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Wave the flag. Show pictures of American history. Applaud the contributions of immigrants in the US. So the author introduces a trip down memory lane. He mentions the Chinese being instrumental in building the transcontinental railway as a promotion for importing foreign labor. The Chinese who are familiar with it may have a different view of building the railway. The Czechs, Slovaks and Jews may have different recollections also. How the people providing the labor were treated is left out of the discussion. How offshore sweat shops and the practices of companies like Wal-Mart promote substandard working conditions in other countries is left out also.

And this is corporate America’s threat to the American people. Allow us to ignore you and abuse imported labor or we will simply ignore you and abuse labor offshore. There is no noble intention in these claims by business of a global economy and their need to survive. They are surviving quite well and always have by ignoring their responsibility to the countries in which they practice their philosophy. Whatever it takes. And as far as offshore labor is concerned. One should only have to mention Bhopal since it is in India. Businesses get to treat their workers worse in other countries and at slave labor rates. That is why it is the preferred option between importing labor to the US or outsourcing. Why settle for lowering wages by importing labor when you can pay next to nothing and avoid all those pesky labor and environmental laws that risk your bottom line?

Take a hard look at India and China and other locations where American business has outsourced. Then discuss what the intentions of big business really are. As for the historical anecdotes about immigration the world is not a static place and policies allowed in times past are not necessarily as glowing as represented nor practical in the modern world. It may be that American business would like to return to the days of fewer laws that inhibit their natural tendency to cheat and the desire to be something of a robber baron with unimaginable wealth amassed on the backs of mistreated labor and an unsuspecting nation.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Andelman’s Angle

Outsourcing Vs. Immigration
David A. Andelman, 05.29.07, 12:00 PM ET
From America’s earliest days, when there was work to be done, businesses and the government brought workers to the job site to finish it. Chinese built the Transcontinental Railroad. Poles, Czech and Slovaks built the U.S. steel industry. Jews filled New York’s garment center.

Today, rather than bringing workers to the jobs, more often the jobs are going to the workers. Outsourcing has become the preferred method of getting the work done for a broad swath of American manufacturing, technology and service businesses.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Money Matters, wordpress, Politics, conspiracy, ethics, China, India, Foreign Affairs, Minimum Wage, Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.