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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 AllThats me, intentionally thick at all times.
But thye intelligensia here at CD need their Court Jester.
"I said what would you think IF..."
I still don't see where you said that?
"Thats me, intentionally thick at all times."
Don't know you, don't care to. You are acting intentionally thick here. Case in point bellow.
"I said what would you think IF..."
In other words, genius, a hypothetical. I love it when people like yourself come here, lose in an argument, then start posting comments they think are "witty", like that will mask the fact that they don't know what they're talking about.
"What people (those who talk about immigrants and say nothing of NAFTA) are pushing for is the equivalent of a capitalist being able to, for example, ship their capital from California to Nevada while there is a wall being built between the two states, as well as a law being created to stop the ability of workers, labor, from having the same mobility. How would you feel about that"
Lets be a big boy and have an adult conversation, shall we? After reading this (in my post), a person with a working brain would realize that I was posting a hypothetical. Cutting back the flow of labor, in any way, between Mexico and the US while allowing capital to flow freely would be the equivalent of allowing people to transfer their capital from one state to the other here but putting up walls as far as people being able to go over state lines to find work.
You haven't responded to anything I said because you can't, and your "illegal" nonsense doesn't make sense unless the same standards are applied to capital. If you understood the role NAFTA, our country's capitalists and "free trade" plays in this you wouldn't have such a simplistic argument.
Right on so many points. Trade agreements are apparently for keeping slave colonies contained.
Mexican nationals with passports can't even change planes in the US on their way to Canada or Europe, without a visa. There are few places in the world that Mexican nationals can travel, owing to who owns which airlines and where the flight connections are made, and now Mexicana is in bankruptcy, the only line that had nonstop service from Mexico City to European cities.
Maybe you should aim your vitriol at American multinational corporations who are taking over the economies of Latin America with US taxpayer subsidized predatory pricing that puts small farms and businesses out of business, putting people out of work, in every field from restaurants to gas stations to grocery and department stores.
You think the world just hatched from an egg the way it is?
During the rebuilding of the gulf coast after Katrina, the US government allowed extra visas so that government contractors like KBR could bring in people from Mexico to supplant American union construction workers. I emailed my senator about it, and she replied saying that she was okay with it, because it saved taxpayers money.
My hunch is that we white folks are being replaced. We represent an expensive, mature economy that because of education and wealth, no longer produces enough profit to satisfy the growth of capitalism.
A more ignorant and pliable workforce is being installed in our place by design and invitation. Those who still harbor pangs of patriotism need to wake up and put the riot back in that word.
Are you kidding, Obama just announced that he helped create 71,000 new jobs at Burger King and McDonalds! You have a computer degree, how about being a shift manager at McDonalds!
USAID is a CIA front just like the 2000 private companies now doing espionage work for Intelligence Agencies! So, besides helping Hertz, Dell, Chase, and many others outsource their high tech jobs to India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Phillipines, and others........(Since 1997, 20 MILLION Factory jobs have been outsourced! I would love to see how many millions of white collar jobs have been outsourced!)......The CIA gets to infiltrate other countrys' high tech industries......It is "Win Win for Corporate Capitalists and Spies"! Again, the American People get screwed!
Hey, once we attack Iran, you can join the military or ZE!
I think your right! I see even the Chinese are starting to get uppity! Starting unions and demanding human rights, and such nonsence.
Indias no better. They just got a national minimum wage. Commie Freaks!
>^^<
But, but, I thought Obama was a socialist?????
*sarcasm*
I do believe he is purposely trying NOT to be re-elected.
*not sarcasm*
Compared to Obomber, Bush(I) was a Socialist, I'm still waiting for some of creeping socialism Glen Beck is always on about...
Glad I stopped holding my breath.
>^^<
Trillions for the banksters.
Billions more for perpetual war.
And a sharp stick in the eye for the American worker.
A $22 million grant to facilitate loss of good jobs by US workers? How nice of the Obama administration.
I am sure that the AFL-CIO and all the unions see the anti-worker goals of such a program, and are vigorously opposing it. Of course, they are also out there working with IT people in Asia and South America to make sure they get wages and benefits similar to what Microsoft and IBM typically offer their US workers - that is until the work can be outsourced.
Information Technology has been a haven for white males here. Typically they get 50% more than the few African American males who survive in this profession, twice the pay of white women and more than twice the pay of workers born in India, China, etc. I hope it is becoming clear that you can run but you can't hide. By allowing the corporations free reign (or is it rein?), by being complicit in unfair treatment of others, by becoming deluded that we are something higher up than wage workers, by failing to organize these companies, we have laid the groundwork for our demise.
Now what to do? Can the public boycott Microsoft and IBM? Current workers at companies that are heavy IT users should really organize and strike while they can and demand this money go to train and employ people here, including their own children. And that any foreign based employees get the same wages and benefits.
Or we can support the rounding up and street pogroms of Mexican appearing immigrant workers instead. That should help.
Joe
"Can the public boycott Microsoft and IBM?"
Yes ! Switch from Microsoft to Linux from what I found on google for a solution. IBM I don't know. Installing Linux can be tough unless you're running a machine that's a few years old and then if you need help, the know it alls will talk you down. Where's an organized buycotting for Linux when you need one?
Michael Goodhart, installing Linux is just as easy as installing Windows - if you understand that it's a different operating system and the optimum formatting of the hard drive partition for Linux is different from the NTFS formatting used for Windows. Of course, there's greater choice in Linux - because it's under active development all the time. But you are totally wrong about the Linux community being unhelpful or snobbish. No sir, not in my experience.
The choice can be overwhelming sometimes, and it's not easy to get an answer as to which Linux "flavor" is best for someone switching from Windows. If you get a recommendation such as from keithsoulasa above - to try Linux Mint, you could try it. If you like it and feel it does what you need, you could stick with it. But in my case, I have "test driven" **several** and because I feel individual requirements and tastes vary, I hesitate to make a recommendation. If you live in a country where there are only two or three models of cars available, your choice would be easy. Not when you have lots of models and each coming with customizable features. That's the "problem" you may face - too much choice, unless you know what it is that you are looking for in an operating system. But it can be fun "shopping" around - in the beginning, until you settle down on one.
"But you are totally wrong about the Linux community being unhelpful or snobbish. No sir, not in my experience.
It's funny how many people get away with making such blanket statements that are false or misleading."
It was 5 years ago when I tried it out. I gave up. I'm not a tech geek and I'm used to Windows XP. But back to what you said. If it's that great by now, then why isn't there a bigger market for such PCs? You can always add and subtract what you want from Linux anytime, right? Which Linux forums have you been to that are helpful? I would like to see what I missed in all these years.
Like I said, I hesitate to give out recommendations. But still, you could check out the forums on Linux Mint, Ubuntu (also Kubuntu, Ubuntu Studio), Fedora, OpenSUSE, ...
"DistroWatch" lists lots of Linux flavors, but could be overwhelming. It's somewhat of an art to read through reviews and use your judgement (and instinct, plus a sense of what you are looking for). So far, I have never come across a "problem" that someone else hasn't experienced before - and the solution listed. But you do need to get used to some new lingo. But treat it as fun - then you'll be ok. Hey, who knows, maybe you can show off to your next girlfriend ;)
Interesting, those brands I've never tried. The only one I did was redhat 9.0 that was given on a few CDs. I'll look into those other brands. Thanks again.
Linux mint sir, it works out of the box, is completely free and installs very fast, you can even install it from a usb flash drive
. Its meant to be windows refugee friendly, so if you want you can just do normal stuff and be fine, but if your a bit a geek the opportunity is there to explore...
I heard of a Linux system that can run live from a flash disk. I forgot which one it was. My current computer I got came in 2002 but the last bios flash allowed for booting off USB so I might be in luck. I'll give this another try.
SUSE NOVELL Linux is available at local computer retailers for about $60 in shrink wrapped DVD that AUTO installs on your existing Microsoft PC - with option to AUTOMATICALLY SHRINK the WINDOWS portion allowing the neo-ist neophyte to get up and running - very quickly w/ Internet Mail and basic applications
SUSE NOVELL Linux INCLUDES a FULL Office Suite - OpenOffice.org - FULLY compatible w/ ALL Microsoft formats - sometimes MORE formats than the current MS product...
graphics... games... utilities... and more software you could use in 10 lifetimes...
ok W7 300-400 retail. Office - another 2-400.
See - MS has dominance in the workplace - where people sit all day in front of Windows... then want they come home... and the IT support is predominantly Windows trained...
after just reading another CD article on GMO foods and patents... MS is the BIGGEST fraud foisted on american consumers EVER...
i could go on for a long time... but there's people's motivation...
MICROSOFT is VERY easy to setup - INITIALLY - then everything goes wrong forever constantly
LINUX is a tad more to setup - then operates reliably for YEARS without constant fixing and costs
most people will take the MS route.
oh... did i mention that you'll also have NO need for an antivirus maleware etc products (oh I can hear the flames now)
my total investment in computer software since 2004 - $60. - no virus no crashes - peace of mind is priceless...
and for support - the linux / unix community is open source - they wrote it for free - and there's plenty of for-purchase products too - but - there's unlimited technical support world wide -
SUSE NOVELL Linux also includes 90 days free phone support - as well as support plans...
buying microsoft software is like buying a car without brakes or a steering wheel then driving real fast - kinda dumb... but weeeze is 'merikkans... can't ya make it simpler... for the toadies that'll pay half a month's salary... well... as barnum said... one every minute.
Or you can download and install a variety of easy to install linux distributions for FREE.
(I wouldn't say there are no viruses though...I'll let Steve Jobs make incredible claims like that).
T-R-E-A-S-O-N !!!