US doesn’t need outsourced jobs: Obama

27 Mar, 2009, 0930 hrs IST,IANS

WASHINGTON: In the midst of its worst recession in decades, President Barack Obama says it would be better to create new jobs that can't be outsourced instead of bringing back such low paying jobs from other countries.

'Not all of these jobs are going to come back,' he told a questioner during an 'Online Townhall' from the White House who asked when would jobs outsourced to other countries come back and be made available to the unemployed workers in the US.

'And it probably wouldn't be good for our economy for a bunch of these jobs to come back because, frankly, there's no way that people could be getting paid a living wage on some of these jobs -- at least in order to be competitive in an international setting.'

The online meeting - a new take on President Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats - was streamed on the Internet from WhiteHouse.gov.

Obama said a lot of the outsourcing has to do with the fact that 'our economy - if it's dependent on low-wage, low-skill labour, it's very hard to hang on to those jobs because there's always a country out there that pays lower wages than the US.

'And so we've got to go after the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future,' he said. 'That's why it's so important to train our folks more effectively and that's why it's so important for us to find new industries - building solar panels or wind turbines or the new biofuel -that involve these higher-value, higher-skill, higher-paying jobs.

'So what we've got to do is create new jobs that can't be outsourced,' Obama said.

The president also asked Americans 'to be patient and persistent about job creation because I don't think that we've lost all the jobs we're going to lose in this recession.'

'I don't want people to think that in one or two months suddenly we're going to see net job increases,' he said striking a note of caution. 'It's going to take some time for the steps that we've taken to filter in.'

Other questions - some of which came from the live audience - focused primarily on health care, job loss, mortgage payments and energy.

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/News/US-doesnt-need-outsourced-jobs/articleshow/4322332.cms

"U.S. doesn't need outsourced jobs?" :wtf:

:shrug:

I don't get it. The jobs that are outsourcing are "white collar" now. Accounting, banking, computer work, customer support.

Honestly, what will happen to those new "clean energy technology jobs"? They will be outsourced in no time as well. We can't continue this road.

Is Barack out of touch with the common man? What does he think we will do?

so career-wise, most of the people will be caterers.

we need ALL the jobs we can get................

that point. I would just like someone to explain to me how high-wage and high-skill jobs "of the future" won't be outsourced. That would be great. Because I'm sure in 1930 no one thought that any job could be "outsourced" from this place:

Tech jobs are decent paying jobs..... :wtf: is he talking about?

vulnerable, but when we have high-paying jobs, we'll have to watch out, because someone else will always work for cheaper than the U.S.?

What th'....?

With all of the blue collar jobs being sent to China and the white collar to India....what's left?

You've been missed. :hug:

Customer service jobs, in particular, need to come back. Fluency in English and good customer service skills are really quite rare, and they should be highly valuable.

:dem:

-Laelth

This is absolute bullshit. He needs to STOP giving money and contracts to companies outsourcing JOBS. He needs to tax the shit out of companies that have ALREADY outsourced jobs. He needs to make it clear that those jobs NEED to come BACK until the *un-outsourcable* jobs are in place.

Stop sucking up to India and do something for US for once!

:thumbsup:

They still aren't, or so it seems.

Even Republicans are getting more upfront with taxpayer bailout money (e.g. the LBN article re: the IBM inquiry).

Grassley(R) and Sanders(I) brought up the H-1B issue.....I didn't see anyone with a "D" next to their name raising any questions.

But it's nice to see SOME elected officials having more than idle concern about the US economy, which the President indeed HAS said is a key role in the global economy.

It's in everybody's interests to keep America's middle class strong.

I'm just tired of the games people play.

I had just hoped and worked hard for "change."

of issues.

I think he's delusional about this, sorry.

I think solar panel manufacturing would get outsourced to China faster that an AIG exec can spend his bonus from the taxpayers.

He's demonstrating a very acute lack of insight and understanding, or at worst, disregard, for the American worker!!

Defending outsourcing at this point in our economic crisis is indefensible, no.matter.WHAT.

He thinks that only "low-wage, low-skill" jobs have been outsourced?? And even so, we need every job, not just the "good" ones for "professionals" or whateverthehell he's thinking!

Next he'll be telling us that Americans won't pick lettuce for $50/hour.

a physical presence in this country.

Such as installing solar panels -- but not building them. Or providing hands on patient care -- but a physician in India could read an x-ray.

We'll be awfully limited if we try to confine ourselves to jobs that can't be outsourced.

And it's actually quite frightening.

We have talent here too. Plenty of it.

Oh well.

Seems the US economy will crash after all.

What shall we do; pray it does take the rest of the world along with it?

I sure as hell don't know anymore.

I'm still going to go through with higher education. I'm no longer entirely sure why, but at least it's some more letters after my name.

higher education. It's not just a professional track -- developing your mind is part of what makes you human.

I will not abort.

It's just reading this offshoring stuff. Maybe I'm letting it get to me...

it must be for young adults. Hang in there! Everyone I know is working hard to see that people like you WILL have a future . . . we just might have some slower years here for a while. Why not spend them in school, if you can.

You're not the only one....I'm scared shitless. :scared:

I can't even get a good night's sleep, anymore.

it would be SO much worse . . . if McCain/Palin were in office now.

However, I wasn't expecting a "more of the same" Democratic administration. Took me by surprise...especially since this particular topic was a campaign promise.

...are currently being "Insourced" with low wage foreign workers.

And as China, India, and other countries are said to be working on "green jobs", building solar panels, and all of that, so it seems those are already offshored too.

Mr. President, the American working class deserves better than this. Please, we implore you, for jobs that won't be coming back, would you have a team tell the American public what's gone for good -- and then instruct colleges and public schools to not longer teach those classes? Seems an awful waste of money for us to learn jobs that are gone today or going tomorrow. What happens with those people?



Indeed, when it comes to jobs, is it about the cost per worker? Or other factors? Nobody believes that people in other countries are doing anything better if everything is broken or the "service" a misnomer. Think globally, act locally. Why should any job have been lost in "globalization", which would mean "expansion" rather than "migration"?

We really are confused.

"He supports temporary increases in the H1-B visa program"

With unemployment so high here, yet.

and it sounds like he's trying to have his cake and eat it too.

Immigration and H1B Visas

MA: What is your position on H1B visas in general? Do you believe the number of H1B visas should be increased?

BO: Highly skilled immigrants have contributed significantly to our domestic technology industry. But we have a skills shortage, not a worker shortage. There are plenty of Americans who could be filling tech jobs given the proper training. I am committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent abroad (42.5%). They are not all PhDs. We can and should produce more Americans with bachelor’s degrees that lead to jobs in technology. A report of the National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans as a whole comprise more that 25% of the population but earn, as a whole, 16% of the bachelor degrees, 11% of the master’s degrees, and 5% of the doctorate degrees in science and engineering. We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry’s need for skilled workers with Americans. Until we have achieved that, I will support a temporary increase in the H-1B visa program as a stopgap measure until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively. I support comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world’s most talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. As part of our comprehensive reform, we should examine our ability to replace a stopgap increase in the number of H1B visas with an increase in the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. I will also work to ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers.

I hold a bachelor's degree, have over 25 years experience in computer applications programming, but was still laid off last year and my duties given to an H-1B visa holder from India. I still have not been able to find a job. Is Obama planning on paying the 200,000 American Tech workers who were laid off and replaced by H-1B visas or whose jobs were shipped over seas with a steady stream of unemployment checks? His answer above either shows he does not completely understand how corporations abuse the system and screw American workers because they want cheap labor or he knows this but is covering his Admin's ass because he's courting Indian companies.

The "low-skilled" jobs were supposed to be the manufacturing jobs.

Then white collar IT jobs followed, along with art/design/printing, legal research, tech support, financial.

What wasn't being outsourced, H1B (or whatever) visas filled quite nicely.

Now the President is speaking as though the rest of the world are low-paid, uneducated peons.

We know that is not true.

So... what type of jobs can't be outsourced?

Considering we barely make anything here anymore. Prison guards? Hairdressers? Green energy contractors? Nail technicians?

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

we don't want those back because they are now devalued. BULL FUCKING SHIT. So all the training and degrees mean we have minimum wage jobs now because another country is undercutting us (and you know they will eventually raise the cost back up once they have them all).

First of all, high-tech "green" manufacturing jobs -- solar panels, wind turbines, etc. -- can be outsourced just as easily as toy manufacturing.

Second of all, not all Americans can be or want to be trained for high tech green jobs. We need a mixed job market: everything from factory machine operators to call center reps to teachers to cops to nurses to engineers to grocery store cashiers to truck drivers to janitors to you name it. An economy can't sustain itself if all it has is engineers and stock traders -- especially if half the engineers are imported from India on H-1B visas because the Indian government has paid for their education and they can AFFORD to work for $25,000 instead of the $60,000 a U.S.-trained engineer needs just to pay off her student loans.

Third, how long does Obama think our new green corporations will wait before hiring "green" engineers from India on H-1B visas? Does he think the Indian and Japanese and Korean universities are somehow just gonna sit back and not train people in those fields?

Barack Obama just lost my support. He has just completely sold out the entire American working class. He's grabbed our tax dollars and handed them on a silver platter to asswipes like Jake DiSantis and all the other greedheads at AIG. He pulled in all the Paulson/Greenspan clones from day one to turn what could have been a real economic recovery into a cesspit of third world misery.

Fuck him and the horse of a changing color he rode in on.




Tansy Gold

Well, for those who try teaching because nothing else is out there... now what? I wish he would address that bit. :(



So what new careers will be coming? If there really are any, we need time to study and learn. We'll do our part.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:




on edit: This will piss you off. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8298454

:hi:

I'm glad to be here.

and then nothing quite fit together right?

Just trying to think of other perspectives and perceptions...

:)

No matter how silly, it was a thought...

so long as there is enormous wage disparity around the globe and so many English-speakers in other countries who can work cheaply.

The see the US as increasingly composed of an investor/manager class, a small middle class of highly trained workers and entrepreneurs, a low level worker class (probably immigrant), and a dependent class (people who have no marketable skills and will have to be supported).

Even teaching can be outsourced to a much greater extent than it is now.

This is the world-view of those planning our economy. They don't talk about it because they see arguing about it as a pointless waste of time.

I think it is a hierarchal, men-in-suits,corporate, kind of view and is not my view --but it is the prevailing view in big government and big business.

The big investors who we are bailing out are investing where returns are greater-in the developing world.


The expanded Americorp is being done to provide low wage jobs that will serve to keep lots of people out of the "real "job market until it can absorb them. It will serve to reduce unemployment and lower cost of needed social work services and caretaker services, and provide training for young people to eventually join the real job market.

It's worth the attempt...

(and a growing one at that) then they must at least provide a decent level of support to not only that group, but everyone. Do as they do in Dubai, where the government/royal family supports EVERY citizen (since they are all related anyway and thus royalty) and then gives them token jobs, but all of their needs are met.

Fine. Let the US take over the financial institutions and the other money-making instruments in our economy (only now go swindle the rest of the world instead of mostly just the US citizenry) and provide a LIVING to everyone in this country. If people want to be entrepreneurs, fine, they can do that too.

Can't have it both ways though. You CANNOT take away the livlihood of the vast majority of the citizens and then dole out a pathetic pittance and call it "welfare" and complain about having to do it.

I want to see the most dependent of us live fairly well and without fear.

I want people to be able to pursue real art without being flat broke.

We have talented people , lots of natural resources, we're flexible, and we are proven tough (since we have put up with so much crap up to now).

I see so much talent go to waste because people have had to work for bad corporations just to provide health care or pay for overpriced educations.

I say be demanding-we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The upper echelon people are getting nervous and they should be.

Their greed and rottenness toward their fellow countrymen has almost shattered the global economy. They've almost lost their ill-gotten gains.

Yet, the media will continue to spin things - it's always we, the consumers, that are to blame for everything. :eyes:

Dramatically increase taxes for corporations that do it. That will make it more cost effective not to outsource. Then give minor incentives to companies that bring jobs back.

:dem:

-Laelth

<snip>Obama opposes outsourcing of jobs
Agencies Posted: Jun 28, 2008 at 1133 hrs

Washington, June 28: Taking a tough stand against outsourcing, the presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama said that the choice is between giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas or give benefit to those corporations that keep jobs domestically.
"We can keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, or we can give tax benefits to companies that invest right here in New Hampshire," Senator Obama said at a joint appearance with Senator Hillary Clinton in Unity, New Hampshire.

"We can have a tax code that rewards wealth and hands out billions of dollars more to big corporations and multimillionaires. Or we can provide a USD 1,000 tax cut to 95 per cent of families in America, start rewarding work and not just wealth, and eliminate income taxes for seniors making USD 50,000 a year or less," Obama said, adding that's an agenda for change that we can believe in. That's the choice that we can make in this election.

"We can allow millions of Americans to work full-time but still not make enough to support their families, or we can raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation, and ensure that hard work pays off in America," the Illinois Senator said.
http://www.expressindia.com/story_print.php?storyId=328689
___________

Obama vows to stop outsourcing, India Inc irked
started by TruthSeeker 7 mnths ago

Washington/New Delhi: In remarks that are bound to raise hackles in India, Barack Obama made a strong anti-outsourcing pitch after securing the Democratic Presidential nomination vowing to end tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas if elected to office.



Playing to the gallery on the hot button issue of outsourcing in his acceptance speech, Obama kept up with the rhetoric on the subject that has been a staple of Democratic campaigning and went on to spell out what he would do as President on the front.



"Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America," said Obama, who has been fiercely opposing outsourcing.

Source: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/obama-vows-to-stop-outsourcing-india-inc-irked/72512-2.html
_____________

Obama vows to award US cos that stop outsourcing
Agencies
Posted online: Sep 04, 2008 at 1250 hrs

Washington, September 4:US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama once again touched on the ticklish issue of outsourcing and while vowing to end tax breaks to companies that ship works overseas conceded that all lost jobs could not be redeemed.

Promising to retain as well as create more jobs for the Americans, the Democratic nominee said while all lost jobs cannot be redeemed, further movement can be halted by giving incentives to companies investing in the country.

"Not all jobs that have left are going to come back. We can stop some of them that are already leaving by stopping to give tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas and saving those tax breaks for investing in plants and equipment right here in the US," Obama said at a campaign stop in Ohio.

http://www.financialexpress.com/printer/news/357238/
______________________

Outsourcing critics worry about Obama advisors

By Krishna Kumar V. E.
December 10, 2008


Outsourcing critics worry about Obama advisors

Critics of outsourcing who saw in Barack Obama their saviour, are now worried that the President-elect of United States may tone down his commitment to stop sending jobs offshore because of pressure from his advisors.

Noted Wall Street Journal writer William J. Bulkely believes that the reason for such a meltdown in Obama’s position could be that as many as 17 members of his transition economic advisory board are corporate honchos who have a long history of outsourcing.

Bulkely quotes Ron Hira of the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of the famous book ‘Outsourcing America’ as saying that the Obama team is yet to take up the issue of white-collar outsourcing very seriously.

The President-elect had promised to stop tax breaks to companies that shifted jobs overseas, a position that he still holds but could be forced to change giving the diverse opinions held by members of his transition team.

The blog says that almost every member of the advisory board that has been involved in corporate America has been connected to outsourcing. The author goes on to say that the companies where these advisors worked earlier are refusing to comment now.
http://www.bpowatchindia.com/bpo_news/obama_outsourcing/december-10-2008/obama_advisors_are_pro_outsourcing.html

about the American workers and how he was going to be their champion and change the system.

Shit.

He won over Ohio by using this statement:

"We can keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, or we can give tax benefits to companies that invest right here..."

:mad:

Maybe "the truth is in the middle" still has some validity...

Isn't is just as rational to say at this point candidate Obama said what he needed to say in order to be elected? Isn't it reasonable to believe he will not keep these promises because he fears a larger world recession?

Or, seeing the enormous sacrifice China has already made, we need to stop all outsourcing talk because it gives Beijing the willies?

It's still early.

This is a bad sign if he can't level with the American public that he cannot keep this particular promise or it is a promise that will be delayed indefinitely.

with unemployment continuing to rise? Is it because he is eloquent and an authority figure so folks shut down their critical thinking?

This outsourcing is kicking the legs out from under American families.

And maybe the President would prefer Americans not do certain jobs, but people are suffering. There is honor in any work done well and paid a living wage. Doesn't matter what the job is.

President Obama is just plain WRONG on this. Apologists, please explain how I am wrong.

A real debate is far more worthy than emotional reaction.

All of his speeches were about being non partisan and escalating the wars.
Here's the deal with this: Obama wants to go have more war, inside of Pakistan. India and Pakistan are enemies. So to keep India from getting too upset, he's giving them American jobs, and reversing yet again his winning campaign positions.
This is about the war. It is all about the war. We are financial fodder for the war machine.

Albeit in October 2007 -- I posted the URL in a previous response.

My verdict is still out on all this. Save for the obvious fluff (green jobs already being done elsewhere or shelved, what jobs can't be offshored, et cetera) in which case I can only say I am disappointed; we all know it's going to hurt our economy, our country, and our morale.

"H-1B, offshoring supporters get key Obama Administration posts"

"But another one of Obama's choices, Diana Farrell, may be just as important in shaping White House policy. The former director of the McKinsey Global Institute, McKinsey & Co.'s economics research arm, Farrell has been tapped to serve on the National Economic Council and as deputy economic adviser to the president.

McKinsey, a management consulting firm, has published research that argues that offshore outsourcing to low-wage countries brings "substantial benefits" to the U.S. Its studies and reports have been cited by the tech industry in support of the H-1B visa program."

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9127276

1. Low-cost cheap (and sometimes dangerous) shit for Americans to be suckered into buying.

2. outrageous profits for U.S. (sometimes) corporations.

Benefits for ordinary folks? Not so much.





Tansy Gold

It is not a "substantial benefit" to me when I wait 45 minutes on the phone, only to reach someone aka Jack, who can't speak English, and thus can't resolve my issue. It is not a "substantial benefit" when my Chinese-made rolltop desk locks itself, and the well-known furniture chain spokesman shrugs his shoulders and says, "We can't give you a number or address for a set of spare keys; we don't even know who makes it."

That's key: our needs are NOT being met. I imagine the left and right are together on this point, and it does not bode well for Obama. Outsourcing (and not just from a purely selfish perspective) enrages me every bit as much as AIG bonuses.

I wonder what Spanish-speaking Americans encounter when they get a "CSR" in Bangalore?

A lot of the Internet jobs got outsourced. This was high tech ..IBM is practically moving to India.

Thanks to the pubs the rest of the world is ahead of us in green tech. So how do you create no "outsourceable" jobs? What industries? Where?

At least he talked about the wage gap reality... but he did not mention it was because of unfair trade deals.

sigh...

--------------------------------------

'And so we've got to go after the high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future,' he said. 'That's why it's so important to train our folks more effectively and that's why it's so important for us to find new industries - building solar panels or wind turbines or the new biofuel -that involve these higher-value, higher-skill, higher-paying jobs.

'So what we've got to do is create new jobs that can't be outsourced,' Obama said.

and nobody will notice there are no jobs in USA.

GE Fires Solar Employees After Sudden Collapse Of Demand

Gunther Portfolio is reporting that GE Solar(GE) has laid off employees at a Newark, Delaware, plant. They hear the cause is that there are too many silicon modules filling the warehouse there, so they've let people from the second and third production shifts go.

A GE spokesperson confirmed it to Gunther: "We did have a staff reduction. The market for the solar technology manufactured at the Newark, Delaware facility has seen a sudden and dramatic decline, which required us to align our output with the market demand."

Their sources also heard a rumor that GE might shut the plant down, though it's unclear whether it will result in a relocation of the plant of an exit from the solar industry.


so much for those jobs building solar panels.

solar panels?

I'd love to go solar, but I just got a 20% pay cut. There's no way I can afford a big financial outlay like that.

I'm getting more and more pissed off by the day. I knew Obama was no progressive, but I figured he was intelligent enough to put two and two together and see which policies are harmful to ordinary people.

We've really been had. The corporatists have taken over everything, and no one in government is going to do anything except enable it. Hope and Change, my ass. :grr:

sw

You know, it is below us to work with computers, do medical transcriptions, work in customer support, do accounting. You know all those untalented cheap labor jobs? Not much different than working in the fields.

If Washington keeps up these policies we will all be working for corporate farms slaving in the fields soon or working for Fast food companies. What jobs exactly is he thinking about? How long will be have the new "green" jobs before they get outsourced too? 5 years?

At least now we know where we rate.

:hi:

So true. That's our last two industries:
-Flipping burgers
-Porn

Guess I can flip burgers....

I was going to inquire where to obtain my Welfare Burgers and Government Porn.

I found a more serious and true content.

(It made me chuckle. Thanks for that.)

ugh.


:hi:

Remember when Brother Bill said, don't worry about losing your manufacturing jobs, because we were all going to be working in dandy high tech industries? And of course the high tech industries began to move out of Redmond and Silicon Valley right into India. I can't stand all this DLC-type snake oil that tries to convince us that losing all our jobs will be good, because something might magically turn up that can't be outsourced (like picking lettuce, I guess).

an even more tempting target for outsourcing? Remember what " high-skill, high-wage jobs of the future" used to be and where they are now!

Obama is not so stupid as to believe the "flat earth" crap. That being said we are completely dependent on imports for survival. Just annoucing that he is going to undo that without being in a position to cope would create a world-wide panic. This mess will have to be undone gradually and without much fanfare.

At least I hope that he is going to do the right thing; we can't keep going this way. The direction we are headed at the moment is toward total economic collapse followed by labor camps and mass graves.

pretty much everything else we need for actual survival. There's absolutely no good reason for us to not be making and growing everything we need right here in our own country with our own workers.

The only reason we aren't self-sufficient is because the people at the top of the capitalist food chain can get richer by moving our jobs to other countries who don't enforce minimum labor and environmental standards.

And as for those things that can't be grown or made in this country; we don't actually NEED out-of-season imported grapes in the middle of January in order to survive.

I no longer have the slightest bit of trust that Obama is "going to do the right thing". He's already shown himself too far in the pockets of the financial elite and too in the bag for neoliberalism and corporate globalism.

REAL "change" would be setting us on the path of economic self-sufficiency by cracking down on outsourcing, not making excuses for it.

sw

"REAL "change" would be setting us on the path of economic self-sufficiency by cracking down on outsourcing, not making excuses for it."

You're dead on.

imported oil is the least of our problems. The 40000 factories they have closed in the last 8 years represent basic manufacturing that we no longer have. This is on top of millions of jobs lost in the previous 20 years of Reagonomics.

Eighty percent of the pharmaceuticals or the basic ingredients are imported from India and China.
Try to find something that is made in the US that isn't dependent on parts or basic refined materials that are imported. The Masters of the Universe tore the factories apart and sold them to China for pennies on the dollar to make a few billionaires.

The good news is China is going to stop making crap for us because we can't pay for it, that's also the bad news. Empty store shelves will be the norm. We will have to and must rebuild from scratch. Obama must realize this; you'd better hope to God he does.

we couldn't build our own factories again. We have all the raw materials necessary. We have enough arable land to grow all our food. The ONLY reason we import is because the Corporate parasites profit themselves -- and ONLY themselves -- by destroying our own working class.

We have a huge hole to dig ourselves out of. We HAVE to throw off the rule of the parasites. There's no other way for our democracy to survive.

sw

here is a letter a coworker sent Obama:

Mr. President,

When you were running for President you said you would crack down on companies exporting our jobs overseas. Has that somehow changed ? Today a person asked you about off shoring jobs overseas and you stated that these jobs were low skilled low paid jobs. In all due respect that is a total lie. High tech companies are off shoring skilled middle class jobs every day. As a person that voted for you I was outraged to hear you give a BS answer that George Bush would be proud of. Please I beg of you to stand up to these traitorous corporations and stand up for the American people. We have had to endure 8 years of neglect - We expect a Democratic president and Democratic Congress to do a lot more than provide lip service to us while campaigning and then ignore us once you are in office. Stop corporations from exporting our jobs - tax them into oblivion - take away all government contracts to offshorers - act NOW.

For God's sake do not give companies that export jobs any "stimulus" - that's insane. Tell the IBM CEO to offshore himself.
We the American Middle class and poor are under assault. Please - help us. This is an SOS from your constituents.
And please stop treating Bill Gates like he is a national hero - he keeps telling you and congress he needs to import workers because noone here is qualified for high tech jobs - another lie. Talk to a few thousand unemployed software programmers - they will tell you the truth. Gates wants to make billions and pay his workers slave wages. He is not a hero - he is part of the problem. He idolizes communist China - you know the country that despises freedom - enough said.

We voted for you - corporate America supported your political enemies. We deserve better.

One of your disappointed supporters, Bill

I wrote something expressing my outrage to the White House today.

it is very clear to me Obama just does not fucking get it at ALL

I wonder if he would care if he really understood but it's clear he does not and he's picking really lousy advisors; overall he's been a huge disappointment

He's not an idiot....he's gone to Ivy League schools. My neighbor who is not in IT understands what it's all about and how it needs to be stopped. I agree with you that he has lousy ass advisors and he's been a huge-ass disappointment to me, as well. I cringe when I hear "hope and change" any more.

When they were taking questions on whitehouse.gov several days ago.....there were hundreds and hundreds of questions on outsourcing. People are getting pissed....

it should prompt some action - but it just passes under the radar - it completely STINKS

I don't think that Obama even brought up IBM, did he?

So much for those campaign promises.

It's up to We the People to make ourselves heard, to DEMAND that OUR government, OUR public servants, serve OUR needs!

sw

Take just for instance- Customer Service related positions. These were usually more than minimum wage earning jobs and when you got someone on the phone they usually had a good idea what it was you were requesting from them. Many times now a request is lost in translation. And, what about workers- many of them women- who have worked at clerical and factory positions? Is President Obama expecting that the customer service, clerical and factory workers be retrained to do technical and scientific work? And, if that is the plan,then who is going to pay for the retraining and reentering of these dislocated workers into the new workforce? I don't mean this post to show any disrespect against our new president- I just think this was not well thought out. Not everyone is going to be capable of learning and working in a highly scientific field.

Does he think that only crappy jobs were outsourced? Many of those jobs were skilled jobs producing a full range of products from appliances to sophisticated telephone switching systems and micro electronics. Take Western Electric for example. The company had 165,000 employees who engineered and built the most advance telecommunications equipment in the world. It was reorganized as Lucent Technologies along with Bell Laboratories by Carly Fiorina who then went on to Hewlett-Packard where she was canned. Only a few thousand jobs now remain and the company has been sold to Alcatel, a French firm. The same thing happened to Singer Corporation for example. I guess he believes that the people that made some of the best products in world were nothing but crummy factory workers. All of those jobs could have been retained if we had put up effective tariffs and demanded FAIR trade practices. The only ones who oppose these policies are the corporate managers who look forward to multi-million dollar bonuses. American workers cut their own throats when they abandon the unions and bought the management's bull crap that unions were evil and management would take good care of them. Stong unions could have demanded congressional action and in the void the lobbyists bought every politician in Washington.

Obama campaigned on bringing outsourced jobs home and closing tax loopholes.

When I was kid, my Father used to tell me that Democrats were for the "working man." I don't seem to see that these days. :(