Posted on 07/16/2003 10:42:49 AM PDT by IonInsights
LAS VEGAS: When a former US secretary of state of the stature of Dr Henry Kissinger walks into a technology conference, 10,000 techies filling up the Ballroom at Mandarin Bay stand and applaud, even before he says anything. When he answers a question about outsourcing of economic activity, his reply draws a bigger applause from the largely American audience.
“If outsourcing would continue to the point of stripping the United States of its industrial base, and of the act of getting out its own technology, then it requires really careful thought of national policy and probably create incentives to prevent it from happening.”
It was Mr Sanjay Kumar, chairman and CEO of Computer Associates (CA) who put the question to him. Mr Kumar mentioned the increased outsourcing of technology related work, from insurance claims, airline reservations, computer programming to countries like India and China and asked Dr Kissinger whether this would erode middle class power bases in Europe and the US.
Dr Kissinger’s answer: “I don’t look at this from an economic point of view but the political and social points of view. The question really is whether America can remain a great power or a dominant power if it becomes a primarily service economy, and I doubt that. A country has to have an industrial base in order to play a significant role in the world. And I am concerned from that point of view.” The mood was unambiguous — American jobs must not be lost.
Mr Kumar also reminded him about his acceptance speech after winning the Nobel Peace prize where he had voiced concerns about the rise of technology, and asked whether he had changed his mind about technology since then. Dr Kissinger said, “My concerns have mounted since then. I am of a generation that grew up on books. It helps you develop concepts. With computers, you don’t have to remember things because the information is all there.” He worries that despite the fact that there is an explosion of information, the problem is how to transform information into knowledge and knowledge into wisdom.
“I worked with leaders who had an intuitive sense of the future although they didn’t have so much information. Statesmen have progressively more information but they have progressively more insecurity because they have no sense of the evolution of the system,” he said. The role of technology should be to bridge the gap between availability of information and the ability to use it, Dr Kissinger said. An idea that the IT industry will have to mull over.
I'm glad you see the WOD as anti liberty. Still, the Constitution usurps your emanating, penumbral right to purchase imported goods sans tariff. Sorry.
You have a warped view of rights and where they originate from. See the Declaration of Independance for a brief explanation. (hint; they don't come from the constitution) And I never ever said that tariffs were unconstitutional, even though you continue to imply that I did. The constitution BTW, can't remove my rights anymore than it could remove the rights of negros and other slaves. Governments my usurp rights, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist, only that they are being violated.
But that's what I'm advocating as a means of maintaining, higher standards of living.
And I'm advocating freedom. We disagree. You have no legitimate power to have armed men violate my rights so you may prosper.
Which, if it includes imported goods, is not a right you have under our Constitutional Republic. And in light of the IRS, BATF and DEA, it's not a right you have at all.
As already explained, I don't derive my rights from the constitution. And I might add, I love it when so called conservatives maintain that government police agencies can legitimately give and take my rights. It's freakin sad that you folks think so. Just like liberals and other authoritarian thugs.
You don't have that emanating penumbral Constitutional right to buy Jap bikes sold on the cheap.
I have a God given right to buy anything I like from anyone I like at whatever price we agree upon. The fact that governments use weapons and have the might to usurp that right is irrelevant. They do it to pander to people who want to profit from such force so they can retain power. The power you say you can morally grant them in elections as you pointed out. It's all about power and violating my rights so you can overcharge people for goods and services.
Tariffs are fine by me as taxes, low and flat and uniform. Not as a means for government to pick winners and losers in order to give favors to people. Your idea on that is precisely the same as welfare recipients giving power to politicions in return for stealing from some and giving to them.
It's a bit late, don'tcha know?
When the time comes, if I am still alive, I will shed the blood of those who would usurp my rights before they shed mine.
The fundamental freedom (right) is to buy anything from anyone at any agreed upon price without interference from armed people who are not party to the exchange. Rights don't originate from the bill of rights, or any other document.
Is charging a 40% fee on a outsourced service taking away a fundamental freedom?
Yes.
The rights of Indian IT workers to jobs in America?
No one has a right to a job, Indian or American. No such right exists.
I am not opposed to tariffs as a tax. Flat and low and uniform. Tariffs as a means to grant favors to some at the expense of others are wrong in my view. I understand that protectionists disagree, but I won't change my mind based on that.
That is obvious.
I have heard all the arguments for and against freedom and free trade and I really don't care what you think.
As to caring, I care about freedom and I know that the blessings of freedom are for all. Protectionism and trade wars haved caused more human misery than most other things.
This is nice of you that you care more than you could.
Thank you, I think it's nice too. I could care way less, like not at all.
Well I can tell a sap when I see one and YOU sir are most definitely NOT one.
A $500 bonus on a $120K profit was too much for the SOB eh?
Know what I think? I think he thought you were on to his scheme and dumped you out of fear, jealousy, and petty envy.
This too happens much too often anymore.
Hope you are doing fine. And thanks for that great story.
FRegards
If Bush was serious about "OUTSOURCING" and "The American Worker", don't you think he would start with something simple - like BORDER CONTROL?
He isn't and he won't (enforce border control).
Any questions?
You are either very young, or very ignorant. I wouldn't make such a blanket statement, but my bet would be that religious influences are the main root cause of most human suffering. (other than disease)
Certainly, you have the "right" to purchase what and where you please, but in the back of your mind had better be thoughts about what this may be doing to the guy next door, and his job. Along with the freedom to choose, comes the responsibility to choose wisely. Other countries are in a 'trade war' with the US, and the ultimate result could very well be as devastating as an armed conflict. Without showing any compassion for anything other than the bottom line, you demonstrate a selfish and callous disregard for your country and your fellow citizen.
That freedom you so clearly wish to defend with blood requires a free country in which to practice it. If all of us continue to exercise our "right" to the cheapest item regardless of where and how it was produced, the rest of our rights are going to be flushed right down the toilet by some foreign (or domestic) aggressor, military or economic, who won't give a sh$t what you think either.
The idea was sold that the loss of our "auto-building", "ship-building", "steel", etc, etc, etc, was supposed to be offset by the "new economy" the "high tech" world that would offset the loss of the "industrial" economy.
That is what was supposed to "sustain" the middle-class.
With the loss of technology on top of manufacturing, etc, we become a completely service based economy. This means the death of the middle-class.
And if that happens, I guarantee you Kissinger's predicition will come true, and America will lose its status as a world power.
| This "protect American jobs" is a real surprise coming from Kissinger - he is a "One Worlder." Very surprising.
The economics is clearly in favor of free trade, and in "the long run" it's the right answer, but there isn't going to be a long run for the current Constitutional Republic if we gut the middle class. We'll have Marxists elected by landslides before the Invisible Hand has time to clean up the mess. |
Well, I am unemployed, have no salary or health insurance.
And Hillary still looks like crap to me.
Maybe he is fat and ugly, but at least he is not ignorant.
You are either wrong or we are right.
Do pray we err in reading the writing on the wall.
I see fewer and fewer distinctions between our leaders as the days go by.
George Bush Jr. finds himself historically almost identically in the same shoes as his father did a dozen years earlier.
The leader of the most powerful military machine in the history of the world having triumphed in a major war.
Only to be painted by a cunning and derelict media bent on removing him from power.
I fear Dubya's support base is waning, sleeping, or just don't give a damn - just like his father.
Sleep the sleep of defeat?
It's spooky.
Will the real George Bush please stand UP!?
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I was not surprised. Kissinger is a guy would understand intuitively the "political and social" implications of not having a large middle class. He would leap immediately to "Venezuela, Brazil.." and start thinking about Shining Path guerillas and all the rest of the upheaval crap that comes from having 88 rich families and a hundred million poor people, and nothing in between. That is where we are going to end up with this if it doesn't stop.