John Snow and the outsourcing comments

[solinvictus]

Before it's flushed down the Memory Hole, here's the link to the story: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040330/ap_on_el_pr/snow_outsourcing_4.

Yahoo! has a great tendency to bury stories critical of Bushco. My reaction to this crap is absolute fury. This smug bastard can stand on a podium and say that it's great for the American people (READ: corporate shareholders) that our jobs are hemmorhaging overseas. Now, I guess if your a cabinet member who's rich and likely getting richer, that's an acceptable position. However, if you're one of the millions of people who are either scraping by on unemployment or retirement savings, it hits home. I'm certain that there are millions who are in danger of losing their possessions and even their homes because of outsourcing, yet this smug SOB can say it's all for the better. The American people are a lost cause. We've become so god-damned servile that we'll just take anything from our government. Somethings got to give.

[unblock]

1. his position is that trade is good and outsourcing is just a form of trad

trade is good and when trade barriers are lowered, the countries with comparative advantages grow to serve both, so each country can specialize in what they do best. every body wins.

the only loser is those at a comparative disadvantage. if widgets are much easier to import, then domestic widget producers lose out. but the entire widgets market benefits because widgets become more abundant and cheaper. domestic widgets producers can retool, help with the importing, or shut down and find a new line of work. a little pain, but much progress.

but in the case where the 'widget' is labor, the domestic labor producers suffer. but wait, that is the market. whatever we gain as consumers from lower costs due to cheaper labor are lost due to lower income due to labor competition. labor does not generally have the option to find a new line of work. you can reeducate and switch forms of labor, but it's all still labor.

so good luck finding a new line of work....

[solinvictus]

2. Planned Obsolesence

It seems that in our "New Economy" we're planning to make entire segments of our population unemployable, yet withold any resources for career training.

[madrchsod]

3. bob brinker this sunday

went off on these statements and had some people call in with rational questions and anwers to the out sourcing problem. bob brinker has seen the light, he`s no longer on the dark side....