I.B.M. Explores Shift of White-Collar Jobs Overseas, July 22, 2003

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

It used to be said that a capitalist would sell you the nails for his own coffin. Today's company executives will not go that far, but in outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries they are selling the nails for their own countrymen's coffins. Apparently because they have to, "economic necessity" demands it!

We joke about someone who would sell his own grandmother into slavery, but is that so much worse than doing it to one's fellow countrymen, whose sons and daughters might well be in the armed forces, putting themselves in harm's way to defend our freedom and property?

How would the executives responsible for outsourcing feel if their bosses (the company shareholders) decided to recruit top management from countries with much lower wages? I am sure there are many very capable Asians prepared to work for JUST a million dollars a year and a far less generous pension package than American executives demand.

What I am suggesting is that we should be putting members of our own community, city and country before "economic necessity", just as we would (hopefully!) our grandmother.

What we need far more than "free trade" is "fair trade", including "fair wage" differentials. 

That is REVOLUTION, I know, but it is necessary, and it doesn't have to be bloody. I'm an Englishman, not French or Russian.