September 30, 2004
Desi's & Outsourcing (again)Politics
Small OpEd in the Econ Times - Desi Americans against outsourcings -
...recently, when the Chairman of the Indian-American Republican Council, criticised the Senate Democratic leader Senator, Tom Daschle for telling his constituents that six million jobs will be outsourced to India, R Vijayanagar said that these statements are nothing but cheap rhetoric.Claiming that yet another Democrat has used India as a scapegoat to score political points in a desperate attempt to win an election, he said the Indian-American community was affected by such Xenophobia. But are their fears genuine?
vinod on September 30, 2004 04:58 PM in Politics · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
he said the Indian-American community was affected by such Xenophobia. But are their fears genuine?
no, outsourcing is a white & pink collar concern, and those jobs are filled by with people who tend not to pick up a bat and beat the shit out of you. they will make a big racket though because they have friends who are writers, and the geeks have slashdot. but in any case, i guess i see why outsourcing is such a touchstone for brown people since it is lifting the boat in south asia...but....
1) why should american brown people care that much? we're america.
2) yes, a lot of us have family back there.
3) but we're american first, right?
4) yes, i don't give a shit compared to most people about family....
5) but, breath easy, free trade usually wins in our semi-plutocratic republic. the republicans will always be able to woo their populist masses with the promise of pro-life policies deferred while the democrat trial lawyer lobby knows that development in india and the emergence of a modern economy means more litigatable hours!.
6) so let's pretend we don't give a shit.
7) but if you want to do something pro-active, china is bleeding the USA dry of manufacturing jobs. unfortunately for blue-collar workers they tend to get pity press because the information elite doesn't have as many personal connections with them. perhaps brown american organizations should engage in a covert campaign of exposing the chinese outsourcing threat (that is, the decline of american manufacturing and the rise of chinese manufacturing, partly subsidized by their government).
thanks for pointing out that most of the outsourcing still is, and has always been, blue collar jobs. except that when all the manufacturing and everything went overseas, it was lauded as a great effort by CEOs to reduce costs.
Except in Detroit. And in Cleveland; my city of birth is now the nation's poorest city due to all the steel plants closing down.
But where were the white-collar workers when all this started? I don't have a lot of sympathy for them since this trend has been going on for a VERY LONG time and no one who had any clout bothered to do anything substantial about it.