ABC Nightline Thursday: Where are the jobs?

[Bozita]

 
Nightline Daily E-Mail
February 12, 2004


TONIGHT'S FOCUS: This country has long been wrestling with the issue of American jobs leaving for other countries. Lower wages, fewer benefits, worse working conditions... most of which make moving jobs overseas attractive to companies. But a whole new job sector has been moving to India, and it's already becoming a campaign issue.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tonight we're not going to be talking as much about manufacturing jobs. We all know about clothing being made overseas, often in sweatshops. Much of the steel industry and other manufacturing has moved away as well. This has been going on for decades. But we were supposed to find comfort in the jobs that stayed, in the job sectors that we were supposed to excel in, and dominate: service, and high tech.

Well, as correspondent Mark Litke will show you tonight, if you call a major company like Dell or Delta or American Express, or if you need your X-rays read overnight, or if you need your taxes done... all of that may connect you to India. The person on the phone may be in Delhi, not Dallas. Advances in technology have obviously made all of this possible, but so has a booming economy in India and a huge growth of a highly-educated and aggressive middle class. Now there is an economic argument in favor of this trend. If it can be done cheaper somewhere else, why shouldn't a company do just that? And will that create new jobs here? But remember this is a political season, and jobs, and the poor job-creation performance of the U.S. economy, is going to be one of the major issues. One of the President's economic advisors is in trouble now, from both Democrats and Republicans, for saying, out loud, that outsourcing jobs is not necessarily a bad thing, and that the President believes that too. Needless to say, a lot of people are unhappy.

So tonight Chris Bury will anchor and we'll have two reports from Mark Litke, one on the jobs going to India, and the other on the apparent desire of the newly prosperous Indian middle class to buy anything American. We're still working out who Chris' guests will be. It's a fascinating look at a country, and an economy, that most of us never see. I hope you'll join us.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington bureau

[cornermouse]

1. Buy American?

How? From whom? What do they still make in America?

[DemoTex]

2. Where are the jobs?

In Injia's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen

From Kipling's Gunga Din

[shade]

3. Gee...

Outsourcing is good for the economy? Great, let's outsource the presidency to the Democrats, I'm sure we'll all be better off in no time :evilgrin:

[DemoTex]

4. Hi shade!

Welcome to DU. Great idea, too. We are working on it. We need your help, too. Roll up your sleeves. There's work to do.

[calimary]

5. HEY! Welcome to DU! Your first post! Congrats!

You will find yourself surrounded by people of like mind, here. And we are ALL ABB (Anybody But Bush).

[shade]

8. Thanks for the kind greetings...

I've actually been lurking on DU for well over a year, but just finally registered for the discussion boards recently. :)

I've got a variety of reasons for disliking Bush and the Republicans in general. Unfortunately, my neck of Ohio (northwest) is pretty heavily Repug. :(

Definitely good to be here though :)

[Kanary]

10. Hi shade!

Welcome to DU!

:hi: :hi: :hi:

:toast:

You have a great idea there.... actually, I propose we bring back the soldiers from Iraq, and outsource Bushwa there. He could do 24hr patrols in the most dangerous areas. With a defective vest.

Kanary, sporting an evil grin.....

[guitar man]

25. even better

While *Bush is in office,let's outsource the flight crew of Air Force One. :evilgrin:

[calimary]

6. This is actually a terrific opportunity!

So one of the pResident's economic advisors is in trouble for saying this? And for saying bush thinks it's a good idea, too? AHA! THANK YOU!!! This is great!!

Why?

Because a) it leaves us a fabulous opening to start beating the drum about "COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVES!" Well, feast your eyes! Here they are! On parade!

And b) because it also allows us to bring up bush's background in economics, what a joke and a sham his MBA from Harvard, and his CEO status have turned out to be. His background as a three-time loser in business (Arbusto, Spectrum 7, Harken Energy - pretty bankruptcies all in a row - he hit another trifecta!) is FAIR GAME. Yeah, THIS is his idea of how you run a successful company. It then also becomes fair game to bring back the mention of Kenny-boy and all those other lovely friends of his in Enron, and the way they ran THEIR business, and how this whole cabal has it in for the little guy, and the working man - what's left of them. HELLO! Any NASCAR dads listening out there?

Let's rock n roll!

[Zech Marquis]

7. one of the snakes sure did say that

and tonight on CNN they tried to take it back,"we didn't mean it THAT way!..." :eyes:

[napi21]

9. Saw the CNN retraction.

As I listened to the retraction statement read on Lou Dobbs Show, I viosioned a whole group of WH lackys standing around Mancu (sp) threatening him with his life!

[brokensymmetry]

14. Exactly!

Just make a little 30 second commercial and repeat it night and day.

Let everyone who gets outsourced, downsized, rightsized, and so on know who they can thank for the job situation.

When I see Mankiw rightsized (i.e., fired on his ear with no notice and not a dime in severence pay) I'll think there's a little justice in the world.

Even the pug House members smell what's coming in November. It smells sweet...

[vanityfair]

20. Can't you just hear Donald Trump ...

saying to *, "YOU"RE Fired!"

[Bozita]

11. This is dynamite! Engineering, medical, and computer jobs going

gotta get back to the show.

[booradleyjr]

12. and now accounting, too n/t

[trogdor]

13. Prosperous? Get real!

The newly prosperous Indian middle class? They make less than a cart-passer-outer makes at Wal*Mart, forchrissakes! Tell me a new PC costs $200 in India. Tell me a new midsize family car (think Honda Accord) costs $4000 in India. Tell me rent costs $300/mo. in India - where the techies live. When you can say that, I'll believe these people are middle class in the same sense we are.

Someone tell me, how many of these software companies in India are SEI level 3 or higher. Our shop is level 4/5. We worked our asses off for that certification, thank you very much. Whem you say the shop you're offshoring to is certified at least at level 3, THEN, AND ONLY THEN, can you claim that you're chasing quality rather than just screwing your (former) workers.

The conservatives tell us, "well, you'll just have to adjust. Retool. Go back to school." I'M ALMOST FORTY ONE GODDAM YEARS OLD. I HAVE A TEENAGE SON WHO WANTS TO DO WHAT I DO. WHAT THE FUCK AM I GOING TO TELL HIM? FORGET ABOUT MATH AND SCIENCE AND LEARN TO SAY, "WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT?" I already went back to school once; how many times is one expected to do this in a working lifetime?

I need another drink.

[brokensymmetry]

15. Time to retrain!

The repugnant refrain!

Since you're a young guy at 41, you could always go back and get your PhD in genetics. After a couple post-docs, you'll be 50 or so and ready for a great career!

Oh...yeah...except South Korea looks like they're doing really well (better than the US) in that field.


Hmm. Maybe we'd all better practice saying "You can supersize that order for just 49 cents sir!".

[trogdor]

16. I'd rather practice saying...

GEORGE BUSH...YOU'RE FIRED!!!!!!!!

[brokensymmetry]

32. It has a nice ring to it!

While we're at it, can we rightsize the rest of the pugs? :evilgrin:

[Bozita]

17. Leftcoast alert for all accountants, engineers, and professional folks

Are you safe from the outsourcing?

Got kids?

How do you counsel a 16 year old kid?

Work on your jump shot?

This is really scary shit.

[Bozita]

18. 5 minute warning for Mountain Time folks

[fortyfeetunder]

23. Almost on in Seattle (11:30 PT) n/t

[depakid]

26. They'll welcome McDonalds, Coke...

as long as we give them our jobs. What a sick and shameless set of plugs for two of the WORST things America has ever exported. Oh well, serves me right for getting suckered into watching network "news" programming.

[Zinfandel]

19. 3.2 million jobs lost under Bush

http://www.bacweb.org/journal/03_10/jobless.asp

[Jack_Dawson]

21. I called HP tech support 3x yesterday and was connected to India 3x.

Scary.

[fortyfeetunder]

22. Privacy is a goner?

IIRC, I don't have confidence these other countries have the same privacy laws as the US...so where does all our financial data end up? I think the identity theft is going to be an even bigger problem now it's been scattered throughout the world.

[fortyfeetunder]

24. Price for political stability

Most of the countries with "cheaper labor" are also inherently politically unstable. If India and Pakistan decide to get it on in a nuclear way...remember they almost got it on a few years back, and the border between the two countries is borderline shaky as it is...

What was pointed out on Nightline was the amount of abject poverty in India. Which I consider another instability. As one of the men interviewed said, either being in poverty makes one angry or inspirational - if inspirational, it's good for India, if angry, it's bad for the world

[kcwayne]

28. And what enrages me most

is that companies that move their assets into these unstable countries will coerce the government into providing military protection for these assets.

So the Americans that they are abandoning will be asked to die in some foreign hell hole for the sake of their bottom line.

We (Americans) have to quit buying products from these corporations. If we don't have a concerted buyers strike where we only buy necessities such as food, and only buy services from local businesses, our assets and ability to make any kind of living will be taken away in the next 10 years.

[Nobody]

31. I'm already on a buyer's strike

except it's because I can't afford not to.

Pass the ramen noodles, please.

[radfringe]

27. Job-LOSS recovery

the economy "looks" rosey in all areas except for jobs

companies are posting profits - mostly due to cuts in expenses - i.e. US based jobs moved out of the country

but companies are also cutting their own throats by moving jobs out of the country...

if people have no jobs they have no income, if they have no income they have no money to spend on products, if they don't spend money on products - companies won't be selling products, if companies don't sell products they don't make a profit, no profits means more cuts in expenses (usually expense cutting means cutting/moving jobs) --- and that brings us back to .....if people have no jobs.....

[corporatewhore]

29. this should be the issue for 04

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[annagull]

33. Well, ABC sure is down with outsourcing

That report was really weird. They showed how the well off kids were enjoying Coke and McDonalds, they showed the poor begging on the streets next to Intel and Dell, really a crashing of the 'trickle down' theory. Then 3 minutes with reporters on how this effects American workers. What a strange program, you would almost think it was edited for content, as in not making the Corporations look too bad.

[tibbiit]

34. I dont know why people dont make the connection

of the bush admin as corporate raiders of the 80's.
they conduct all of their business as if they were take no prisoners, cut throat corporate raiders like T, Boone Pickens etc.

think about it:)
tib

[Wapsie B]

35. Two words:

Skilled Trades. Retool to become a Welder, Plumber, Electrician, etc...
And to be perfectly honest, I don't see how someone like Kerry would stop outsourcing.