Debate between the twoFollow

Now as most of you know, this is the first real election in which I have a real vested interested in both candidates.

I voted for Gore in the previous election, only becuase I was going with what my father was doing.

This year I feel compelled to vote for someone who will have the most profound, positive effect on my life.

I will be graduating with my B.A. in Information Systems in November, so outsourcing has been a topic I have doing some reading on.

If anyone has anything to add from either candidate in regards to their stand on company outsourcing feel free to chime in!

Gadin

That's what I've read recently in which Bush has been warning about.

I'm all for a little competition from overseas, but what I like from Kerry is him saying he'll press for companies to look at American citizens first before going for the H18B Visas.

Well, I tried to be as neutral as possible about it.

I don't usually get too deep into the arguements on the forums about economics. Math, and by extention economics, has never really been my forté and while I can balance a checkbook and do simple calculus, it wouldn't take much to run circles around me even with faulty math. On the other hand, part of economics is social which I'm a bit better at.

It's easy to develop an emotional attachment to the Kerry platform that Americans are losing jobs overseas. Likewise, I don't buy the Republican bit about the farmers. Farming reduction was a result of industrialization and, if you could drive a plow or pitch hay, you could work a rail line, foundry or package meat. Yes the type of work shifted but it stayed along the same lines of largely manual, non-technical work. What's happening now is an outflow of non-technical work on many levels, be it manufacturing or services (call centers, transcribing, etc). Expecting all the displaced phone operators and assembly line workers to start their own businesses, take lower pay part time jobs or train into technical positions is a bit unrealistic.

On the other hand, there's a bit of an irony about the Democrats wanting to strengthen ties globally via social issues and alliances but then risk pissing off the global community by saying all those customer service reps in Bangladesh have to find new jobs because we're not allowed to use them any longer.

It's an issue I can't really claim to have a straight answer on.

*shrug* Only if it supports your agenda. I'm not overly interested in hearing you claim sins of ommission.

I think most people don't think of Mrs Heinz-Kerry at all when thinking about John Kerry except for when she says "Shove it" and makes the news for a day.

Edited, Wed Sep 8 14:05:11 2004 by Jophiel

I'm speaking more of the current platforms on the coming election but, if you feel the Democrats have failed on this front and you feel this is a dominant issue for you (and that the other side would do better) then by all means vote Republican. But (agree with the principles or not) you'll see a lot more anti-outsourcing noise from the left side of the stage than from the right.

Maybe the answer is to give every displaced person training at DeVry, ITT or some other tech/trade school so we can become a nation of auto mechanics and computer repair guys.

Oh! Don't forget the phone sanitizers. Can't live without them you know... ;)


Joph's doing a good job of giving a barebones assessment of the two positions. You definately will hear a lot more from the Dems on outsourcing then the Reps, largely because the Dems believe it's a much bigger problem then the Reps do.


I'm pretty firmly in the Republican camp on this one. My main issue is that while I've heard a lot of complaining about outsourcing from the Dems, I haven't heard a whole lot in terms of viable solutions. You could use a tariff structure, but then you are alienating other nations and hurting global trade in general. You could also use a tax incentive program, but I have a feeling that when push comes to shove, most Dems wouldn't support a tax break to get corporations to do things that they feel they should be doing anyway (protecting American jobs). Union support (traditionally a Dem sided group) will be mixed. Unions involved directly in the work being outsource will obviously be opposed to it, but others (like the Teamsters) may actually gain power with outsourcing (products being manufactured outside the US means more stuff being unloaded in and shipped from ports within the US, right?).

It's a pretty sticky issue and each groups personal financial interests only make it stickier. This is one of the reasons I think it's an issue that will make a lot of noise, but is unlikely to actually have a real solution. I just personally don't think there's a solution because we're not fighting a problem but a process (globalization), and unless we want to try desperately to stuff the genie back in the bottle, or reverse the economic trends of the last half century, there's just no way to avoid this.

But then I'm a Republican, so that position is to be expected.

You definately will hear a lot more from the Dems on outsourcing then the Reps, largely because the Dems believe it's a much bigger problem then the Reps do.

Nah, because we get traction with it in Ohio.

We could give a fuck really.

And how did you know I was going to DeVry?

Computer repair guy no. Those are TCOM grads.