Kerry and Edwards have claimed that they will close the tax loopholes in order to cease large numbers of jobs from being outsourced while increasing funding for retraining programs within communities, which is the only effective way to tackle the problem. The Bush administration's acceptance and even promotion of outsourcing (Bush's top economic adviser claimed outsourcing is a good thing for the American worker earlier this year) puts them in an impossible bind. In order to spur true economic growth they would have to fund an impossibly large retraining program, which by itself is against Conservative nature (even if they can spend $120 billion on a misguided foreign invasion.) The only way to satiate the economic burdens brought about by the outsourcing epidemic is to limit outsourcing itself — it cannot be stopped completely — and couple that with retraining programs that are adequately, but not overly, funded. The Kerry/Edwards ticket is the only serious one promoting such a plan.
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
1 - Christopher M. England
I agree that outsourcing is an evil; I disagree that Kerry/Edwards is the solution. George W. Bush isn't the cause of outsourcing -- it's been around for a long time. More than 40 million American jobs were eliminated between 1979 and 1999, long before Bush ever took office. While it's true the economy created more jobs than were eliminated during this period, United States Department of Labor figures indicate that only thirty-five percent of laid-off full-time workers wound up in equal or better paying jobs. With such numbers, it's quite obvious that Bush's predecessors (Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton) did not fair too well in combating outsourcing either. Bush has managed the economy fairly well considering the impacts of 9/11, the subsequent war on terror, and the multiple hurricanes that have ravaged Florida, one of our Nation's biggest economies. With perhaps the exceptions of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, no other President has managed such adversity so successfully.
2 - Hal Pawluk
"With perhaps the exception of" Herbert Hoover, no president has managed to create such adversity so successfully.
You're right in going back further, though.
The real mechanism that led to this is globalization.
This president has encouraged it with tax breaks, but Clinton, Reagan, Carter all had a hand in it.
What has happened as a result of about 20 years of bi-partisan stupidity is that there has been a structural change in the American economy.
American workers are now in a global labor pool, competing against hundreds of millions of unemployed in China, India and other countries. These countries also have much larger pools of well-educated and bright unemployed, so we're in trouble.
I recently blogged a bit of info on this: 10/27/04: BUSH SEEMS TO HAVE BROKEN THE AMERICAN JOBS MACHINE
Link opens in a new window.
3 - Tatvasoft - Offshore Software Outsourcing Development India
I'd like to thank you, Justin Delabar, for posting some good links and continuing to raise the outsourcing issue. Even if we deal with the loss of jobs in certain segments of the workforce, the question remains: how do we address the disproportionate loss of jobs in specific regions/localities? This seems to me to require creative and timely thinking on the part of state and local, even federal elected officials. I'm not holding my breath. When jobs flow from certain already weakened areas (primarily, the rustbelt) overseas, and the benefits flow back to corporations located elsewhere in the country, this is a recipe for dislocation and despair on a widescale, with political ramifications to be seen soon.
Jim
Tatvasoft
4 - GD
Hi,
I think India will get more job opportunities in offshore business!
5 - offshore software development India
Morever the quality of education and resource is more in India.
6 - Dave Nalle
What does it say that on your offshore software development website the workers are clearly in India, yet none of those shown in the header picture look even vaguely Indian?
Dave