No Stemming The Tide of American Jobs Going Overseas

[Shooterman]

On the first day that H-1B visas became available, corporations snapped up all that are allowed. Our government received 150,000 applications for the 85,000 slots set aside to bring in foreign skilled workers.

Corporations whine that H-1Bs are needed because of a shortage of Americans with skills, but major studies at the University of California Davis and Duke University conclusively prove we have thousands of unemployed or underemployed Americans with all the needed technical skills. Nobel economist Milton Friedman accurately labeled H-1Bs a government "subsidy" to enable employers to get workers at a lower wage.

The best way to deal with the demand for a limited number of H-1Bs would be to auction them off, so then we would find out if they are really needed and how much they are worth. An auction would enable taxpayers to get some return on the H-1B subsidy instead of the current system that allows corporations to influence congressmen with campaign contributions and pay high-priced lobbyists to get legislation to increase the number.


Contrary to corporate propaganda, H-1Bs are not an alternative to outsourcing skilled jobs but a vehicle to promote outsourcing. H-1Bs enable corporations to bring in foreigners, train them in American ways, and then send them back to guide outsourced plants in Asia.

For years we've been told that it's OK for our manufacturing jobs to be outsourced overseas because the United States will always keep the technology, engineering, innovative, service-industry and white-collar jobs. Even when service-industry jobs began to be outsourced, we were told, those are just low-skill tasks like answering customer inquiries.

It turns out that was all a lie. The high-skill and technical jobs are also rapidly moving overseas, especially to India.

Scary Indeed. Read the rest at:

No Stemming the Tide of Good U.S. Jobs Going Overseas by Phyllis Schlafly - HUMAN EVENTS

[leobold1]

For years we've been told that it's OK for our manufacturing jobs to be outsourced overseas because the United States will always keep the technology, engineering, innovative, service-industry and white-collar jobs. Even when service-industry jobs began to be outsourced, we were told, those are just low-skill tasks like answering customer inquiries.

How can we keep the technology, engineering, and innovation when the people working and working ON the these things overseas can learn and improve it there?

And to me, service industry are things like hotel workers and carpet cleaners, bug killers, and things like that. I can see phone help centers being sent overseas, phone billing, and other things that can be done over the phone or internet. AKA customer-service jobs.

Doesn't mean I like it, but I can see it.

As for the white collar jobs, in some companies in the US, the CEO and board of directors are all that's left in the US. The VPs and supervisors are all "on-site" in whatever country the jobs been outsourced to.

On the other side of the coin, the Asian and European car makers (among other industries) are doing basically the same thing, because the tax breaks favor the CEO in their home countries, while, for a native company, its better to do it overseas. Just like in the US.

[Shooterman]

It's strange, Leo, you should mention the outflow of customer service jobs. It is one of my pet grievancies to be afflicted with this phenomeno when I have a problem.

For the last two years I have filed my income tax with Turbo-Tax through E-file. Last year, even with all the problems associated with Hurricane Rita, it went off without a hitch. I figured this year would be a cakewalk. It pretty much was, except in my infinite wisdom, I forgot obviously to hit a final keystroke and it was not filed. Being that Turbo-Tas was looking after me, they sent a reminder for me to hit that final keystroke. I did, and could not fanthom why it had not worked before, so started trying to contact Intuit to make sure I was straight with Uncle Sugar.

You guessed it, The voice I hear is the little sing-song voice that is a tip off that I am speaking either with Sri Lanka, the Phillippines, or India. I immediately go into panic and beligerent mode, ( don't tell Brian, he thinks I am a criminal or Would Be Postal Goer, for shooting turtles as a kid ) and eventually get some satisfaction I am okay and must wait for my confirmation.

Frustration, to say the least, was the order of the day. I hate this outsoucing crap.

[cato2]

The economy is driven by demand, and the outsources is the method to capitalize on cost vs production. Are we willing to pay the additional cost of "Made in America,"? Using automobiles, as an example here, what is sitting in your driveway? My car and motorcycle are American named icons, but what is inside of them? Parts made in foreign countries, so just how American made is that bike? Sad to say that even Harley has outsourced.

I watched a commercial for G.E., and in the animation there is an aircraft manufactured for China. In that field the United States is still dominant. How long will that lead last in China before they start to manufacture their own jets? Should GE be selling those over there to begin with?

We live in a global marketplace, and the competition is intense. Labor is part of that equation, and a company that wishes to compete will lower the cost of that as well. And the desire to derive a profit resides in the stockholders. Convince the stockholders that they will not need to make a profit, and the CEO that he does not need to maximize his potentials, and see how far that thinking will get you.

In the 70's when the oil embargo hit, and tempers were running high against foreign companies back then the employees of the Ford Plant in Avon Lake, Ohio ran through their own parking lot breaking the windows of foreign made cars. I went by that same plant a few years ago, and looked into the parking lot, many a foreign made car is now parked in there.

India is a natural selection for any company that requires English speaking foreigners for contacting the public. We may have a difficult time understanding that colonial English, but we still can. Just as when someone from the hills of West Virgina tries to talk to someone from California. They might have a difficult time understanding the words spoken, but they are still English. So having service centers in India makes sense to the companies that are over there because the requirements are met for language. India is a huge market on to itself, an investment for those companies willing to invest the startup capital necessary.

I come from a rust belt city that is dieing a slow death. And I live on a border where labor is still cheap, but also underutilized. One reason is that many of the companies that went to Mexico in the 70's, have now moved to China because of the lower cost of production. It is one of the factors for the flood of immigration, legal as well as illegal into our country from the south.