Anxious About Outsourcing (Washington Post)

[CShine]

State and federal lawmakers are finding little success in efforts to stop technology companies from sending jobs overseas. But a paragraph buried in the giant federal spending bill the president signed Jan. 23 could pave the way for state laws around the country aimed at preventing the export of white-collar jobs to cheaper foreign markets.

The paragraph prohibits the federal government from awarding certain contracts to companies that will perform the work overseas. The measure expires at the end of September, and industry officials say few contracts are likely to be affected.

But the provision sets a precedent that information technology companies say could stoke a national backlash against them. Such companies are at the forefront of a trend of moving service jobs offshore -- jobs such as computer technical support and software programming -- and giving them to English speakers in India, the Philippines, Russia and other countries with lower wages for such work.

Critics say the trend contributes to the U.S. economy's "jobless recovery," along with the more extensive loss of manufacturing jobs transplanted overseas. Last July, for instance, U.S. firms shipped as many as 30,000 new service-sector jobs to India while eliminating some 226,000 in this country, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64696-2004Jan30.html?nav=hptoc_tn

[POed_Ex_Repub]

1. While I appreciate the effort

The genie is already out of the bottle. This is something that's going to take years to recover from regardless.

[mhr]

2. You Are Right, Out Of Work 43 Months Here!

eom

[schultzee]

3. They can stop them if they really want to. They have let

Corporations rule. If they did not give them lifetime charters, they would have a stick.

[FloridaPat]

5. You win the prize. I have one friend out of work 2.5 years,

another 2 years, another 3 years, and another 1.5 years. I was laid off 9 months last year and just got laid off again last week.

I am so sick of all of this greed and corruption.

[Virginian]

4. Only unemployed for 9 months, but that is 9 months too long.

N/T