More on Job Outsourcing

The Denver Post has a good article today on the outsourcing of a technology contract to India:

Nearly $2.5 million in state money will go to a firm based in India to create a computer system designed to get Coloradans working. The contract was awarded in March to HCL Technologies by the Colorado Department of Human Services. It calls for HCL to build a computer system called the Rehabilitation Information System for Employment, or RISE, for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.

First off, the irony in this story is so obvious it's not worth a joke. But this is another example of an emotional political issue that, if one side can figure out a solution that makes sense, could produce results at the ballot box in 2006. This is an easy thing to be angry about but a tougher problem to solve, as evidenced by the failure of Democratic State Senator Deanna Hanna to find the votes for her solution this spring...but she vows that another effort will be made in the next legislative session.

...Sen. Deanna Hanna, D-Lakewood, believes the case illustrates why state jobs paid for with taxpayer money should not be outsourced. "My citizens are going without jobs," she said. "Our taxes should be paying the salaries of people who live in our country."

This past session Hanna introduced a bill that would stop state contracts from being outsourced overseas. It was killed, but she pledges that she or other colleagues will try again next session.

The issue of job outsourcing was expected to be a big one in the last election, and it did end up become a major talking point in several local elections. But will the issue still have legs in 2006? If stories like this continue, it just might, and it may force Democrats who moved toward trying for a more business-friendly image in 2005 to take a step back in the other direction.

Comments

[Allen]

Outsourcing overseas, or "offshoring" has long been an issue for US workers, but hopefully something can be done to encourage domestic outsourcing, or "homeshoring." Here's part of a post I put on my blog on outsourcing, The View from Flat Creek:

In one form or another, outsourcing overseas has hit manufacturing workers for decades. However, manufacturing workers are largely unionized and consequentially a fairly predictable group of voters. White collar professionals represent a large number of unaffiliated voters, so putting a stop to offshoring bubbled up to the presidential campaign level and became a talking point for Sen. John Kerry last year as part of a strategy to reach these voters.

The President's response was strategic, linking the issue to the economy and his education and workforce training initiatives by saying that America needs more skilled workers so we can perform these jobs ourselves. Very true. America also needs companies willing to "homeshore" contracts by building domestic operations, much like Rural Sourcing in Arkansas is doing. It's not rocket science, but it does take a strategic commitment to foster a domestic homeshoring industry.

Politically, it seems like neither party has a clear vision for the role of offshoring in our economy that has taken shape in the form of policy. Worker training is key, as are jobs for those workers. Tax cuts that provide incentive for companies to retain employees in the United States would be great, as would standards for government contracts that factor in whether the work will be performed domestically or offshore.

Will this be an ongoing political issue? Oh yes. Professional service employees will continue to be a gigantic block of swing voters, and even as the economy becomes more robust, offshoring is a parallel trend that will create a job squeeze for both professional firms and workers. While the extent to which politicians can affect the trend may be limited, the rhetoric most likely will not be.

[Marshall]

We need a world class education system to produce the professional workforce that companies around the world demand. Some Republicans have been content to sit on the sidelines while our higher education system is withering on the vine.

Locally the Democrats have put together an excellent resolution in referendum C that will allow Colorado to keep its higher education system to provide the next generation of workers that the US needs to compete worldwide. I would say the Democrats are much better positioned for this issue. Democrats have long stood up for a strong educational system while Republicans have tried everything to avoid making the long term investments in education.

We must education our workers to be successful in a world economy. India has made the investments in its educational system and now they are seeing the return on their investment. When will the US begin to make this same commitment to our educational system so that we can also see the returns on a wise investment?

Marshall

[jim]

Marshall, Have you been to India? I'd estimate one tenth of one percent of the country has ever seen the inside of one of their tech universities and they have to stop over garbage, destitute people and AIDs/HIV sufferers on the way to the gates.

[Amethyst Foundation, NCJ]

Outsourcing jobs to India, China or other third world nations combined with US dollars from illegal workers back to Mexico is hard to compete with. Good for businesses bad for Americans. Add the oil war in Iraq no wonder every new born in America is in debt, $30,000 at conception, praise the lord.
Hard to labor for fifteen cents an hour or one dollar per hour high tech job. Then have life, liberity and the persuit of happiness in America.
Of course the Coperation not born of Woman or the son of Man, a person with no heart or soul. Cares not. The international beast feeds and lobbies.
Anti business? No! Anti beast? Yes!
So, all you " Conservative, Christian, Republican Corporations need look in the mirror. I know you hate to face the truth that Jesus was a liberial and Lazrath a conservate.
The school of thought came from Democratius. Cladius wanted it for Rome. The Roman Republicans wanted to conserve the cast system and put Nero in power squandered the treasury, burnt Rome and blamed it on the democrats. History repeating itself?
Also, for a carpenter to put on a priest's robes was panishable by death and so it was.
The truth will set us free:) Time to bring out the suppressed technology along with the truth!