[Havoc]

My rant - flame away. I've already been beaten into reconsidering my registration by some of you. I ain't a democrat, never have been and never will be; but, I'm wondering now why I'm republican, cause some of you make me ashamed of the word.

[lodwick]

I'm sorry to learn this - thanks for a brilliant letter.

Cheers.

[rudypoot]

You are blaming Bush for people not paying you what you think you are worth. The government does not owe you a job.

Maybe you're right. I'm going to write a letter to President Bush right now to demand that he tells my employer that I am worth $100k per year. Bush should also threaten my employer with economic ruin and maybe even jail time if he even thinks about firing me. Because it's MY JOB, MY SALARY, right? Please...

If you want a better paying job you have to earn it. Don't stomp your feet, throw a tantrum and hold your breath until you are blue in the face. Going back to school to get a better paying job is very difficult and it takes years of tightening the belt. You may need some help on the way and that's understandable. But having the government force others to change so that you can live how you want to is just plain wrong.

[Texaggie79]

Do you support liberty? Does that not also apply to the business sector?

Look, I don't support many of the gov. programs to help businesses that outsource, nor any other business period. But I am absoloutly against any government telling a company how to do it's business.

No where, should it ever be a government's job to secure employment for its citizens. It is up to each person to secure employment for themselves.

Now, I ask you, what is it that you want the government to do for you?

[Chuckster]

A "Recession" is when my neighbor is out of work. A "Depression" is when I am out of work. A "Booming economy" is when I and everyone I know is working and I am looking for a raise or a better job.

[YankeeReb]

I won't pretend to have an easy answer for you because there is none. It's easy for people making a good salary to say "start your own business", or "nobody owes you a job" but until you've seen a career that you've worked hard at, and that you've loved get sent overseas while those sending it overseas get fatter bonuses, then you don't know.

I spent 12 years in IT, had some really great jobs, made decent money and rarely missed a deadline or even a day of work. All that didn't matter, one day I was called in and told I was fired. Heck, when I went in I was thinking it was for a promotion. No warning, nothing. This was 3 weeks before 9/11 so right after that IT went into freefall. I bounced around for the next 2 years in odd jobs hoping things would turn around, still nothing. Then it dawned on me, one of the few fields that can't be outsourced was construction, particularly the trades. Plumbing, HVAC , electrician are all licensed, so it's harder to flood the market with illegals, so thats the route I went.

It's been tough, at 43 I'm making what I did at 23, but in a few years I'll be licensed and able to start my own business. As a side benifit, I'm in the best physical shape I've been in since I got out of the service.

The point is, don't get discouraged, and don't let the free traitors make you feel like you somehow deserve this, just seriously consider making the move out of IT.

[dennisw]

Good one. You are still conservative but our nation has embarked on a hyper capitalist policy of ruining our middle class via insane immigration and export of good jobs. Democrats talk a good game but have no solutions.... would be no better than George Bush. They are beholden to mega multinationals too and their agenda of profits being put way ahead of America and the American worker.

[neutrino]

This is not merely a rant. It is more akin to the moving finger at Belshazzar's feast - if the offshoring situation is not addressed and corrected, the days of Republican control of the White House and of congress may have been numbered and finished.

If you want on or off my offshoring ping list, please FReepmail me!

[EagleMamaMT]

God bless you, Havoc. I'll be praying for you to find a good job - one that fits your physical limitations and provides for all your needs.

Have you talked with a Vocational Rehabilitation counselor to see if you would qualify for financial assistance for college? I read later down in the thread that you have emphysema and that is really a physically limiting illness. I'm thinking that the physical limitations it poses, alone, might be grounds for you to receive Vocational Rehabilitation. Have you talked with your doctors about this? Sometimes, doctors can be a real help with writing letters, etc., to help their patients qualify for retraining programs when their patients are physically limited. Good luck and I'll remember you daily in prayer. Freepmail me if I can pray for a specific need for you.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Good rant.

Sent my own in January (Indian guy, here on an L1 visa). Got a picture of the President and Laura and a fund raising letter back for my efforts.

I used to be a Democrat. I turned 18 in 1974 and nobody registered Republican that year. My worst electoral mistake was voting for Carter in 1976. I voted for Reagan in '80 but didn't change my registration until '84 as I kept thinking that the Democrats would come to their senses. Abortion and the nuclear freeze movement disabused me from that.

I'm fed up with Bush's seeming indifference to those of us who have been "impacted" and "displaced". It looks like the Herbert Hoover wing has taken over the GOP but I'm not planning on bolting the party for several reasons.

First, where to go? The Democrats are the party of the super rich and the dependent poor. The is really no place for working people there. The Democrats use the unions but don't really do anything for the membership. Kerry would do no better for working people than Bush.

Second, historically outsourcing has not been beneficial. The best example of this is the Roman Empire, where grain production was outsourced to the African provinces. When production or transportation was disrupted by rebellion or piracy Romans starved. Right now we are outsourcing our technical in industrial bases to India and China. Hopefully someone will recognize what a risk this is to our national security before we reach the point where we can't defend ourselves.

"Free Trade" is a different issue. international commerce is usually beneficial as long as a reasonable balance of imports and exports, on a cash equivalent basis, can be maintained. Which is to say as long as access between markets is mutual and trade is truly free. The problem today is that a lot of what is described as "free trade" isn't. They have access to our markets but we don't have equivalent access to theirs.

Third, Bush is only here for four more years (if we're lucky). Even though the party of Reagan is dead here in California and the "moderate Republicans" (RINOs) have taken over, conservatives remain in power in the red zone. This year's Republican convention could be interesting.

If the election where held today, I myself would just stay home. I could never vote for Kerry but Bush has done too much that is against my interest to permit me to cast a vote for him in good conscience. I keep hoping to wake up one day and hear that he has said "Illegal immigration is not in the best interest of American workers and it gives Mexico an excuse to never make anything any better in their country too, let's stop it now." Or maybe, "Countries that don't open their markets and their economies to our products or our capital have no right to expect that we be open to them." But I doubt it.

Best wishes and good luck in the job search. It's crowded out there. Keep swinging.

[Jorge]

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.

BS. Bush never said any such thing.

[DayTripper]

If it makes sense to increase profits by outsourcing skilled labor, let's save big money by outsourcing the most uncompetitive worker in the U.S. corporate hierarchy – the CEO's!

[Jorge]

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.

Welcome the real world. Tell me, how much did you complain about the Mexicans not having the means to support themselves while you were doing well?

Or did you think that you as an American were "entitled" to a good paying job while the rest of the world could suffer without a second thought from you?

Do you think that God owes you a better life than Mexicans?

I've had to switch careers more than once due to jobs moving overseas. And I've had to settle for lower paying jobs many times in my life..but am now making more money than I ever have in a job I that love more than any I've ever had.

I learned to thank God everyday that he blessed me with a means to support myself even when I was making $8/hour.

Life is short. Attitude means more than income or circumstances when it comes to eternity. Stop complaining and learn to be thankful for what you have. You will be a happier person.

[XBob]

ping

you two need to meet.

I Been there, done that, in both your positions.

[Euro-American Scum]

Bump for future reading.

[Tennessean4Bush]

I've already been beaten into reconsidering my registration by some of you. I ain't a democrat, never have been and never will be; but, I'm wondering now why I'm republican, cause some of you make me ashamed of the word.

Know that we do really have a big tent in the GOP, and more than a few common values. I truly am sorry about your job, and wish you all the good fortune in the world. Keep your chin up and a positive outlook, and I wager that you will find an even better situation real soon.

Free trade is good economics and good for the economy as a whole, I believe. The US in a net beneficiary in outsourcing, believe it or not. However, I know that is cold comfort to one who has recently had a job outsourced to another country.

Good luck and keep the faith!

[drlevy88]

... and let slip the dogs of war.

[stig]

The guy works for EDS, they have been importing Asians for years and they were already outsourcing in the late 1990s. This guy had to be blind not to see the writing on the wall. Now he's complaining??

I've given up harping about it. It's not Bush's fault he just wrongly looked the other way same as Clinton. Now there's no reversing it. There is going to be a lot of pain in the IT sector before it gets any better. I just happen to be lucky and have other well paying opportunities. I pity those who were trying to raise a family thinking IT was their ticket to the American dream.

The important thing to remember is that the economy is secondary to our security as a nation. Kerry has no plan on the table that will do anything to stem the offshoring. The same way he has no plan to protect this country.

[Commie Basher]

I ain't a democrat, never have been and never will be; but, I'm wondering now why I'm republican, cause some of you make me ashamed of the word.

You're probably neither a Republican nor Democrat, as both are dominated by neocon globalist yuppies. You're more likely a Buchanan Republican, but they've been purged from the GOP. You'd likely enjoy Buchanan's The American Conservative magazine. I enjoy it.

[Cultural Jihad]

Thanks for the humorous whiney rant! Maybe we should all become professional victims, eh?

[TomasUSMC]

Your right. H1b and L-1 visas have taken close to a million hi tech jobs ( the exceptions in the fine print make the limits on the number of visas issued a moot point). Our own Government, Repubs and dems, have brought in foreigners to take our best jobs. That is Treason. They claim that in a country of over 250 MILLION people they can't find qualified people, and apparently can't train them either.

If that weren't enough they sign Nafta and then support outsourcing. And then, open the borders to 10 million illegal invaders every Presidential election year - thus driving down the salary and increasing social cost and destroying our education and medical system.

But its a bipartisan effort to destroy the middle class.