In unemployment news, outsourcing has been a huge factor in American joblessness.
So what was President Obama thinking when he played down the tremendously destructive outsourcing problem recently during his trip to India? Whatever the reason for the change in Obama’s rhetoric on this subject, the progressive radio hosts are not happy about this unexpected turn of events.
The outsourcing issue is a sore point in an otherwise deepening relationship between India and the United States, which see each other as vital partners in areas like counterterrorism, defense contracts and nuclear energy.
India's outsourcing industry was shaken last year when Obama said he wanted to change "a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York."
At a Mumbai summit of top Indian and American chief executives, Obama said that in the United States a caricature exists of India as a nation filled with call centers that were taking away American jobs.
In India, Obama said, many see the arrival of American companies as a threat to the livelihood of neighborhood shopkeepers. "These old stereotypes and old concerns ignore today's reality. Trade between our countries is not just a one-way street of American jobs and companies moving to India. It is a dynamic two-way relationship that is creating jobs, growth and higher standards in both our countries" the President said.
So has Obama changed his mind on protecting remaining American jobs from the scourge of outsourcing? Has the election so distressed our President that he is now touting Republican talking points to appease the GOP he will be forced to work with over the next two years?
Ed Schultz today devoted all three hours of his radio show and will likely address this same issue on his MSNBC TV show tonight. Callers on Ed’s radio show agreed that outsourcing jobs to India and other countries has been a substantial contributing component in America’s unemployment problems and most every caller expressed outrage over the issue and the President’s apparent change of heart on outsourcing.
This season NBC had the bad taste to air a comedy in their fall line up called “Outsourced” which centers around the cultural differences faced by one American who left Wisconsin to work in India. There are at least 3 Facebook pages, several other social networking sites as well as plenty of blogs condemning NBC for the concept of the show as insensitive to the plight of those (now jobless Americans) who fell victim to the reality of outsourcing.
The fact is, off-shoring American jobs to foreign lands only benefits the bottom lines of corporations, companies and the countries where those jobs are relocated. Decades worth of IRS tax breaks for those employers who ship our jobs overseas has gutted the availability of US jobs, lowered the average pay in America and continues to reward big business for this un-American activity.
Apparently, with the Republican takeover of the House, this problem will continue to plague America, as GOP politicians voted 11 times in the past 4 years to continue such corporate giveaways which only hurt our middle class citizens and cost the American people billions of dollars every year. Now that the President seems to have changed his mind on this subject, the American worker will continue to suffer the consequences.
Perhaps if the millions of American families whose lives have been devastated by the resulting reality of outsourcing jobs (and the prolonged unemployment that often follows) would contact the Whitehouse Comments Line 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 and tell him we need job here in the USA and stop rewarding those who ship jobs out of the country - perhaps he will get the message the voters actually tried to deliver a week ago: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!
Although no one should discount the hardship and uncertainty faced by an individual who has lost his or her job, nothing is that black and white. The popular misconception is that outsourcing always means job loss and a windfall profit for the company doing the outsourcing. A more accurate perspective is that for companies, it is often a matter of staying afloat or struggling to grow, not getting windfalls, and with regard to jobs – when economies are not stifled by protectionism – job losses and gains tend to balance out. Please see more at my blog post at Law Without Borders.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, those American companies with manufacturing and service set-ups abroad haven't made these arrangements to take advantage of the tax deferral. They have done it because of lower operational costs, or because of the proximity to target markets, or for other reasons that may have nothing to do with tax breaks or outsourcing of jobs. Changing the tax code to remove the deferral will only create a barrier that will reduce the ability of U.S. companies to compete in today's global marketplace. If the U.S. government offers incentives and tax credits to companies that create more jobs for the American workforce, that might help a bit.
Vidya Devaiah
SDD Global Solutions
You made some very good points Vidya - but the majority of outsourcing is nothing more than UNAMERICAN Corporate GREED! And Americans continue to suffer the consequences!
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