Post #15 rocks!
Posted on 04/09/2004 12:22:04 PM PDT by Havoc
Dear Mr. President,
You don't know me, nor do I expect you to. But I'm one of those voices out here in the ether that actually did vote for you. I'm not one of those seminar caller types nor a Democrat pretending at being a republican to subvert the party faithful in dishonest fashion because their ideas aren't popular enough to win them anything. No, I'm a life-long republican who cherishes the memory of Ronald Reagan and who thought highly of you right up to the time you sunk a knife in my back economically.
Sir I understand it's a hard job being president. I also understand that in IT my job causes me to have to think on my feet and respond to an everchanging environment just to keep it. And while I was busting my behind for a company I happened to love doing a job I happened to love, you decided it's a good thing to do an endrun around equal protection and hand my job to a Mexican worker at 1/3 of the rate I'm being paid. Sir, Retail employees get paid more than that Full time and they're earning below the poverty level. The Job I hold for the moment requires a lot of hard work and problem solving skills, it requires good customer care skills, and it requires a long knowledge of Computers and software I didn't get from a degree but from practical experience.
I worked long and hard for years looking for the break that would get me in the door with my current employer. And I currently have a carreer with them. Or had, rather. I've worked for EDS for nearly 4 years. I will lose my job just short of that anniversary or just after it depending on how the breakdown happens.
I have a handicap that keeps me from driving a car. Not an official handicap, because it's so rare a problem that 1/2 of 1% of Americans have the condition so it doesn't rate being called what it is. I'm a blip on the screen. But, it means I have to live close to my employer and sometimes rely on others to help me get things done. I've lost everything and put my life back together 3 times in 15 years sir. And having just accomplished it again after 4 years with my employer, your policy has killed any protection I might have otherwise enjoyed from having my job destroyed by foriegn competition. And it puts me right back on the brink again. Sir, if I don't stand a chance of winning, it isn't competition - it's fish in a barrel. Where is my equal protection under the law?
The "competition" didn't get hired because of race or creed; but, because of national origin. They got hired because their cost of living is low enough that they can be paid sub-poverty wages to do my job. They are taking my job because they aren't constrained by the laws we have in this country to protect us and preserve our liberties. Lower cost of living, and no laws to constrain them. See, we used to have what was called ANTI-DUMPING laws on the books before Nafta to prevent the subversion of our economy by those who would attempt to compete on an unfair basis and put American firms out of business. We aren't a global economy, the globe is not the United States of America. They don't respect our rights, our Constitution, our laws or ourselves. The average citizen of the world might; but, we aren't dealing with them, we're dealing with the leaders who have their boots on the neck of the citizen of the world.
It seems today that I have to be a Mexican to get a fair shake in America. There are some 8 million of them here illegally as a tax on our system and working here taking jobs that Americans can do; but, which apparently, nobody wants to offer a fair wage for as long as they can get slave labor off the books. That isn't enough though. We need to employ More workers from Mexico, India, China.. As long as we're doing it, sire, why not be obvious and lets put Sally Struthers on the TV to advertise IT Jobs for the people under repressive regimes in africa who can live on 52 cents a day, "the price of a cup of coffee." I don't care what color their skin is, No citizen of the United states could live on that and shouldn't be asked to compete with it. It's too blatently obvious that it's unfair. And that seems to be why it's "good for us all".
Your policy sir. It's you on the tube telling me it's good for me to lose my job to a Mexican worker outside of our system and in a manner with which I cannot compete. There isn't a job comparable to it here that I can take to make up the difference cause those are being outsourced too. Outsourced. How about endran. Because sir, that is what is happening - it's an end run around our system - around our rights, our laws, our constitutional provisions and protections. Your policy has relieved me of my job without due process. It tied my hands before I had a chance to respond. And so many businesses are being forced to do the same thing, that I don't stand a chance any more than those earning 3 times what I do in the same field who have lost their jobs already and have had to take 11k a year Retail jobs just to eat while their houses go up for sale.
I don't have a degree. I don't get retraining. I just get to lose my job at the whim of your policies and will likely lose more than that in the end. You see, I bought a new home too - a year ago. This job made it possible for me to do that. And as with my Job, I had to get a huge break to be able to pull it off. I've been behind you and a cheerleader of yours since I first heard you speak. I understand that the tanking economy isn't your fault. I understand it isn't your fault we were attacked. I understand and agree with pretty much everything you've done to date, sir. This however is in my mind beyond sickening. It is a betrayal of myself, my coworkers and every other hard working IT worker, Auto worker, etc that has lost their job due to this. It is a betrayal by their government and their employer. And it's a distrust you've earned by subverting them and me. For me, it's not just my Government, it's my own party.
Now I've heard all the arguments for outsourcing and all the copout phrases about what we do about companies that have outsourced to the US. Tell me, sir, how many of them outsourced to do an endrun around their system of government, their constitution, their laws and their workers. How many of them outsourced to us to produce goods for their home market. That isn't an argument that flies with me in the face of doing an endrun around us. They've built plants in our land and are working within our market, within it's rules, within our laws, within the constraints of our constitution and are paying a competative wage. Our companies are doing the opposite. And any way you cut it, it is economic and constitutional tyranny. I'm not a single issue voter sir, until that single issue is my life and livelihood.. until members of my own party call me a robber and a thief for expecting to keep my job when I've worked my behind off to do so.
I did it right. I've busted my backside under an ever increasing workload, kept my promise to my employer and my client. Never missed a metric, never dropped the ball for either of them and have always exceeded expectation as a member of one of the best teams on this planet in my humble opinion. My job is gone not because we didn't produce and not because either couldn't afford it; but, because Mexicans work cheaper and don't have our protections, laws, rights or constitution. I have a strong work ethic and a loyalty to my company that even now makes me shudder to say a bad word about them. I have no illusions; but, I was raised that if you do your best it pays off. I know now that if you do your best, you get kicked in the teeth just as hard, and if you get ahead a little bit, the government will be there to kick you back down. I appreciate how hard your job is. Mine is pretty dang hard too. But how about you and everyone in government work for $600 a month from now on like the Mexican workers replacing us. How about you all work for the income you're forcing me into. If it's good for us, it should be good for you too. You, and all the ivory tower types in our party that hiss at me for being upset over losing my job and wanting to defend myself. How would that be, sir? I'd just as soon see little Tommy Daschle and Ted Kennedy go fly a kite as hear them spout one more offensive evil lie about you. But I'd just as soon, too, see you join them holding the string if you're gonna ruin me and tell me it's good for me. How about if we just outsource your jobs too - oh, wait, that would be unconstitutional too, wouldn't it.
What's going on was pretty much illegal under the laws we had prior to Nafta; so, what you're saying is patently false. Nafta did away with anti dumping measures. The government by doing that set the stage for what is happening now. It's called cause and effect, sir. One company outsourced and started competing with others using labor rates available in another country. Next thing you know, those companies are competing with the company I work for and force them to do the same or go out of business. It has tentacles. The client we represent is putting pressure on EDS and all it's suppliers to do the same. And it's one of the big 3. That's a whoppin chunk of the US economy. So, you really need to catch up with all due respect.
As far as government assistance is concerned, you need to go check out what government assistance is available for IT workers put out of work by outsourcing. I can tell you what it is right now because that's the first thing the people I work with did - ZERO. No retraining benefits. We don't qualify because "we don't produce a product". It seems everyone has great advice for a situation that doesn't exist for me.
That's competition -- I fail to see how an "anti-dumping" law would stop companies from trying to increase businesses by lowering their personnel costs.
As far as government assistance is concerned, you need to go check out what government assistance is available for IT workers put out of work by outsourcing. I can tell you what it is right now because that's the first thing the people I work with did - ZERO.
You should still be eligible for unemployment. You also appear to have internet access -- you should be able to train yourself in many things by getting information that is freely available on-line. It may not be a formal class or workshop, but at least it's something. Google is your friend for this type of thing the search engine should help you find what you're looking for.
Post #15 rocks!
How many? Most or all of the stores who know that you wouldn't leave them, especially to go work in a more difficult job.
You only pay people what it takes to get what you want out of them, you know. It's called a job, not welfare, after all, and excess pay is a sure sign of poor people management.
So you don't work for Wal-Mart any longer, you're losing your EDS job, and you don't like MicroSoft products...but it's all Bush's fault.
Man, you are going to live a frustrating life. You are blaming everyone but yourself for the fix that you repeatedly get yourself into, plus you have an ego that won't let you stoop to working for McDonald's.
If you are *lucky*, things will get so bad for you that you will hit that rock bottom point where all of your old biases break and your ego snaps. Should such a humbling expereince occur for you, then you might actually change yourself and your outlook and begin to live a healthy, happy, productive life (even if it means working at Wal-Mart).
If you are *unlucky*, then you will just manage to muddle along at the very bottom of your base hatreds and biases, blaming everyone else for your own troubles, and never learning who you really are.
So like I say, you are in for a very frustrating life. You've set yourself up to fail by not being self-critical and introspective...and failing is what you are repeatedly going to do.
One of my firm's major clients is BellSouth. Years ago BellSouth would send its switchboard operators to class after training class. They took foreign language classes, people management classes, technical classes, operations classes, you name it, they had access to it...and many of them took full advantage of it.
But computers from the 1970's on have slowly replaced the need for BellSouth's customers to ever need operators...so thousands of them have been "retired" or laid off over the years.
What are you going to tell them? That you want to pay *more* to make your phone calls so that they can still have their old jobs...or that they should forget all of their switch operator training and go get a *different* job?
If NAFTA has aided the "decline" of our economy, why are *more* people employed overall, and at higher salaries today, than back in 1993 when it was ratified?
EDS gave you a raise, you said...yet you are going bankrupt *and* losing your home?!
Whoa boy. You've lost your Wal-Mart job, your EDS job (but they gave you a raise first), and now you are losing your home.
Shoot, you don't have time to be typing at your own keyboard! You should be out working two jobs and interviewing for a third one because you know that you are going to lose those two jobs, too!
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