A letter to President Bush regarding the Economy

Harpseal | June 15, 2003 | Harpseal

[harpseal]

Dear President Bush,

Sir, I am writing today about what I and some others see as some significant problems with our current international trade policies. Specifically, our research has shown that the United States Government has agencies and policies in place that provide direct support to competitors of the USA. Specifically I am referring to The Overseas Private Investment Corporation as the first of these agencies. I realize this agency was created and expanded before your administration but it is a problem and it should be addressed by your administration. Policies in place that may harm American permanent residents include the H1B and L1 visa programs. As one of your supporters in the 2000 elections I appreciate many of the policies you have advocated over your term so far. I would hope that you are elected to a second term but I am concerned the economy may provide you with problems over the coming months until November 2004.

As I am sure you are aware unemployment in the USA is still rising despite the emaciated version of your tax cut that was passed and this continued rise in unemployment and underemployment may well threaten any economic recovery. A part of the reason that companies are not hiring is the effect of imports on the American economy. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is an agency of the United States Government that provides American Corporations loans and political risk insurance for investing in nations other than the USA. Sir, this is not Free Trade or anything even close. This is government subsidy to the low cost labor of China, India, and other so called developing nations who are in direct competition with American workers for jobs. There is a correlation between productivity and capital investment. Simply eliminating this organization and its programs would help to stimulate investment in new plant and equipment in the USA since there would no longer be a subsidy to investing offshore.

Sir, another problem is the abuse of our immigration law that allows foreign guest workers who are willing to work for less than American workers in technical professional areas. I am referring to the H1B and L1 visa programs. The H1B program is supposed to provide temporary guest workers to help alleviate short term shortages within the American labor supply. Instead it has become a permanent short circuit around our regular immigration laws. As a result American engineers and IT people are out of work in record numbers. Sir, these people are American citizens and they vote. They need their government to enforce the laws for their protection. Curtailing the abuses of these programs will be a winning political issue because it is the right thing to do.

Sir the political implications of not doing anything about these programs are clear. A Democrat will run on the economy promising a government jobs program which will do little to help the economy really but may get enough votes to threaten your re-election. By taking a stand on these programs you will attract much of the traditional Democrat supporters in the next election. Your stand against government handouts will appeal to your base while driving a wedge between Liberals and the union member Democrats and independents. Thank you for your consideration

Respectfully yours,

[harpseal]

Anyone who disses this as free trade is one naive individual, or a major stockholder.

Or someone who has made a decision based upon the government subsidy and sees his/her future in jepordy if that decision goes south. By the way a smart stockholder would watch very carefully fr the right time to bail out of those companies that have invested heabvily in overseas development projects.

[harpseal]

I have read the magazine but I do not advocate a pure windows envirornment nor is that where my market niche is at the present. However I would suggest you posts working links to articles if you wish to be taken seriously. alternatively if you wish to cite non internet sources quotes and proper references should be included.

I am certain had you had a little more experience in the business world you would be familiar with these points. Now I do admit to typos and due to the fact I am usually multi-tasking my computer and can afford the memory I can not always utilize a word processor I am quite up front about that and apologise for same.

[harpseal]

Must we bring common sense into this foray, I'm having so much fun!

Considering most of teh other posters tothis thread are exhibiting common sense it is up to you to decide to start including it in your posts.

[harpseal]

Thank you for your kind words.

[Jhoffa_]

Well Hello there..

I hope you are well also and everything is just generally in a peachy condition where you are.

(:

[harpseal]

Hope all is well! I may be in for another "sound drubbing" today as well!

Excuse me for interupting your discussion with JHOFFA but I would like to point out a reasoned discussion of teh issues from the standpoint of the original basis of the thread might go a long way so that no one takse a "drubbing." In short if you make a statement of fact that contradicts a posted reference please provide a reference that can be checked.

[harpseal]

I do hope you are being fully compensated for your 24/7 for your company. when you work yur way up you will be either able to assign junior people to that duty or you will do that job only for very substantial extra compensation. I wish you well, good day.

[harpseal]

Thank you for your reference I shall see if I kept that issue on file. For your personal information I have been in the IT industry since 1976. I have written programs in more languages than I can list conveniently in a short post. I did pioneering work on connecting LAN's to mainframe systems allowing mainframe systems on differnet platforms to interface with other mainframe systems and mini computersystems and LANS. nowadays I very seldomhave to be in an "on call" situation as most companies find it more cost effective to train their personel to handle the "on call" responsibilities.

As I stated I have found a lucrative niche in these times making offshore produced code for mission critical systems maintainable. My work in this is usually fixed price although I am willing to do T&M at a substantial hourly bill rate. The companies that I have done the most work for are usually prefer this method of compensation because it is cheaper than fixed price as they are assuming some of the risk that would accrue to me.

Now I did not respond initially to your challenge on this issue as I do not post my resume on the internet and I do not travel outside a limited area because I have not needed to.

[harpseal]

I note in a prior post you stated you needed to get some sleep. May I heartily recommend that if you are tired as it will make you more ammenable to those you are with and better able to do your job and take care of your family responsibilities.

[harpseal]

Since one of my sentence may notr have conveyed the proper meaning I will rephrase. those companies that have initially gone with fixed price work have found it more cost effective to assume some of the risk of my working on their systems on a T&M basis. However, most of my new clients prefer fixed price work until they see what I deliver and when. Repeat business is essential and keeps me making a nice income.

[lelio]

Bump for later reading. Thanks for putting forth the effort of writing this.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Wow, you must have missed all the outsourcing threads up to this point.

What is currently going on by many corporations in America is NOT free trade or a free market. It is a RACKET, described here by the renowned Christian Conservative Phyllis Schlafly:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/ps20030602.shtml
The market has been manipulated making it completely UNbalanced against us; that is NOT free or fair trade. We now buy their goods and services paying their workers a living wage for their country (but only a fraction of ours). Of course, they cannot afford to buy any of our goods and services.
These new cost-cutting savings are going into the pockets of our corporate execs and bribed congressmen. Our goods and services still cost the same or more to us. Or do you know of something that dropped 50-90% in price? Because that is how much the salary for an IT worker dropped (50% for a visa holder, 90% for outsourced).
Also consider that the medical, financial, insurance and telecommunication databases of U.S. citizens are now being run and accessed by foreigners in foreign countries making it even more difficult to protect our personal records.
Finally the national security risks of manufacturing the semiconductor industry have finally been recognized by congress (but they haven't acted on the potential risks):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/922087/posts
Don't think it will stop at engineering, one corporate exec said that any job behind a desk can be easily outsourced.
When Calvin Coolidge said "What's good for business is good for America", the technology to perform every middle-class job now held by Americans overseas by foreigners did not exist, nor could he have imagined it.
A shrinking middle-class and a "jobless recovery" as this has been called, is damaging to all America. And a jobless recovery it has been noted will not be a lasting recovery. Here Paul Craig Roberts (another conservative) explains it better:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/6/11/133841.shtml

[harpseal]

I hope maybe one day to learn something about IT, do you offer classes.

As a matter of fact yes I do. however, there is a waiting list as it is not one of my favorite tasks. Since Free Republic is not boosting an indu=ividuals commercial enterprise I can not go into more detail without compromising our mutual hosts graciousness.

However, should you wish to enroll you will need a corporation to make the arrangementds for such a class and travel to CT to attend. If they would be useful to you then you will run accross them in your usual professional enhancement searches.

[harpseal]

oh yeah that’s it, the one in which my knowledge was critically absent!

Then it is time to pass that knowledge to someone more junior so you can move up. passing on institutional knowledege is one of the advantages of an in house staff that maintains a presence of a time period. It also can be a disadvatage. But all this chatter about IT ignores the original point of this thread about government handouts and failure to enforce the laws.

[ezo4]

BUMP! Harpseal, I also want to organize a Freep in which we call, write or protest the White House on this issue.

Include me if you will