Mar. 04, 2006 - 18:41 MST

EASY SOLUTION

A dreadful song I have heard many times over, now being sung by Mr. Bush. An Associated Press article by Jeannine Aversa in this morning's Rocky Mountain gives the slant. In full, italics and bolds mine:

BUSH: U.S. WORKERS NEED RETRAINING

"You lost your job. It's probably one of the most dreaded things you'll ever hear from your boss. Then you find out that your white-collar position moved to the other side the globe -- to India."

"President Bush says he feels your pain and that education -- not trade protectionism -- is the answer to deal witht he increasing globalized world in which we live and work."

"Bush discussed the politically sensitive issue in New Delhi on Friday, wrapping up a three-day stay in India. The country's rapid growth has created anxiety among Americans, especially as they have seen call center jobs, back office administrative work, software programming and other white-collar jobs move there."

"It's painful for those who lose jobs," Bush said. "But the fundamental question is, how does a government or society rect to that. And it's basically one of two ways. One is to say, losing jobs is painful, therefore , let's throw up protectionist walls. And the other is to say, losign jobs is painful so let's make sure people are educated so they can find -- fill the jobs of the 21st century," he said."

"Last uear, 11,375 U.S. workers were laid off because their jobs were moved overseas, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

"In many of those cases Mexico and China were cited as the place where the jobs were going, a bureau official said."

"In 2004, 16,197 workers were laid off because their job was moved overseas. The figures don't capture all layoffs -- only the bigger ones, the official said."

"For American companies seeking to compete on a global scale, India is a magnet -- especially for white-collar service-sector employees -- because of the lure of lower-wage, HIGHLY EDUCATED workers who are fluent in English, experts say."

"India's outsourcing industry alone is expected to birng in $22 billion in revenue this fiscal year, much of that generated by U.S. companies.

"Blue collar factory jobs in the United States, menawhile have been more likely to be moved to China or Mexico, experts say."

"Although many Indians live on less than $2 a day, the country's middle class has swelled to more than 300 million -- which represents an attractive market for U.S. goods and services."

"The United States should see this rapidly growing nation as a land of opportunity instead of a threat, Bush said. America's best response to globalization is not to erect economic barriers to protect workers, but educate them to make sure they can compete on any stage, Bush said."

Economists and other experts agree that education -- especially in math and science -- is a critical way for workers to stay competitive."

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What's wrong with this picture ? Mr. Bush says we need to be more highly educated to be able to compete - - - WITH COUNTRIES WHO ALREADY PAY A HUGELY LOWER WAGE THAN HERE. That's one thing that does not compute. Basically it looks to me that businesses and countries as a whole, world wide, are zeroing in on workers, both white-collar and blue-collar.

So, when production both blue-collar and white-collar has been outsourced to foreign countries who in the hell in our coutry will be producing enough to afford to buy anything ? ? ? ? Zero jobs and of course our government is not going to put us all on welfare. And if we all are out of a job -- where will the taxes come from to run this so-called government ?

How can any person be highly educated enough to be competitive with those "highly educated people in India, who probably are more grammatical in English than most of us are ? And who work for a heck of a lot less than we do.

To have rightly handled this outsourcing it would seem to me that the companies who are doing so should -- BEFOREHAND -- retrain their employees -- at company expense -- in something that would make them competitive in the world market. So that before the outsourcing, employees here would not lose a working days wages due to the move. Otherwise, the situation as it exists is, people who have spent years on their jobs -- suddenly without work, income gone with no real way to continue to make house payments, pay for health insurance or pay for the highly touted Higher Education that Mr. Bush recommends. Which to me is a pie-in-the-sky thing anyhow.

If we have to be more highly educated than the Indians to compete for jobs that are paying them less -- what the heck kind of blather is coming from those that lather and shave the public ?

There may be a genius among us who can find some way to save the American Public from abject poverty, but to my mind there is NO EASY SOLUTION . . . . . . . . . . .

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