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An Indian newspaper (the India Times) recently reported on Obama’s position on job outsourcing.
More generally, what do the Presidential candidates say regarding employment in the USA?
There is a little to say about McCain’s position, for it does not differ from the traditional position of the Republican party: the best stimulus to a wealthy economy is a reduction in corporate income taxes; job creation will follow as a side effect of a wealthy economy. The basic assumption is that corporations are likely to reinvest a large percentage of the money saved in the US economy, thus creating jobs. Even if a part of these new jobs are created abroad, the vast majority is likely to happen in the USA.
Barack Obama has a different approach. First, I found his acknowledgment of the situation very realistic. During a speech in Raleigh, he said, “We live in a competitive world, and that is a fact that cannot be reversed.” […] Revolutions in communications and technology have sent jobs wherever there is an Internet connection, that has forced children in Raleigh or Boston to compete for those jobs with children in Bangalore or Beijing.”
It might sound like stating the obvious, but based on the comments I receive on this blog, not all people yet realize that we cannot reverse a process we have created.
And the Democratic candidate to elaborate on his ideas to help job creation: “We need to invest in the research and innovation necessary to create jobs and industries of the future right here in the US.” […] “And one place where that investment would make an enormous difference is in a renewable energy policy that ends our addiction on foreign oil, provides real, long-term relief from high gas prices and high fuel costs, and builds a green economy that could create up to five million well-paying jobs that can’t be outsourced.”
Obama believes that the US “can also create millions of new jobs by rebuilding our schools, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure that needs repair.”
While I understand McCain’s reasoning, I believe it is going to take more than another tax cut to stimulate job creation here in the USA. In the IT industry, for instance, the shortage of talents is a more important reason to go offshore, certainly more than the cost savings, and I assume there are many industries facing the same challenge.
The USA need to recreate the conditions for creating jobs inshore. It includes a renovated infrastructure, more graduate engineers, and a focus on renewable energies, as Obama rightly pointed out.
“This nation has faced such fundamental change before. And each time, we’ve kept our economy strong and competitive by making the decision to expand opportunity outward, to grow our middle class, to invest in innovation, and most importantly, to invest in the education and well-being of our workers.”
A beautiful conclusion for this post.
The full article from the India Times is accessible online.
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What McCain is trying to do is please the corporate lordships to gain support.
Outsourcing is now a business reality, and you’re right, it cannot be reversed.
Obama is making more sense here.
Left by nor on July 3rd, 2008