[IP] US firms that outsource are "Benedict Arnolds": Kerry
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2004 10:58:42 +0530
From: suresh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Suresh Ramasubramanian)
Subject: US firms that outsource are "Benedict Arnolds": Kerry
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: suresh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Organization: -ENOENT
Well now, offshoring has become an election issue, a vote gathering
soapbox. Imagine that.
srs
From: "Manjunath, Bharadwaj (Cognizant)" <MBharadw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "India Gii" <india-gii@xxxxxxxx>
PTI > Report
US firms that outsource are traitors: Kerry
February 06, 2004 12:39 IST
Last Updated: February 06, 2004 13:01 IST
Outsourcing of hi-tech jobs to India, China, Russia, the Philippines, and
elsewhere has become an issue which is being debated in the Democratic
primaries and in the US Congress, with current Democratic frontrunner in
the presidential race, Senator John Kerry, calling companies which
outsource 'Benedict Arnolds.'
The name refers to an American 'traitor' who defected from the ranks of
American revolutionaires to join the British colonists.
Kerry was quoted by Contra Costa Times on the West Coast as denouncing the
Bush Administration for 'rewarding Benedict Arnold CEOs who move profits
and jobs overseas.'
Kerry had also introduced a bill in November that would require call centre
operators to disclose their physical locations to consumers with the aim of
discouraging the practice.
Howard Dean, the former Vermont Governor who is fighting to continue in the
Presidential race has told audiences that America needs a President 'who
doesn't think that big corporations who get tax cuts ought to be able to
move their headquarters to Bermuda.'
Income can be transferred by American corporations to Bermuda without being
subjected to higher American taxes.
The Contra Costa Times, which credited Bush for an economic recovery,
however, questioned job growth, claiming only 1,000 jobs were created in
December, a fraction of the 300,000 new jobs projected by the Bush
Administration.
"As the temperature rises over disappointing job growth, the controversial
practice of 'offshoring' has worked its way into the rhetoric of the
presidential campaign trail," it wrote.
Kerry's criticism has to be taken seriously, analysts note, because he is
not only a frontrunner currently in the Democratic Party but as polls also
say he may beat Bush to the White House.
However, statistics on outsourcing are fuzzy, with different reports
disagreeing over the exact number of jobs lost. A University of
California-Berkeley report estimates 14 million US jobs at risk.
Congress has also got into the act. At a hearing this week, both Republican
and Democratic Congressmen denounced offshoring while a rider attached to
the 2004 budget bars US Government contracts from being awarded to
companies which outsource their work.
"I think the issue is going to be exaggerated and manipulated by both sides
in the political debate," said Dean Davison, an analyst at the Meta Group,
a technology research and advisory firm in Stanford Connecticut.
The Federal contract provision, added to the budget by Senator Craig
Thomas, a Republican from Wyoming, raised a storm in New Delhi.
John Palatiello, a Washington-based lobbyist representing domestic
companies bidding for privatisation contracts, said the Congressional ban
would only affect certain services such as architectural design work, as
the rest of the work is being done in the US.
He said the aim of the amendment, which expires on September 30 -- the end
of the financial year, was to prevent federal unions from claiming their
jobs were being sent overseas.
India-born Rafiq Dossani, a consulting professor at Stanford University's
Asia/Pacific Research Centre, a proponent of the efficacy of outsourcing,
however, was concerned about its political consequences.
"This," he said, "may be a problem in the minds of some politicians now,
even before there has been sufficient analysis of what is going on. But I
think over the next five years this is going to have a huge impact. The
range of jobs that can be offshored is mind-boggling."
Some US departments are reversing outsourcing. The Department of Labour has
given a $3 million grant to Solano County on the West Coast to bring
trainers from offshore to teach locals jobs which would normally have gone
offshore.
The Bay Area Council has teamed up with the Bay Area Technology Education
Collaborative (Bay TEC) to bring 759 workers with advanced-level skills to
train information technology to local people.
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--
Suresh Ramasubramanian | suresh@xxxxxxxxxx | gpg EDEDEFB9
email sturmbahnfuehrer | lower middle class unix sysadmin
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