I think the craze for outsourcing is traceable to the incompetence

[KlatooBNikto]

and greed of senior managements of most corporations during the 80's.During that time, the mergers and acquisitions game played by many financial houses like Merrill Lynch, J.P.Morgan and other big investment banking houses made it possible for the buying and selling of corporations by incurring huge debts under the guise of leveraged buyouts.In effect, the assets of the corporation were transformed into huge debts to be assumed by the new buyers.A corporation that was profitable and healthy became in an instant unprofitable because of the huge debt service that it had assumed.The new owners, in turn, had no incentive to pay off the debt and build the corporation back to profitability because these were essentially con men seeking opportunities to enrich themselves.Before the corporation went bankrupt, the new owners simply found new buyers willing to assume more debt in a sort of a Ponzi scheme involving billions of dollars.

So, a corporation, making worthwhile products or services, became a
vehicle for enriching the few and gutting the many.The plight of honest workers being ground down by this shell game has all the earmarks of a Corporate Argentina.The crooks have essentially made it impossible for any of the big corporations to make a profit by honest means because the debt service now has become such a large portion of the operating costs.

As this profit picture has eroded, the corporations have now resorted to another one of their periodic frenzies to restore profitability and, lo and behold, they have discovered that people in India or China would be willing to work for a lot less than Americans.Now the con men can service the debt and show a profit at the same time until even this bubble bursts and they are off to another tactic.

That the lives of millions both at home and abroad are viciously made pawns in this game is immaterial.Who is going to call these incompetent and greedy bastards to account? Sort of like calling Bush to account for the deficits he has run up in three years that has dwarfed everything before.Fat chance.

[Wright Patman]

1. It's worse than you think

People for generations now, especially since the Great Depression, have been sold the idea that free trade is the ticket to paradise and that any deviation from the faith will immediately and irreversibly plunge us back into depression. The mantra that "Smoot-Hawley" (tariff act passed in 1930) causaed the Great Depression is an article of faith. This overlooks the fact that the Crash occurred in the fall of 1929, but why be bothered with the facts?

A dead economist named David Ricardo will from the grave destroy the middle class of America. It is already happening. But since the economics of free trade cannot be questioned, nothing will be done. It will be interesting to watch this coutry devolve into "Brazil North"; not all that entertaining, but interesting. I am in small town out in the middle of nowhere, so I am sort of a spectator anyhow.

[KlatooBNikto]

2. To me the villains are the investment banks that have managed to

turn good corporations into mini-Argentinas by talking everybody to assume debts that they cannot possibly repay.The two names that that will forever be etched in my mind are Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken
( remember these con artitsts?).After a corporation changed hands many times sort of like Elizabeth Taylor and her husbands, it stopped being profitable and now some other con men have decided to pack their bags and go to India.This sorry tale never gets written about our press because they are in essence corporate shills themselves.

[Jose Diablo]

3. The corporate managers sound like

con men at a table in a carnival playing 'guess which shell has the pea under it".

They sound like a bunch of thieves don't they.

[KlatooBNikto]

4. Easy money was the attraction for these con men and the

investment bankers like Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken.

[Jose Diablo]

5. I notice Milken is up to no good once again

by offering the groppenator a job as gov of Cal in return for dumping a lawsuit against Enron.

You know, Milken has an apt name. He should have went to jail for a much longer time. A time equivalent to how much time those that he 'milked' suffered. And seeing how those he 'milked' are still suffering 'economic' problems, well Milken should still be in jail.

[baldguy]

6. In 1983-1984 I worked in a factory for college money.

The company had a plant in Buffalo, and a plant in Matamoros in Mexico. Every month the Buffalo plant beat out the one in Mexico in quality and volume. Often we were running at 95% plus, while they were at 60%.

After I left, the company decided to move all of its manufacturing to Mexico. Why? No unions. No OSHA. No EPA. They paid workers 1/10 of what they paid Americans, and there weren't any gov't regulations to follow.

Republicans see a situation like this and think that the solution is to be like Mexico - No unions, no OSHA, no EPA. They haven't succeeded in that insanity so the next best thing, in their mind, is to move everything to where the people have lower expectations. Where an American wants to have a good paying job in a safe and clean environment, they would rather have an employee that hopes not to starve or die from day to day.

Rational people realize that we can't improve our lives by lowering standards. American corporations shouldn't be in the business of exporting slavery.

[KlatooBNikto]

7. There was a time when a corporate manager lived in the

community in which he worked so he had a vested interest in belonging and improving his community.Now corporate managers do not have any attachment to anybody or anything except the fat pay and stock options they draw to be super assholes cutting down anything and everything in their paths.