NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman says that outsourcing jobs

[Cleita]

is good for the economy. Those Indians will be buying American goods with their new found affluence, so the corporations will be profiting. So it's good for our economy. We can't build a wall around us. It's bad for the world economy. So while the new American poor will be living under bridges and waiting in line at the soup kitchen, our economy will be robust.

:puke:

Honestly, what has happened to our country that these greedy corporatists can blatantly say and do stuff like this without being run out of town.

[Fenris]

1. If you haven't noticed, Thomas L. Friedman is wrong about a lot of things.

[Cleita]

12. How did he get three Pulitzer Prizes?

Or are they only judged on the quality of the writing and not the content?

[Fenris]

15. Charles Krauthammer has several Pulitzers as well.

Clearly it isn't about accuracy or content.

[Ms. Clio]

34. Ain't that the truth

Chalabi stenographer Judy Miller has a Pulitzer too, I believe.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Except on Fresh Air

Friedman admitted that some of those "American" goods Indians are buying are acually made in China.

[gold_bug]

39. that's what I was thinking when

I saw the documentary (on Discovery) and when I saw Friedman on Hardball. Those American products he mentions aren't made by American workers, so it's not necessarily benefitting any Americans other than a tiny handful of stockholders and CEOs.

[wtmusic]

3. Hey, it's not their fault they were born billionaires

Everybody wins--the billionaires make another billion, the poor families get some more scraps to eat.

[JPJones]

4. Friedman has blood on his hands from the Iraq war

He bought into the neo-con argument.

I say the NY Times should fire Friedman and hire an Indian columnist in his place. An Indian muslim would do a much better job than old blood and guts Friedman (his guts, our blood).

[JPJones]

7. From Verisign: www.outsourcefriedman.com is available. nt

[JPJones]

10. The web site could have a writing contest

Open to Indian writers about mideast affairs. Publish the best ones on the website, and forward them to Tom Friedman's editor.

[scisyhp]

16. Bought into it? Friedman sold and continues to sell

the neo-con argument to the audience of millions. That's how his
comfortable lifestyle is paid for. His own convictions are of no
import here. He is just an advertisement copywriter doing his job.

[Ripley]

5. One question.

What the hell American goods will the Indians be buying???? They sure as shit won't be buying Chryslers. What goods are being made here anymore?

I heard that guy say he talked to people all over the country and most people thought it was a good thing, but some didn't. Tell me Tommy...name one person who is an employee, not the CEO, not the owner of a company, but the worker...name one...who says outsourcing is a great thing for America. You dumbass.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. What goods are still made over here?

Longerberger Baskets. I can just see that product flourish in India.

[Ripley]

24. Hee hee.

And I just remembered Ben and Jerry's. Do they export?

[liberalhistorian]

27. Indeed, and the major problem

with his argument is his assumption that corporations will use their increased profits to benefit Americans by hiring more American workers and paying them better which is, quite frankly, TOTAL AND COMPLETE BULLSHIT! Most corporations who've outsourced and whose profits have increased because of it have NOT NOT NOT used those increased profits to hire more workers and pay them a decent wage.

You wanna know how they've actually used the profits? C'mon, take a wild, shot-in-the-dark guess here, bet you'll never figure it out. Oh, what the hell, I'll tell ya anyway: they've paid their fucking CEO's and top management brass MILLIONS more in salary and stock and other perks, instead of using it to hire more workers, pay them better, and fund innovations and improvements for the company. Geez, who'da thought they could be capable of that????

WHY WHYY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY do people automatically trust corporations to do the right thing and WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY do people automatically think they WILL do the right thing, when they almost never do??????????

Another major problem with outsourcing that was brought up in an article I read the other day was that there is now a major dearth of computer students and students in other areas that are being heavily outsourced now, which is going to perpetuate a vicious circle within a few years. Students believe that there will be no jobs in those areas, especially in computers, for them when they complete their degrees, so why the hell should they bother with it and I understand that reasoning.

[Yupster]

32. Will benefit Americans

if they are stockholders in the company.

Otherwise harder to see.

Coke is selling lots in India today, especially their bottled water.

[AP]

6. Friedman never talks about this: Globalization isn't about lowering retail

prices and passing value to society, and it's not about raising wages even in India all that much. It's about lower wages only and then shifting the profit right up to the executives in the corporations that are globalizing.

Globalization is just a mechanism to transfer weatlh up the wealth ladder.

There is no society or economy in the world that benefited from the dramatic redistributions of wealth like the one that globalization causes.

[Deja Q]

20. Precisely.

And that isn't sustainable either, not until they get rid of 2/3rds the GDP-> The American middle class who prop up the economy by buying the goods they make.

I haven't seen price drops on ANY product that the globizing companies have made.

Still price increases, or at best no price increases.

[prole_for_peace]

25. amen...

my business communications teacher, who thinks she is "all that" keeps saying that the reason jobs are being outsourced is that we don't have the skills and want too much money. she has said that about 3 times in a week. (uhhh, no. i don't think indians have much better memo or letter writing skills, it is all about the MONEY.) everytime she makes her little comment i want to raise my hand and correct her but i don't want to fail the class. i am trying to graduate in august.

[Cleita]

26. I hear you.

Unfortunately, some teachers just expect you to parrot their biases. Fortunately, more teachers actually enjoy a student's challenge, but those are the liberal professors, not the conservatives.

[liberalhistorian]

35. Don't you just love people who are in

comfortable positions and who have money claiming that those poor corporations HAVE to outsource because we greedy Americans demand "too much money?" It's always the WORKERS who want "too much money" and are faulted for it, NEVER the CEO'S and the top people who are the REAL greedy ones who "want too much money!"

And frankly, it's a helluva lot more expensive to live in this country than in India, China, and other outsourcing countries; companies think they're being generous with paying 10, 11, or 12 bucks an hour, when that's hardly enough to keep food on the table anymore, let alone support a family. Wanting a decent wage, one that you can actually fucking LIVE on (and I'm not talking extravagant here, either) is NOT the problem here!

Maybe someone should bring up her "wanting too much money" the next time she has to negotiate her contract with the university!

[KittyWampus]

8. To Certain Extent, Outsourcing IS A GOOD THING

and it DOES help build a middle class in other countries.

"Outsourcing" has always happened and always will.

The main problem is that NOT ENOUGH NEW JOBS ARE BEING CREATED.

I'm not an Economics genius... but I read Krugman and trust his take on things.

Look up his article "Lumps of Labor".

[Gin]

13. Friedman says we all need to be trained to move up the ladder...

as if there are more jobs higher on the ladder. That statement alone shows how stupid they think the general public is.

My hope is that outsourcing hurts him in some way.

[KittyWampus]

17. Thanks, My Comments Were Less About Friedman

and more about Outsourcing.

No matter what topic, Extremists can take a grain of truth and stretch it into nonsense.

[Cleita]

18. I was thinking the same thing.

He said that his column would probably be read in India in the future. Maybe the NYT can outsource his job to a needy Indian journalist and replace him even in America with that Indian's column. Wouldn't that be sweet?

[AP]

43. It can be used to deliver wealth to consumers through lower prices. Howeve

I've read that the only consumer goods where prices have gone down are clothes, but people are buying more clothes (they go out of style and fall aparet faster). So, basically, globalization lowers the costs for big businesses, but doesn't lower prices for consumers. That means it's a mechanism for delivering huge amounts of wealth to huge corporations. They pretend that they're making Indians wealthy, but how rich are they going to get making 1/5th what Americans make?

This is the stuff Friedman NEVER acknowledges.

[daa]

9. Friedman is an ignorant asshole

and I want to hear what he has to say when and Indian making 2 bucks a day wins the Pulitzer Prize and his sorry ass is laid off.

The facts are, last month out of 248,000 jobs created on 16,000 were high paying, i.e. over $790 per week. The only think Indians will be buying from us is burgers if they ever learn to eat beef.

[Hamlette]

11. his theory makes a tad more sense than you explain

I don't like it, not sure we can do anything about it.

Did anyone see Friedman on The Daily Show this week? He was...nutty...like a school girl with the giggles. I thought. It was odd.

[Cleita]

14. Damn I missed it.

eom

[artr2]

19. Why don't we outsource HIS job ?

Then what will the little fucker say then

[Cleita]

21. LOL

He won't be saying anything because no-one will be putting his drivel in print.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. We need to outsource Thomas Friedman's job and then see what he

thinks. He can always get published in the opinion pages just like the rest of us.

[JohnyCanuck]

28. What I would like to see Mr. Friedman address

When the factories and assembly line jobs were being shipped overseas, the workers were told to re-educate themselves and learn new skills. IT/computer technology was one of the main areas that was touted as a great career choice for Joe Blow assembly line toaster assembler who had lost his job when it was shipped off to Mexico.

Many people did take that advice and went to night-school classes etc. and got some type of computer certification e.g. MCSE, A+, CCNA etc. or computer programming qualifications to get themselves a job in the new hi-tech economy where the jobs of the future were going to reside. Now the computer and IT jobs are being shipped overseas and Mr. Friedman assure us that it will allow companies to innovate and create new types of jobs in North America. However if these new jobs are ever created, what's going to prevent them being shipped off to lower wage countries as well, just like the factory and IT jobs were? What's to prevent this cycle from recurring ad infinitum?

In that case how practical is it to expect middle aged people with families and mortgages to retrain for new careers every 8 to 10 years or so and then start over again in a new career at the bottom the seniority pile and competing with 23 year old college graduates.

[Cleita]

29. The logic certainly doesn't pass the stink test, does it?

The only thing that is going to be left are the service jobs that they can't ship overseas.

[Yupster]

33. There's no doubt the world is moving faster these days

Last year the US patent office issued 192,000 patents. That's double what it was just 10 years ago.

How are people supposed to keep up and keep retraining in a world where 192,000 new things are invented every year?

It reminds me of a slogan i learned in college.

"Each morning in Africa a gnu wakes up knowing that if he can't outrun the fastest lion, he will die that day. Each day a lion wakes up knowing that if he can't outrun the slowest gnu, he will starve. So, whether you're a lion or a wildebeest. Wake up early and start running."

Not a real happy thought, but it seems like the kind of world we're living in.

[union_maid]

40. exactly!!!!!!!!

I've beens saying that for the last several years but you said it so clearly. Even when Clinton was president, I remember him giving a speech saying that we'd have to plan for several careers each. I recall thinking.."Whoa there..what are the starting salaries in careers number two and three as opposed to career one? How are people supposed to keep starting over and feed and educate their kids and plan for retirement?" I'm still asking those questions and now no one has yet, even once, answered the other question - the one about just what are the new jobs, exactly? What should people be retraining for?

[VolcanoJen]

30. Friedman bites. I watched his outsourcing "expose" on Discovery Channel.

I was surprised to learn that Indian call-center workers are instructed to change their names to sound more "American" when talking to callers.

"Tom Gray" was the most commonly-chosen fake name. Friedman thought it was just brilliant!

[napi21]

31. He was interviewed by Jack Cafferty today.

He was talking about the call center outsourcing and Jack said that he had contacted the support center for his computer. He could tell instantly that the techie was not in the US. He couldn't understnad her & she couldn't understand him. After struggling with the language barrier for quite a while, the ended the call. She was frustrated and he was MAD! Friedman said he had heard several reports like that and there are schools now that teach Indians to lose the accent, but he finally had to admit that if things don't improve, the outsourcing of the call centers will just go away because they don't work.

I heard somewhere that Dell Computer, who used to have an excellent reputation of great Customer Service, had completely lost that image because of outsourcing their support and their sales were shoing it! I think the report said Dell was rethinking the idea.

I think Friedman is a Corp. whore, but he may be right on this one. It's just too bad so many have to suffer while waiting for this "new fad" to fail!

[robcon]

36. Friedman is a brilliant analyst...

and an exce;llent writer. He's absolutely right about jobs and the economy.

[union_maid]

41. Really?

Then maybe you can answer the question that's been asked and never answered. What specific new jobs are being created? What should displaced workers retrain for? And how are people supposed to manage family finances when careers are going to be permanently unstable and skills devalued every few years?

[Blue_Roses]

42. ROFL...hahahaha

surely you jest. He's a pompous ass...

[Sophree]

37. I stopped even bothering to read his column

After he wrote that he didn't need to watch the 9/11 hearings.

I used to read it to round out the op-ed with some centrism. Now I know it's not centrism he represents, but pure idiocy mixed with ostrich syndrome. Why should I waste my time?

[moondust]

38. What American goods?

Nothing is made in America anymore. They'll be buying stuff made in India and China and Mexico and Indonesia like everybody else.

[lostnfound]

44. kick for a useful topic