Foreign Companies Reduce Local Workforces: America Is a Distant Memory

[Dr. Jones]

I was one of those laid off from a midsize telecom right down the street from Cable & Wireless in Northern Virginia back in 2001. I did not know it was attributable to international businesses shedding jobs.

Sadly, America just isn't America anymore, at least the way it used to be. America doesn't even own itself anymore - foreign countries own it. I think the UAE deal really brought this to the fore. And I think the American people have made it plain and clear - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

GIVE US OUR DAMN COUNTRY BACK!!

Foreign Companies Reduce Local Workforces
Cuts Mostly Attributable to Telecom Bust, but Some Officials Fear Political Climate

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Page D04

International businesses shed jobs in the Washington area over the last five years, and officials who market the region abroad worry that political sentiment against foreign investment could further crimp an important piece of the local economy.

According to a study by the Greater Washington Initiative, which coordinates efforts to persuade businesses to locate in the area, $41 billion of economic activity in the region last year was attributable to the Washington operations of international companies, embassies and organizations like the World Bank; tourists from abroad; and other forms of international spending and investment. That amounts to 13 percent of the regional economy, about the same as in 2000.

The sector employed, directly or indirectly, 280,000 people in 2005, according to the study, down 26,000 since 2000. Tim Priest, executive director of the Greater Washington Initiative, attributed the decline to several large foreign-owned telecommunications companies -- among them Cable & Wireless PLC, Nortel Networks Corp., and Alcatel -- making major cuts during the telecom collapse of 2001 and 2002.

Priest and others involved with marketing the region say attracting more companies from abroad will be essential to the area's continued growth because the sector makes the regional economy more diverse and better able to withstand downturns in local industries. Those efforts could be hurt by recent political developments, Priest and others involved with marketing the region said.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101618.html?referrer=email

[Jim Warren]

1. Sad, sad and I can't believe how wrong I was

last one to leave please blow out the candle

[Dr. Jones]

4. Wrong? How were you wrong?

But yes, I agree - sad as hell!

:cry:

[Jim Warren]

5. I was wrong

thinking the USA would develop on it's promise, that it could evolve.

I'm old enough, lived through the sixties and now see little hope.

[brokensymmetry]

2. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Keep in mind that U.S. students aren't pursuing technical degrees as much as they were - for example, per the ACM, we've seen undergraduate enrollment in computer science decline from 4% of all undergraduates nationwide to under 1.5%. Matters aren't improving.

If you go to the NSF website and poke around a bit, you'll also notice that fewer American students are going to grad school. Oh, the classes still have students - students from foreign countries. Not Americans. Interestingly, tuition for those foreign students is about triple what it is for U.S. students.

So, we're not making things, we're not thinking, we're even letting others do the innovating. We are on track for third world status - but with accumulated debts from our golden era.

Add in some other factors - Peak Oil, for example - and we are toast. Our plutocratic leaders could not possibly care less.

[Dr. Jones]

3. Absolutely.

How did we get here? My goodness.

Less students pursuing technical degrees because they've realized that it's useless spending all that money and then finding out they won't have a job to pay their student loans because their job is either insourced or outsourced. Maybe if they want to move to India, fine. But fewer and fewer jobs here in the U.S.

Students in grad school have also realized that no job is safe. After accumulating all that debt, then to find out 1) You aren't paid very well, and 2) your job will likely be insourced or outsourced, that makes for a no-brainer. I've personally seen SO MANY jobs where grads are being paid about the same amount or LESS than their counterparts with just Bachelor degrees. Go figure.

[The2ndWheel]

6. Do you really think

"GIVE US OUR DAMN COUNTRY BACK!!"

it was ever our country?

I can't count the number of levels upon which is never was, is, or will be.

[Dr. Jones]

7. There was a time when the U.S. owned itself.

No UAE port deals, no foreign ownership of our toll roads. The sad fact of the matter is that the U.S. owns very little of itself anymore. Kinda like a frog in hot water type thing - nobody notices until it's too late, and then we're dead. They're even planning to sell off some of our Western land to the highest bidder - likely that will fall into the hands of foreigners as well. Imagine - walking through rural Montana, actually stepping onto Chinese land!

I'm just very sad America isn't America anymore.