New Jersey sells out America
This link is dated but addresses an aspect of outsourcing
that I had not previously considered. Privitasing jobs in the
government to contractors will inevitably result in the same
drain on local and national economies which American corporations
already are exploiting.
Cheap labor at America's expense
3.3 million U.S. jobs predicted to be transferred offshore by 2015
Posted: May 20, 2003
5:00 p.m. Eastern
By Kelly Patricia O'Meara
© 2003 News World Communications Inc.
"Hey, it's good work if you can get it," says New
Jersey state Sen. Shirley Turner about the
outsourcing of the Garden State's
welfare-processing contract. But neither New
Jerseyites nor any other Americans are getting
the work, so she has introduced legislation that
she believes will keep those jobs at home.
Turner, a Democrat, filed her proposal after
learning that the New Jersey Department of
Human Services had contracted with an
Arizona-based company to service paperwork
for the state's welfare recipients at the
"cost-saving" price of $326,000 a month. The
Arizona company had established a call center
in Green Bay, Wis., but once the New Jersey
contract came through, the call center was
relocated to Bombay, India.
"It seems like a race to the bottom," says Turner.
"All these jobs are leaving the state and the
country, and our unemployment rate continues
to climb. We're in a recession and you have to
wonder where it ends. The point of the contract
was to save money - assuming that these people
overseas can do it cheaper and more efficiently.
But this is a ruse because we're supposed to help
provide jobs to these [unemployed] people here."
The irate Turner continues, "Neither the people
in India who have the jobs, nor the people who
are unemployed here in the U.S., are giving
anything back in the way of taxes or buying and
consuming U.S. goods and services, which is
what stimulates our economy. By outsourcing
these jobs to other countries we're helping the
poor remain poor in this country. We have a $5
billion deficit in New Jersey and outsourcing
these jobs to foreign countries only adds to the
burden that the state must pick up when our
citizens need [welfare] services. When people
lose their jobs, and their unemployment benefits
run out, the state must step in and take up the
burden to provide the services. That's not cost
savings and it really just snowballs when jobs
are taken offshore."
Turner's bill has made it through the New Jersey
Senate but has run into stiff opposition in the
General Assembly from lobbies representing
companies taking advantage of the cheap
offshore labor. And no wonder: Outsourcing to
countries that exploit cheap labor appears to be
the corporate wave of the future. Kishore
Mirchandani, president of Outsource Partners
International, a U.S.-based company specializing
in outsourcing finance and accounting services,
tells Insight, "There are a lot of companies in
India handling the accounting and finance of
major corporations. General Electric, American
Express and Citibank all do business in India."
Continues.........
worldnetdaily.com
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