IBM lays off 15,000, HP 1300 [Outsourcing]

The Register ^ | 8/21/2003 | Andrew Orlowski

[Lazamataz]

Out with you foul beast, this here thread is for all those closet socialists to commiserate on!

Yeah! I am so *sick to death* of those closet socialist Anti-Free-Trade people!!!

[Texas_Dawg]

The economics department at Duke University. A friend of mine is an Associate Professor in economics there.

Well, hey... if that guy said so.

[Texas_Dawg]

You are p!$$in all over these poor folks pity party and they don't appreciate it!

We're all doomed.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Let them eat cake" -- Catherine the Great of Russia

Ah, no!

(I hope that was meant as sarcasm)

[warchild9]

I've seen his analysis. It had a lot of numbers. I could believe them, as they didn't come out of a newspaper or television set or the mouth of a governmental figurehead.

[A. Pole]

"Bankruptcy law should be modified so the student loans could be discharged the same way as other debts. There is no way a Walmart employee will be able to pay back costs of advanced college degree."

That means everyone else pays for it. No way.

You do not understand. A Walmart employee with PhD will not pay it anyway. But if prevented from using bankruptcy ( corporations and businessmen do all the time) he will never be able to improve his lot, instead he will be a burden to the society to the end of his life - another hidden cost of "free" trade.

[Texas_Dawg]

I've seen his analysis. It had a lot of numbers. I could believe them, as they didn't come out of a newspaper or television set or the mouth of a governmental figurehead.

Right. Because government figures that markets move hundreds of billions of dollars on, are just a big conspiracy. Of course no one can trust the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But your friend and his notebook... now that's solid.

[Mad Dawgg]

"We're all doomed."

Entrophy Sucks!

[Mad Dawgg]

"Entrophy Sucks!"

So does Entropy!

[ladysusan]

LOL! We MUST live in the same place.

[CJ Wolf]

I think she said let them drink vodka.

[holdmuhbeer]

It doesn't matter if Al Queda detonates dozens of nukes next year, the key issue is still going to be the economy.

The dozens of nukes is stretching it a bit but I do agree the economy will be the key issue.

[warchild9]

My friend worked for the Commerce Department for twenty years, and still does consulting for them. Smart money doesn't move on government figures--speculators and bond traders make their money betting on statistical trends. In that world, regressive analysis rules.

[Tokhtamish]

What nonsense you prattle.

Obviously you did not grow up in a blue collar neighborhood in the industrial Northeast in the 60's. Obviously you don't know anyone who did. Obviously you did not have aunts and uncles who were blue collar working class in the 60's. Obviously you have never driven through the run down neighborhoods of Northern cities, neighborhoods that you can clearly see were nice 40 years ago but whose economic base was destroyed by deindustrialization.

The "Life of Riley", the postwar blue collar middle class was very real.

[GraniteStateConservative]

It's global free trade at work-- just as Engels and Marx imagined it.

"But, generally speaking, the Protective system in these days is conservative, while the Free Trade system works destructively. It breaks up old nationalities and carries antagonism of proletariat and bourgeoisie to the uttermost point. In a word, the Free Trade system hastens the Social Revolution. In this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, I am in favor of Free Trade." -- Karl Marx, 1848

I'm not a citizen of the world, though. I expect my government to represent my interests and not the interests of the Chinese or Indians.

[lelio]

With 6.5% inflation over 40 years $2018 becomes $26974. To be 2.5x as bad, inflation will only have to creep up to 8.6% for the 1960 salary of $2k to be worth $54k.

But that's really mental masturbation over compound interest. The real world is a lot different.

[ladysusan]

Sigh.
Thank you.
I believe those buildings are actually in North Dallas, not Plano.


It's bad here all right.

[Paul Ross]

I suspect the main reason that the RATs don't make more of a stink over the issue is that they approve of it happening at several levels:
(1) They truly want to diminish the U.S. and make it a 'chihauha' instead of a 'big dog' lone-superpower, and
(2) For political practicality, they want the disaster to be in full bloom in the U.S. before they really wheel out the demagogic 'Big Guns'. Hence they can't allow GWB to realize the enormity of the crisis looming until it breaks upon his head.
(3) Since they won't want to see the problem solved...They of course will only advocate palliative solutions, rather than effective proactive steps such as chopping the subsidies that prop up the outsourcing and the absurdly low tariffs against our principal trade parasites. They will offer only more Unemployment Comp, more retraining (to what, trading Governmental Securities?) more welfare, including corporate subsidies, and don't have the dollars to do that in the budget... yet. One more raid of Social Security coming up. These are the 'solutions' they will preach to the exclusion of all else. Especially vilified by them will be 'isolationist' or 'extremist' solutions such as protectionist tariffs and de-subsidization.

GWB may well be blind-sided...because no one close to him is telling him the truths that 'Free Trade' ISN'T.

[swarthyguy]

I expect my government to represent my interests

In a free market system?

It's not the govt outsourcing (some state govts are) but corporations; those guys who make decisions based on efficiency and lowering costs.

[warchild9]

Does it never occur to you that they're pulling in the bucks from the suits the same as the Republicans?