Originally published April 27 2004
Lawmakers punish companies who hire overseas workers while the U.S.
education system churns out unqualified workers at home
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bill (the "Defending American Jobs Act
of 2004") to punish U.S. companies that engage in offshoring --
outsourcing work to lower wage workers in other countries. The intention
may be noble -- save U.S. jobs -- but the law is a disaster. It aims to
destroy free trade principles and punish U.S. employers by forcing them
to hire U.S. workers regardless of their merit. In other words, this law
is effectively saying to U.S. companies: "You can't hire the best person
for the job. You have to hire who we tell you to hire, and that person
has to be a U.S. citizen." It's a political sham, of course, and it
would only hurt the competitiveness of U.S. companies. The real problem
here isn't that companies are trying to save a buck by moving jobs
overseas, the real problem is that U.S. workers simply aren't
competitive these days thanks to a failing national education system
that churns out dopey students who can't do math except when it comes to
figuring out how high their salary should be. They think they should be
paid top dollar, but they perform at the bottom of the rung.
Just
ask any employer: it's hard to find intelligent workers in the U.S.
these days. Our education system is broken, and the schools in India,
for example, are apparently far more effective at teaching job skills to
their students. Subjects that U.S. students learn in college, students
in other countries have mastered in high school. The fact is, we have
an education problem in this country, not an offshoring problem.
Want to solve our job skills problem? You can't do it by punishing
companies who shift jobs overseas. You have to make U.S. workers more
competitive, and that starts in the schools. What we need is serious
education reform. It's time we faced up to the fact that you can't run
U.S. schools on pennies. You have to make a real investment in education
if you want your country to be anything more than a patchwork of trailer
parks and fast food restaurants. Today, our public schools are "idiot
factories," and the employers know it. I once encountered a cashier at
Office Depot who couldn't calculate a 10% discount... with a calculator!
Lawmakers introduced a bill in Congress Thursday aimed to deter U.S.
companies from outsourcing jobs overseas.
The Defending American Jobs Act of 2004, sponsored by more than 50
legislators, proposes to cut federal funding from companies that lay off
workers at higher rates in the U.S. than abroad.
The legislation would also require companies that apply for federal
grants and loans to declare the salaries of employees in the U.S. and
abroad, said Joel Barkin, spokesman for Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the
bill's principle sponsor.
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