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Outsourcing Potential, Forgetting Workers
“We need better intelligence, the kind that is derived not from intercepting a president’s phone calls to his mistress but from hanging out with the powerless.”
That was one of columnist Nicholas Kristof's lessons for U.S. foreign policy drawn from Egypt's revolution. In the New York Times this weekend he pointed out that American journalists and foreign policy experts alike missed the warning signs of what was coming in Egypt in part because they talk to the wrong people. Aha. That's not exactly a revelation to consumers of independent media.
It's not just revolutions in far off places that we miss when reporters ignore the everyday working people, though. Another piece in the very same paper on the very same day examined the consequences of this country's outsourcing-only manufacturing policy. The question raised there was pretty fundamental. It went to the entire justification for globalization.
We've been told that going global serves American interests because increased profits produce innovation, creativity, and investment in new improved products. Right?
The question raised in Louis Uchitelle's deep-inside-the-paper story is, is it even true? Can a country continue to innovative if it's not making the stuff it innovates?
When great products of American innovation are made not here but there—Americans are a world away. Aren't the innovations that will bring us the next iPads and iPhones, for example, in Asia, mostly likely going to come from people who spend their time actually making things, instead?
Robert Kuttner noted this week in the American Prospect that Democrats have become distanced from labor—that most party officials come from the business class and have little appreciation of what workers can do. No wonder they don't think of workers as potential innovators—they barely think of them at all.
The US must export to “win the future,” President Obama said in his State of the Union. Pundit heads nodded. But how much time are they spending listening to the President and his ilk. And how much are they listening to the rest of America?
American workers are not the "powerless" exactly in Kristof's sense of the word. But policy makers keep not listening, down the road, they certainly could be. Things are going that way.
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15 Comments so far
Show AllI learned from Noam Chomsky that research and development is socialized i.e. funded by the government, and it's fruits are privatized and enjoyed by a narrow elite class. Obama himself has pretty much said the first half of this statement("the Internet happened because of government funding for it..." He wouldn't be caught dead saying the second part.) Nobody ever illuminates the process of how outsourcing manufacturing leads to innovation that benefits the American working class. I suspect that's because it's just dogmatic nonsense fed to us to stem the tide of discontent.
You're kidding right? Private Corporations have made LOADS off the Internet. Even at a measly $50 a month, they can't help making money. It's like the Telephone, only better! with users wanting more sofisticated apps that need more bandwidth, how can ISP's not win? add in the profit from advertising. It's like a pipeline straight into AT&T's wallet!
Ms. Flanders' point is well taken. The GOP and our illusterious leader, President Obama, seem to forget that a business cycle includes ALL of the players, not just the greedy business men and those who are thought of as enterpreuers. The business cycle also includes the workers; workers, who with their hard-earned wages are also the consumers of the goods and services that the business men promote. Without these consumers/workers, the economy stalls and fails eventually.
Giving tax breaks to business that take American jobs oversees, is just silly and very shortsighted. These tax breaks only promote the unemployment of the American worker and the ability of that worker to become a consumer. It is a vicious cycle; one that the current Congress, the Presidents and way too many businesses have embraced and are now paying the price for their shortsighted greed and avarice.
Think outside the box people; do not buy from multnational corporations who do not MAKE products in the USA. Buy locally, regionally and only nationally - from our nation, not the one next door. When Americans start supporting the businesses right here at home, America's economy will grown again.
ROCKER: A few of your points are solid... but your spelling is a travesty.
It's: illustrious, not illusterious, and it's entrepreneur (French word), not enterpreuers.
You also wrote multnational; this was probably a typo. It's multi-national.
If you want to use 10-cent words, it makes sense to know how to spell them, or even PRONOUNCE them.
As to your concluding paragraph, if industries have been sent overseas, and factories closed, how then are Americans in any position to support said entities? They are gone...
I like to use creative forms of spelling; as in outside the box. Your should try it; it frees one to say what one wants, when one wants. ALL of my points are solid. Anyone who knows or studies business, knows one has to have customers to stay in business and those who are unemployed are not regular customers as their income is not regular. The cult of the businessman needs to be cut down and put back into perspective or we will never outgrow our juvenile tendencies.
I think I will tri that creative spellling sumtime...
I prefer lol-catz
>^^<
The Google Chrome browser has an automatic spelling checker. It makes..ummm...some people....look like better spellers than they are.
Well, anyone who looks to the government for relief is going to be sadly disappointed. Our corporate masters have been and still are looting the US treasury to train offshore workers.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/disaster_recovery/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226600094
Now It's Armenia: USAID Funds IT In Eurasia
After pledging millions to bolster outsourcing in South Asia, federal agency extends largesse to a new recipient.
".....USAID, a taxpayer-funded federal agency, did not disclose how much it's contributing to Armenia's efforts to become a global IT competitor. Among the U.S. companies participating in the project is Oracle's Sun Microsystems unit.
Word of USAID's mission to Armenia comes a day after InformationWeek disclosed that the agency is contributing millions of dollars to an effort that aims to help Sri Lanka establish itself as a player on the international outsourcing stage.
Under director Rajiv Shah, whom President Obama appointed to run the agency in January, USAID will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills like Enterprise Java (Java EE) programming, as well as skills in business process outsourcing and call center support.
USAID will also help the trainees brush up on their English language proficiency. USAID is contributing about $10 million directly to the $36 million project.
USAID's efforts to help build up IT and outsourcing industries in Europe and Asia would seem to run counter to Obama's public pledges to keep more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., where unemployment in the technology industry continues to run high.
"This action is contradictory to Obama’s commitment to create jobs and revitalize the American economy," said Rennie Sawade, a spokesperson for WashTech, a Communications Workers of America affiliate that represents IT professionals. "Any taxpayer money that is appropriated to train workers to take American jobs should, without question, be directed toward the unemployed and the underemployed in this country," said Sawade.
USAID officials did not respond to requests for comment. ......
Sorry I can't read that article, without wanting to go straight to war!!! But I can't raise a rifle anymore and get the satisfaction of plugging these treasionous bastards who "Run our Government!"
Hoping for the best, endate DEC 21, 2012!
>^^<
Oh, come on! We need the Medicare for All Americans plan. I don't buy into the notion that it's taking away from Obama's jobs creation program. It's our stupid, wrongheaded and illegal wars abroad that're taking away from good, comprehensive, decent healthcare and health insurance for everybody, not to mention tons of other stuff that need tending to.
==We need the Medicare for All Americans plan.==
No, we need UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.
Trylon
Simple, STOP the GODSDAMMED WARS!!! we could take care of everyone easily! Even ilegals,
Just stop bombing people and places we've never heard of!
>^^<
Here's the America we live in today...........and it stinks.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/disillusioned-99er-shares-his-disappoin
Hanging out with the powerless to hang the powerful. That's REAL journalism