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Report: Obama Launches New Program to Help Corporations "Take Advantage of Low Labor Costs" Abroad
With the President Obama reversing his campaign promises on trade issues by pushing to pass NAFTA-style trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, and with the unemployment crisis persisting, the key jobs question is once again front and center in American politics. Specifically: How do we create jobs here at home and build our most valuable 21st century industries?
Rajiv Shah, a 36-year old former undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, now leads the U.S. Agency for International Development for the Obama administration. Under director Shah, the USAID will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills, as well as skills in business process outsourcing and call center support. Prior to the USDA, he worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the leading private development organizations. The first and foremost answer is that our government should stop doing stuff like the program described in this stunning new report from Information Week:
U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers
Despite President Obama's pledge to retain more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency run by a hand-picked Obama appointee has launched a $22 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions, in South Asia.
Following their training, the tech workers will be placed with outsourcing vendors in the region that provide offshore IT and business services to American companies looking to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent's low labor costs...
The outsourcing program (is) sure to draw the most fire from critics. While Obama acknowledged that occupations such as garment making don't add much value to the U.S. economy, he argued relentlessly during his presidential run that lawmakers needed to do more to keep hi-tech jobs in IT, biological sciences, and green energy in the country.
Now look, I'm all for a robust foreign aid budget - we don't do nearly enough to help the developing world. However, using foreign aid money to specifically help private corporations "take advantage of low labor costs" in the developing world - that's absolutely grotesque.
Right now, Even if we do not reform our atrocious trade policy that incentivizes a wage-cutting race to the bottom, the least we should be doing is investing every single available dollar we have in job training and job creation here at home.
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175 Comments so far
Show AllGood point, it would be interesting to know what piece of legislation authorized those funds and who voted for it ...
The promises keep on breaking. Yesterday it was Obama's promise to get troops out of Iraq*. Before that it was his pledge to close Guantanamo, to preserve the ban on whaling, not to meet secretly with lobbyists, to honor the 4th Amendment and not expand spying on Americans...
Hey everyone out there who bashes me for voting Green: If you vote for "the lesser of 2 evils", evil is what you get!
Until enough decent Americans** say "ENOUGH", and we replace this plutocracy masquerading as democracy with the real thing, things are only going to get worse.
*http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/03-3
**This excludes 99% of those in the portals of power in Washington.
.....add a lot of hot air on LGBT rights. He promises full equality for LGBT, yet subscribes to separate but equal to get there. What irony!!
i agree dfairley. i am a part of the greens here in texas and the greens will be on the ballot this fall for the first time since 2000.
this is another example of obama and the dims leadership screwing the public and enabling the repugs.
obama is pushing much of the repug programs now (wiretapping and others)
vote green people and wake up. the 2 corporate parties don't give a crap about many people in the us.
matt galveston tx
The weird thing was that it was never clear that Obama was the lesser of two evils. He may have been the greater--we'll never know.
The whole wink&nod way he dealt with the NAFTA issue should have alerted his (non-Wall Street) supporters that he thought they were suckers. But they really were suckers. Most of them are still suckers, and will vote for him again.
On top of everything, one now has the self-loathing left to contend with. People who say "I could have seen it coming" (Yes, you can!), and blame themselves for their spinelessness in caving to the stupidest of rationales "Third-parties can't win" (Yes, they can!), "lesser of two evils" (Why two? Why evils?), "Voting for a third-party might make a Republican win" (What's the difference?). Sadly, all of these spineless idiocies will rear their ugly heads in December, and then again in two more years.
Does absolutely everyone have to be homeless, broke and starving before they grow a pair?
StatusQuObama sez:
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said he and his administration have pursued a “fundamentally business- friendly” agenda and are “fierce advocates” for the free market, rejecting corporate criticism of his policies.
“The irony is, is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business; and then on the business side, we are perceived as being anti-business,” Obama said in a Feb. 9 interview in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands tomorrow.
“You would be hard-pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses,” he added.
========
"Look, I am a pro-growth, free-market guy," Barack Obama declared in a recent interview on CNBC. "I love the market."
Obomber sez: "“The irony is, is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business; and then on the business side, we are perceived as being anti-business.”
***
Nice try, but that's not irony.
It's fact, supported by empirical data, and countered by propaganda.
USAID had been used to infiltrate any government that opposes the US Government and/or Capitalism. Eva Golinger, a US lawyer has done extensive research on this very subject. Goolge her and educate yourself to what the US government is really about. USAID has been used here in Latin America to destabalize governments, support paramilitary murders, disappear oponents of the US Government and most recently to support the Coup in Honduras. Millions of US tax payers dollars have been pumped into these countries to keep them complient with the US governments wishes. Tens of thousands have been murdered and disappeared with the help of USAID. Shame on US.
You're right on about USAID.
Do you live in Oxaca?
How are things there?
Last time I was there there were armed soldiers patrolling the streets but it is still one of my favorite places in the world.
The investor classes don't care where the profits come from, so long as they do. The corporate parasites have zero allegiance to any country of their birth.
"The American way of life is non-negotiable."--Cheney
"We will not apologize for our way of life."--Obama
And hardly a bleat from the sheeple. Amazing and depressing.
What about ewe?
Joe
Why do you have to pay import duties for goods and materials yet you can import work over the network for free?
Every outsourced job is another person not paying taxes.
Instead of cutting taxes all the time, how about finding a few more people to pay?
Weeee! More of our tax dollars at work to undermine us! Oh well, we were screwed well and long before G.W.Obushma, we are screwed even better today with this fraud in the White House, and we'll continue to be screwed with Aristocratic perfection going forward. It's totally hopeless in America.
Pour the wine, and celebrate the decline.
A violent revolution would be about all that could turn the tide on our Fascist takeover, but alas, there is no heart, no courage, no chance. Even if there were, it's way to late now.
Kiss the myth goodbye.
"A violent revolution would be about all that could turn the tide on our Fascist takeover"
Don't count out economic collapse. Look at how the USSR just sort of... evaporated.
The USSR "evaporated" into organized crime and weapons trading.
That could happen here very easily unless we start building a good foundation for the future.
We new new technology to offset global warming.
All I hear is talk about rebuilding the current infrastructure and such.
Prolly because the whole of our economy is based on oil products and weapons.
If and when we dismantle that the whole ball of wax will melt down.
These are not easy issues to deal with.
But Mother Nature will have her way in the long run so we better all learn how to live together and lend a helping hand.
"...so we better all learn how to live together and lend a helping hand."
Personally, I believe we humans already KNOW how to live together and lend a helping hand. We just need to collectively embrace a new paradigm that celebrates and encourages generosity and empathy, not the current one that indulges and exploits the worst aspects of the human condition: Greed, Sloth, Envy, Anger/Fear, Lust, Pride and Gluttony.
Ah, Revolution! That should fix things up. There is no myth here. We are in a global economy and it was bound to happen. That it is shocking to so many astounds me. It has always been evident that it would take a long time for most Americans to get used to 'sharing' the job market. I assume that you are not for Trade and therefore are opposed to FREE trade. This was all predicted by author Alvin Toffler in his FUTURE SHOCK and you are the perfect example of who he was talking about I think.
I just read the report.
It is a form of foreign aid to Sri Lanka.
3000 jobs over there could make a huge difference.
Besides they dont mention who the U.S. companies are who will be using the techs.
The story needs filling out and should not be reported here.
It just causes uproar and devisivness and we need to support our current administration.
A lot of good has been done.
People should do their homework.
Obama prolly doesn't even know about this.
I do NOT want to see the Repubs win the majority in the next elections because people are nit picking.
Wow! Was trying to isolate a particularly egregious statement of yours, but your entire passage, your 'arguments,' show only a completely brainwashed person. Frightening in it's totality. Frightening because I assume you can vote. I literally got goose bumps thinking that people like you will take us into complete fascism quicker than sara palin ever could.
BTW, what's the 'homework' that people should do? What do you know that we don't? something rush or one of the blue dogs said? A quote from the Big O or harry reid ? What is it?
I've been unemployed for 18 months and am about to lose my health insurance. People like you, who buy whatever crap the democrats are throwing and fail to hold them to account, are much more responsible for my situation--and those of millions of others--than any damn republican.
P.S.
You probably think my rep, Anthony Weiner, is one damn good democrat. You'd be wrong. Great speech on the floor the other day, but don't let that fool you. Number of reasons not to be fooled (like his unabashed support of the final health care bill, reminding us 'not to make the perfect the enemy of the good'...sound familiar?). Today he sends around a slick flyer talking about 'job creation.' Only problem is, his prescription is the same as O's and the blue dogs: tax breaks.
Only three sections to his solution, and I quote:
-- 'Tax breaks for every new job'
-- 'Small business needs help'
-- 'Taking on waste in Washington' (ensuring the 'deficit is taken seriously')
I called his office to ask 'what about job creation' and to say that what Weiner proposes is essentially DNC/replican talking points. I said tax breaks for small business is fine, but it won't do a damn thing if nobody's buying. WHAT ABOUT JOB CREATION? They took my name and number. They were very polite.
This 'progressive' is becoming so O-like I think perhaps he's been promised a job in the administration.
Look
This has been going on for a long time.
I thought that it surely must crash 10 years ago.
There will probably be a long period of adjustment and things will never be the same.
It is back to the survival of the fittest...which leaves me out since I am getting old.
And to top it off...Mother Nature is going to have some nasty surprises for all of us.
When you add that to the equasion the future looks pretty bleak.
But that doesn't mean that I am going to give up and I hope that you don't either.
We all need to start thinking out of the box.
How bout turning off the t.v.,stop listening to the pundits for a month and giving your brain a rest?
Maybe
then some creative ideas will start to flow.
Well said Birdie. She's not going to get it and neither will most of the posters attacking Obama 24/7/365/4 on this site. To them, anything that goes wrong and it's blame Obama and the Democratic Party. Anyone caught nailing the Republican Party often gets chastised for not including the Democratic Party. I'm doing what I can to stay fit and help others. Obama gave us a great stimulus package to reward companies who go green in their business practices but nobody here talks about it. If it weren't for that stimulus package, my company wouldn't have had a contract for construction workers like me to renovate and build with environmentally friendly technologies. It's good to see some people here who don't give up and keep crying doom-gloom on everything.
Shawn, If by doom and gloom you are refering to Guantanamo, renditions, mandatory health insurance instead of single payer, allowing wall street to write the their own reforms, a bloated military budget that put Bush to shame, solving the immigration problem with troops at the border, failing to even show up in the carbon cap debate, never a mention after the election of reforming NAFTA, continuation of endless occupations in the Middle East, a war on drugs that kills more than die in our overseas adventures, race to the top, support of off shore drilling, token support of alternative energy, devotion to free market ideals that serve the wealthy and destroy the planet, and on and on, yes it is a bit gloomy. But if you want cheering up, listen to our eloquent leader. He has a way of making it all good and necessary.
Most excellent response as well! thanks
Oh, dear, Shawn, what happened to Shawn "the independent"? Sounds like a genetic Dem to me ....
For every job, like yours that may, or may not, have come out of this, many more are being lost. But your claim does, indeed, sound like "Well I got mine, so the hell with the rest." You have been bought, but don't feel too smug, 'cause this administration has a habit of dropping folks like you on a dime when it serves its purpose, and your cheerleading on line won't help you a whit when the fecal material hits the fan. You may have temporarily escaped, but, unless you have megabucks, your turn will come ....
Excellent response! It's as difficult a chore to make a rational argument to the 'bots as it is to the Tea-Partiers.
Ok so start with impeachment and censor. Then get a Rope! Were out of time, out of money, and out of patence! $400 million so Michelle and Sasha can take 60 cronies to Spain!
We're bleeding like we were shot, the Gulf is covered in oil. 30% are out of work, and heres a bit to sneak in while everybodys looking the other way!
I really don't know if I can take it anymore.. and every day it gets worse.
Somebody make it STOP!
>^^<
Thanks Shawn
"Attacking Obama on this site" are the key words.
It is difficult to filter them out but I guess that I'll hang in there and hope for real feedback rather that personal attacks.
There are some angry folks out there and it appears that they have an agenda.
Oh well...I'm glad you have work.
My son has work in the same field.
Hopefully it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Cheers
~B~
Birdie and Shawn,
Both of you owe Diana a sincere apology for talking like everything is hunky dory. Listen, Obama may be a nice guy and I may not agree with everything from the crowd here but they are correct to discuss exactly how disgusted they are with this administration. Just because you two are lucky gives you no right to put down others. I seriously doubt that Diana or anyone else here bothers watching the MSM and why should they bother? If you two don't want to feel like you are being attacked, the least you could do is acknowledge the real culprits are our leaders who are taking away our bread and water and carrying them for the business and wealthy interests. I have read what Diana has written and I feel very sad for the situation she is in. Once again, I request both of you to apologize for your callous remarks against her.
"But that doesn't mean that I am going to give up and I hope that you don't either. We all need to start thinking out of the box."
Yup! Thinking outside of the box, the box that both major parties have kept us in. I decided to think outside of the box in '96, the first time I voted for Nader, and I'm not going to give up on getting decent folks in office, which, of course, means getting the current occupants out ....
I supported Jerry Brown and voted for Nadar too.
And I'd do it again.
The current occupents are a disappointment but much much better than what we had for the previous 8 years.
We still have a long way to go.
I used to think that they looked a lot better but even liberals are starting to wake up. I'm not so sure Obama is much better the more time goes by. With him, I get the feeling that we have a long and longer way to go. In other words, we're still stepping backwards rather than forward even under this administration.
I don't listen to the Dems...I pay attention and make up my own mind.
In my mind ...the military industrial complex HAS taken over.
And it is not the fault of the current admin.
One can only wonder what threats have been directed at Pres. Obama.
The same threats that brought Clinton into line.
Attacking me is not going to solve your problems.
I have lost jobs and health insurance in the past for being a whistle blower.
I recovered and I hope that you do too.
President Obama is the best bet that we have at the moment.
I do believe that he wants change.
Whether he can pull it off or not and get out alive is another thing.
We need to push him to get a more forward thinking cabinet and to speak directly about the challenges he faces to the American public.
And no...I am not worse than extreme right wingers. Think about it!
Good luck to you and hang in there.
~B~
After reading your posts, I thought:
Some people never learn.
Good Grief.
Here is the essence of the threats made to Obama, and Clinton as well - "Unless you do what we want, we will stop giving you corp. megabucks and we will give them to your opponent. If you do what we want, in addition to the corp. megabucks, we will make sure you live well in your political afterlife ..."
Suggesting that Obama is the "best that we have at the moment", is, considering the sins of this admin., saying nothing more than "boy, are we in deep do-do!"
If you have lost a job because you are a whistleblower, how has this admin. benefitted you or the other whistle blowers like that guy from UBS who is now in, or about to go to, jail for his trouble, or the guy from wikileaks who is being hounded? Certainly, as a whistleblower, you should be particularly "troubled" at this admin. treatment of same.
What, precisely, makes you believe Obama wants "change", and "change" of what, pray tell?
As for "pushing" him, how has that been working out for you? He chose this particular cabinet, he had better choices. At this point, it should be clear that the only "pushing" that stands a chance of having any effect is a credible threat to push him right out the door ....
Oh
Here a short list (first 20) of Obama's accomplishments as of last May from historical context website:
1. Ordered all federal agencies to undertake a study and make recommendations for ways to cut spending
2. Ordered a review of all federal operations to identify and cut wasteful spending and practices
3. Instituted enforcement for equal pay for women
4. Beginning the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq
5. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
6. Ended media blackout on war casualties; reporting full information
7. Ended media blackout on covering the return of fallen soldiers to Dover AFB; the media is now permitted to do so pending adherence to respectful rules and approval of fallen soldier’s family
8. The White House and federal government are respecting the Freedom of Information Act
9. Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible
10. Limits on lobbyist’s access to the White House
11. Limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration
12. Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date
13. Phasing out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdated weapons systems, which weren’t even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan
14. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research
15. Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research
16. New federal funding for science and research labs
17. States are permitted to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards
18. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect
19. Funds for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools
20. New funds for school construction
Wow, I'm impressed, It would take a big headed pin, you know one with a little ball on the top, to fit all these on.
If this is the "change" you voted for, your expectations were low indeed, and that's precisely the problem; you have been trickled down upon and mistake it for a shower .....
Your name made me think of a great book published years ago called 'Birdie.' It was about a young boy who became obsessed with becoming a bird. The genius of the book was that we watched as the young man's brain transitioned into THINKING like a bird; indeed, becoming one.
I reference the book because your arguments are as delusional as Birdie's, only without the creativity, the imagination, and the great empathy the young Birdie had.
Your list is simply taken from propaganda sheet. Nothing in it matters.
Personal attacks never solve anything.
But a well thought out response may spark a discussion that could enrich us both.
Here's my well-thought-out response: you're a tool of the neo-liberal propaganda machine.
Yea that is a problem in here, I get flamed often enough. But I get it on the right-wing sites too. Discussion and Diplomacy hace never been American virtues. too bad, I grew up in a family that argued everything, it can be fun.
>^^<
Mr.Catz,
I engaged in a very long, diplomatic discussion a while ago, in another thread with Shawn, in which he indicated many things, including that he was a registered independent, being frustrated with the Dem. Party. Apparently since then, his personal situation situation has improved and he is right back where he started as if the discussion had never occurred.
As far as "personal attacks" are concerned, suggesting that one is an idiot is a personal attack, suggesting that one is deluded with regard to a certain position, IMO, is an opinion about that position. And frankly, IMO, the suggestion that one is a genetic Dem amounts to no more than an observation made after multiple viewings. If you feel personally attacked, please specify the nature of the attack and explain why you consider it such. I have done so myself in other postings ...
Cogent arguments have been made, and ignored, as to why this is a lousy administration, and the defense for it, other than pointing out a few bones that have thrown down, is tantamount to saying, "Well our guys may be doing meth, but the OTHER guys do COKE!", or "Thank God, our guy is only a scoundrel, the other guy is a crook!" as if somehow we should be so grateful and keep paying for the drugs and patting him on the back. Arguing that "we have a long way to go" while ignoring that in many ways we have gone backward, is a bit disingenuous, IMO. It is theses type of arguments that appear here that many of us find so frustrating ....
You ARE joking are you not? I'm certainly laughing my guts out.
Uh Hmmm...If you're laughing you're not a woman.
Equal pay has been a long time coming.
Ah, yes, now women can get paid nothing equally as well as the men .....
You're the first person on this site to say you're unemployed. 18 months? That's very sad. The apologists for open borders and outsourcing keep telling us to "get used to it". Keep trying to fight the unemployment and don't let those apologists bully you and good luck. I'm also unemployed but not too long ago. I've been doing temp jobs since I finished school so I never had a chance to see what a full time jobs with benefits is like. Purchasing insurance on my own is very expensive so I take chances not buying it. If it gets too expensive by the time I have to buy it and I still don't have a full time job, the fine will do just fine.
I've been underemployed for sixteen months as a State Worker in Ca. Lost 20% of my pay too, 15% for Furloughs and 5% for no overtime.
But of course I don't count as our Furloughs are (Voluntary) at least our All Powerfull Union, allows it.
So yes this article needs fleshed out who's doing the hiring?
>^^<
You're the first person here to say you're underemployed and I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know why people bother staying in CA when they could move out here to the interior midwest. Good luck to you.
Thank you for your kind words. I too have been temping, when I can get work, and it's usually for an unlivable wage.
I wish you all the best as well.