Reply #67: I don't think anyone here has said anything about americans being lazy. [View All]

I think you hit on another universal truth here, though not in the way you intended: "I'm not out to exploit anybody. ... We're doing our jobs."

I think that's true of immigrants, people born in America, and people who live abroad (even when they work for US companies). I have relatives who worked for US companies who were sold out to foreign companies. They don't feel all that different about their work - they are just doing their jobs as they always have. They aren't setting out to exploit the people in the country where their new HQ is based.

You're focusing on outsourcing as if it exists in a vaccuum, not being part of a larger system. But in the system, we exploit the resources and labor of other countries in our energy consumption, our consumer habits (hello, Walmart), our food shopping habits (excluding those who eat local). Quoting you: "If we wanted to exploit, we'd sit back and not give a shit about, well, anything." That sums up our attitude fairly well, we do that. We go about having our quality of life, shopping, working, eating, without considering that much of that is available to us as a result of the exploitation of other countries' labor and resources.

In the giant cycle of international exploitation, the US has done far more than its fair share. The problem with focusing on immigrants or call center employees is that its (dishonest) goal is to render every part of that cycle invisible, except for the very small portion of labor relations where it's perceived that the US is the victim.