Obama is going to have a hard time ignoring all the promises he made during his campaign. In the digital age, we may have short attention spans, but everything is also recorded. If the right people focus the public on the right broken promises at the right time, we can ensure that Obama fails just as mightily as his predecessor. After all, modern America is like a bipolar manic depressive coming down off a meth binge. We want everything all the time and we want it free. It’s no win for everyone in the long run.
Foreign outsourcing is not a government controllable phenomenon. Sure, we can make stupid rules to try and regulate how, when and where jobs go. We can also stand on the beach and try to direct the tide – both activities are an idiotic exercise in time wasting.
Foreign outsourcing is a hot-button issue for many U.S. workers. Mr. Obama said during the campaign that “unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to companies who shift jobs overseas and will start giving it to companies who create good jobs in America.” Under the current rules, U.S. firms don’t have to pay high U.S. taxes on overseas earnings until they “repatriate,” or bring home, the money.
A transition aide said Mr. Obama’s position on gradually ending the deferral of taxes hasn’t changed. The aide said the economic advisory board represents diverse opinions.
But some Obama supporters are concerned. “We’re less than thrilled,” with some of the advisory board members, says Priyanka Joshi, a spokeswoman for WashTech, a Communication Workers of America local in Seattle that has helped mobilize technology workers against outsourcing.
Almost every member of the economic advisory board who has worked in business has been involved in significant outsourcing actions. Companies where the executives work said they aren’t commenting on issues related to their advisory role.
My understanding of why outsourcing happens may be too simple. If Shrivash in Banglalore can do the same job I do for one fourth the price then he deserves my job. I’ll find something else to do. I realize that this is not as easy to swallow on the back end of a layoff. That’s how the world works though. If you insist on earning $80 an hour for a job someone else will do for $40 it should come as no surprise to you that you have no job.
The arrogance of demanding a job as an entitlement will ultimately be one of the major contributors to the end of American dominanace in the world. How Obama influences this conversation will be recorded even if it is not remembered by the masses.