Reply #1: Yes and No

[Ravenseye]

I've had a number of ongoing conversations with outsourcers, and people involved directly in companies overseas, that I know. Sadly I know a number of them.

They consistently claim that it's good for america and the places with these factories, plants, etc. It raises their standard of living, pays them more, makes a stronger local econonmy, and in turn have more money in the long run to spend on american goods.

They gloss over however exact numbers, and I wonder exactly how much they pay in areas that there are lines of hundreds of people outside their factories every day to get a job (they speak of this as if it's a good thing) when I see it as a way for them to treat the laborers however they like. Need a bathroom break? you're fired send the next one in.

They don't care about turnover because for the most part they are low skill jobs, or jobs that are easily trained. In one instance one of them had a factory that actually had people working in the 'training' section for nothing, just to learn how to do it, and wait for a paying position. The products (clothes in this case) they made were for the most part boxed shipped and sold just like the paid workers.

Sometimes this does help, and in the long run I do believe that jobs like this will eventually grow to the point where they won't be able to get around these infractions.

Personally. I think that any goods shipped into America should have to meet the same labor restrictions that exist here. Pay should be scaled to the local economy, so they'll get paid 'less' but I'm more worried about the incipient use of slave labor, and essentially press gangs for our goods.

Buy American.