Obama does a back flip on outsourcing; IT/BPO industry relieved
At the press conference, Obama emphasised that trade in goods and services between the two countries is not a "one-way street" of American jobs and companies moving to India.
Unlike his 'Buffalo, not Bangalore' election rhetoric, Obama was eager to point out that even as some jobs left the US for India, other jobs were getting created there because of India.
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Obama had recently increased visa fees for highly skilled workers on temporary posting in the US — costing Indian IT companies hundreds of millions of dollars collectively. But NASSCOM's Mittal was ready to let bygones be bygones if Obama stuck to his present stand.
"It has become an act, and we can live with it," he said.
There are two, IMHO very right-wing positions, being taken by our President in India. First, he is saying that even though we have been losing jobs by the millions to India over the last decade or so, jobs are being created here too with some equivalence.
Where is the evidence of that, Mr. President?
Second, we are hearing, in this morning's MSNBC analysis of his speeches, that this trade relationship with India results in more people in India moving into the middle class and therefore creating a market for American goods there, with some overall benefit to the American economy. And that all sounds pretty good, but...
Where is the evidence of that, Mr. President?
This kind of free market ideology, where average Americans suffer while large multi-national corporations increase their profits and do not reinvest in the US economy, is damaging to us, exacerbates the income inequality problem, and is not what I voted for. It's not even a true free market system anyway, it's a faux free market. And where is the evidence that any of it turns out the way they say it will when they're convincing us to abandon our own best interests? It might result in more wealth for the wealthiest as they obsessively exploit cheap global labor, but have we found one shred of evidence that it benefits the American lower and middle classes? The only evidence I can point to as a result is the steady decline of organized labor and the destruction of the middle class.
Obama in India: U.S. offshoring fears are outdated
The perception that Indian call centers and back office operations cost U.S. jobs is an old stereotype that ignores today's reality that two-way trade between the U.S. and India is helping create jobs and raise the standard of living in both countries, U.S. President Barack Obama told a gathering of business executives in Mumbai on Saturday.
Losing good jobs through outsourcing and providing tax benefits to companies who send those jobs overseas is an old stereotype and outdated thinking?
President Obama said his objective was to create jobs in the U.S., and to rebuild the country's economy, but it would not be at the expense of the creation of jobs in other countries. The U.S. will instead discover, create and build products that are sold all over the world, he said.
http://www.computerworld.com/...
What?? Is this the same guy who just toured the country doing stump speeches about Jobs Jobs Jobs?
I have some experience in this arena. I've watched the IT field be obliterated over the last ten years. And I don't see the people who were asked to train others (who will work for a small fraction of the cost) getting any new and better jobs here in the US as a result. I haven't seen any new field open up for these people after some retraining. And I certainly haven't seen any increase in manufacturing in the United States in order to satisfy the demands of this burgeoning Indian middle class.
They're going to buy more of our goods? Really?
We don't even buy more of our goods. We don't even make most of our goods. And I don't see that changing any time in the near future, do you? Have you tried to buy American lately?
We don't even recycle our own glass and plastics anymore in my town. We ship them to China.
The last time one of our Presidents went to India we gave away nuclear technology and got... mangoes.
Now we have a President in India reassuring them that we won't do anything to stop encouraging outsourcing of more American jobs, after he just spent the past month promising the American people that he'd focus on jobs, that he understood their pain.
I guess it's kind of like how he was against East Coast offshore drilling, before he was for it, before he reconsidered, until he reconsiders again. Or maybe, most of the time, his position just depends on who he's talking to at the moment.
This is not the change that I voted for. I don't know about you, but I'm really tired of this. I mean I'm really tired of this. I will be curious to see what the AFL-CIO's response to this will be, if any.
Who benefits from these kinds of policies? Who benefits? Do you benefit? I know that I don't. My kids don't. My neighbors don't.
And really, where are these jobs that replaced all of the solid, IT jobs we've lost in the past decade, Mr. President? Where are they? Where is this equivalence? You really must think that we've all just fallen off of a turnip truck.
Prime Minister Singh, too, pointed out that shipping low-end jobs to India helped US firms make more profits, which in turn helped
them to create new, high-end jobs in the US.
With all due respect, Prime Minister, that's a load of crap.
As Mr. Mittal, chief of India's powerful National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) said:
It has become an act, and we can live with it.
Yes, not surprisingly, he can live with it. Me? I can't.
Protecting American jobs is never outdated thinking. Full employment, keeping the best interests of your own people first and doing your best to make sure that they can earn a living, and Fair trade is never an old stereotype.