Talking about outsourcing with my college class they all get that every job but in person service

[yurbud]

can and will be outsourced, and that it makes going to college like swimming upstream as you approach Niagra Falls, but they seemed not to comprehend that something can be done about it politically even when I said that to them.

Democrats have a big opportunity on issues like this and even get back some of those "Reagan Democrats" if they could just peel themselves away from the corporate teat for a few minutes.

[Selatius]

1. I hate to say it, but outsourcing is a consequence of free trade. Many Dems support free trade

It's difficult to get people enthused with voting for the Democrats on the issue of free trade when they are revealed the facts revealing a good number of Democrats as well as Bill Clinton supported free trade. I'm not just talking about NAFTA but free trade in general. The Party has proven itself, at best, schizophrenic on the issue of free trade with the left half of the party fighting the right half of the party. As a result, the Party looks like it stands for nothing on this issue because it hasn't taken a clear stand on the issue. For the Republicans, it's much easier.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Two Of The Three 'Dem' Presidential Frontrunners...

...supported permanent 'free' trade with China! Incredible!

What blows my mind is how almost nobody, including those on DU, actually makes decisions based on a candidate's voting record - only the rhetoric du jour seems to count.

[yurbud]

5. which two?

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Clinton & Edwards n/t

[yurbud]

9. shit. I liked Edwards. Got a link?

[MannyGoldstein]

13. Sure

Permanent "Most favored trading partner" status for China, carefully renamed by Mr. Clinton - it basically permanently removed significant tarriffs from Chinese goods, causing an enormous expansion of imports and outsourcing:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=2&vote=00251

[EFerrari]

11. I'd like to read more, too.

:(

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Here's More On The Bill

http://www.brookings.edu/printme.wbs?page=/comm/policybriefs/pb58.htm

[EFerrari]

15. Thank you, Manny. n/t

[frazzled]

3. I hope your class was not outsourced to an adjunct ...

a practice many colleges and universities have been using for years in order to pay lower wages and no benefits and avoid hiring full-time faculty. Repair begins at home. (Not that there are sometimes not good reasons to have adjuncts in some cases.)

[yurbud]

6. I am an adjunct. I didn't have health insurance first eight years I taught, can't pay my student

loan bills, and lost at least one girlfriend because I didn't have a "real" job.

I'm active in my union and trying to push legislation to change the practice, but even here in California where there is a near Democratic supermajority, business interests trump people. Classes for students can be cut, instructors can die without health insurance, but every campus will have new buildings and computers that would be the envy of a Star Trek set because buying stuff serves the interests of the local equivalent of Halliburton and taking care of people does not.

[AndyTiedye]

4. It Was Part of Kerry's Platform in '04 But It Got Drowned Out by the Swift Boat Liars

[yurbud]

7. Kerry had some good ideas

[BuyingThyme]

10. Lesson two: All jobs that can't be outsourced are being in-sourced.

[EFerrari]

12. Hmm. I was going to say, college years put a crimp

on your political activism -- even in thought -- but thinking that through, that's not really true in my experience. I was somewhat active then and I had students that managed to find time to be active, too.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. I thought legal jobs couldn't be outsourced.

However, I have a J.D., was a court reporter for many years, and gave up looking for a legal assistant/paralegal job. I have no job, no health insurance and no pension.

There are just too many lawyers out there and no boss wants a smart person working for them apparently.

I'm over fifty and spent half my life in school. Fat lotta good it did me. Barf.