoponry with Russia.
The current administration does not have enough people in it that understand high tech economies.
Really? As another poster asked, if this is true, then why isn't India outsourcing their work? As matters stand, their economy is growing more quickly than our own.
China has high tariffs. More than that, they have a currency pegged to the dollar - this is all the very opposite of the free-trade ideal so widely espoused, and so seldom practiced.
It is interesting, is it not, that the UN favors free trade. Most of the UN's policies are not favorable to the US. Now, might it be possible - just possible - that free trade is not in our best interests?
You have to remember one thing about India. It has been a capatilist country for over 3000 years. It is only the last 50 years that socialism had crept in to damper the Indian spirit. 10 years ago - socialism was stabbed in the heart in India.
Really? Innovation as in new ideas and concepts? How interesting that India and China are pursuing this very sort of endeavor. And with 2 billion smart, hard working people between them, they can come up with lots of new ideas.
So when your children are serving their new Chinese, or Indian, masters - remember that your decision helped bring it about.
That depends on the game, now, doesn't it?
It also depends on the consequences of loss. Perhaps mere disqualification is preferable to loss.
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