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Is outsourcing to blame for the lack of jobs in the US? It's a fairly simple question, but hidden in its depths are political ideals and ethical issues. Outsourcing "referred to the practice of turning over noncritical parts of a business to a company that specialized in that activity" (Thottam 124) before it got its bad reputation. It sounds like a good idea to me. Why write papers and do the research if writing is your specialty and you can pay someone else to do the research for you? It saves you time and allows you to get more writing done. But too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
Outsourcing has gotten out of hand and I don't think that the workers are misguided in their anger. I have seen my parents weather more lay-offs than I can count and that's only counting the one's they tell me about. It stresses people out.
One the one hand, companies wouldn't have to send jobs overseas if the quality and speed demands that they wanted were being met by Americans. But there are Americans willing to do quality work. In fact, outsourcing has come back to bite big business. Every day there is a long list of recalls on the news for goods that have been produced overseas (usually from China). The reason corporations are bearing the brunt of political and unionized ridicule is because they seem not to care about the quality of the products they are selling so long as they can get them made for a much cheaper price than they would ever be able to while paying Americans a fair wage.
Laeia-
ReplyDeleteBusiness as War! Hilarious videos. I love 'em, and I'm loving your blog.
The Nike appropriation of Langston Hughes' poem kind of disturbed me. I always read the poem as allegorical of the dream of equality for African Americans, and the possibility of violence if this dream was not realized. To reinterpret it on a personal level (Sanya Richards' dedication to being a world class athlete) takes something away from this reading (not to mention Nike fitting itself in the picture). Nevertheless, you hit the nail on the head at the end of the post when you write, "'Polyestra is a painter, poet, rock singer, and filmmaker' (164) and she may not be living THE dream, but it seems like she's living HER dream." Precisely. Polyestra's whole memoir is a criticism of a narrowly defined American dream, one tied up with materialism and conspicuous consumption.
Your Mantsios' response was very interesting. Mantsios is a labor advocate who despises the large gap in equality in American society. His cards are firmly planted on the table. His essay lacks specific examples, and you provide a perfect one - the coverage of Hurricane Katrina. If you want to know how the rich feel about the working class and the poor, look no further than former First Lady Barbara Bush's comments on Hurricane Katrina: "What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them."
We'll talk more about the topic of your post on Judis when we read Bakan's book.
Keep up the good work.
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