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Asian Call Center Workers Trained With US Tax Dollars
gManZboy writes in with a troubling story about tax dollars being used for overseas call center training. "Despite President Obama's recent call for companies to 'insource' jobs sent overseas, it turns out that the federal government itself is spending millions of dollars to train foreign students for employment in some booming career fields--including working in offshore call centers that serve U.S. businesses. The program is called JEEP, which stands for Job Enabling English Proficiency. It's available to college students in the Philippines through USAID. That's the same agency that until a couple of years ago was spending millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to train offshore IT workers in Sri Lanka. Congressman Tim Bishop (D-New York), told about the program on Tuesday, called it 'surprising and distressing.' Bishop recently introduced a bill that would make companies that outsource call centers ineligible for government contracts."
This just in: Politicians lie. Film at 11.
They *do* increase employment. In China.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
There is no way in hell that a politician is going to pay nearly a billion dollars to get into an office that won't pay out more than a couple of million in salary and perks over it's term without getting payback from somewhere else. It's as simple as that. And you know we'll never have meaningful campaign finance reform as long as the Republicrats have no meaningful competition.
Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That means the majority of voters are insane. We're fucked until we have the political system overhauled.
Bishop recently introduced a bill that would make companies that outsource call centers ineligible for government contracts.
So they're saying that they're no longer going to purchase HP, Dell, or Acer PCs? Somehow I suspect that bill is just posturing, and will not amount to anything.
typical politicians. They find out they're doing something stupid, so they're going to do something stupid to make up for it. Quit paying to train the foreigners, and don't pass a new law disabling government contracts with companies that have overseas call centers, would be the correct thing to do.
Gee, I hope they succeed in bringing all of the call center work back to the United States! I would love to pay higher prices so that my countrymen can work menial jobs for 10 times the pay of their Asian counterparts (which still fails to provide a decent standard of living here), because more expensive products are good for everyday Americans already struggling to get by!
I wonder if USAID would be willing to sponsor a similar program up here in Canada?
We have lots of friendly college folk who need ESL training and an economic leg up -- so what better way than to operate your call centers up here?
It's as near shore as you can get and these ESL trained immigrants would do the natural, Canuck thing, and spend their USAIDed wages across the border at Costco and Wal-Mart.
It's ironic. Recently SallieMae called to talk to me about one of my employees who's delinquent on his student loans. The caller was clearly Indian. I remarked that it hardly seems to help American students repay their loans, in general, if SallieMae itself outsources its operations to India, thus depriving a number of Americans from the opportunity to repay their loans.
The rep hung up on me.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
...or else important programs like this will have to be cut!
Why do we fight so hard to keep/return the shitty jobs?
The Obama critque is not irrelevant. The problem with this election is that the guy against him has one goal and that is to help his corporate buddies. The GOP doesn't need to spend the time or the money on a platform committee this year because choosing Mittens makes it their sole platform plank. Romney already goes on the stump and says only what his pals want him to say (not to mention different things for different crouds.) Obama is a corporatist without a doubt, but at least he thinks about the little guy 1% of the time.
I honestly do. Too bad politicians aren't in control though. Big money is.
Personally, were I "Commander-In-Chief" as the president is during wartime (which gives him a lot more control than that office normally has by itself), I would've said:
"Fine, don't do it then - keep outsourcing! We'll do "laissez-faire" for you since that's the "spirit of American Business" from your "point-of-view", & let you do what YOU want: However, then? Well... We'll be MORE THAN HAPPY to apply these GIGANTIC penalties for NOT complying and tax the hell out of your profits for it, since that's how you're increasing them, & we're merely acting as "good government" in response - Ball's in your court now, you can decide...".
They'd bring the jobs back then, guaranteed OR it'd fund other work programs from said taxes (@ least in part)...
That's about the ONLY form of control government has on big business in this aspect, unless others pipe in & tell us more or differently (I'd gladly listen - I am always up to learn more).
* See - All you have to do is affect the bottom-line on profits that way, business will respond.
Of course, they could just completely leave too, but then, that's when you cut them off completely from doing ANY business here, whatsoever.
(And don't even *try* tell me that isn't possible, because competition abounds - it's one of the great things about it, along w/ spurring innovations consumers gain from).
Of course, due to what happened to JFK?
Mr. Obama'd have to spend the rest of his term behind bulletproof glass & eating out of cans randomly selected from the supermarket most likely...
So, were I to "take a stab" as to WHY former President Kennedy was assasinated, it was because he was "stepping on big money's toes" & a lot (witness U.S. Steel vs. JFK) -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWNhWANkq0Q&feature=related
APK
P.S.=> On President Obama: At least HE is trying, or seemingly so...
What bothers me most is the stupid war(s) - nothing good comes out of those except dead loved ones & rich war profiteers getting richer... & the ones getting bigger slices of the profit-pie @ our taxpayer expense for it!
(Put it this way: Even a high-ranking field-grade officer who's been decorated for valor in combat that I know VERY WELL feels that way, & he's on the "inside" and works in the "military-industrial complex" as well - he told me, point-blank "There's certain parties that got HUGE slices of the pie, much bigger than they should ever have...")... apk
Across the board spending cuts are supposed to take effect in January of 2013... You know who's crying about them already... The military. I can already hear the backtracking in congress about how dangerous it is to cut military spending, and I'm sure we'll have across the board cuts in 2013... for social programs.
You could cut military spending to zero, and you'd still have a huge deficit. The only ways to eliminate the deficit are big cuts everywhere, big tax increases, or big economic growth.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The whole point of USAID since inception has been to very publicly give financial aid to allies and countries with whom we want to establish stronger ties, and to less publicly give American foreign service personnel an excuse to be in a foreign country with a bunch of cash. And that's not some Cold War stuff, either. Like, right now, American military advisors and CIA operatives act in places like Afghanistan under the auspices (and budget) of the USAID, which, ironically, stands for United States Agency for International Development. It's a major foreign policy arm of the US, and if you think the government, no matter which party is in power, is going to rush to put a leash on it just because outsourcing has some feathers ruffled, you're very much mistaken.
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We're not talking about China or India or Thailand, but a former US colony, a place that enjoyed the US Army trying to "civilize 'em with a Krag" for half a century.
The Philippines' unique historical relationship with the United States more than justifies preferential treatment.
First things first. Cut spending enough so that we can at least pay the interest on our loans and not take out any more loans. Once we get there, we can figure out how fast we want to pay off our loans and what we need to cut in order to pay them off that fast. The goal is not to get rid of our deficit by tomorrow.
Where did all the Anonymous Cowards come from for this story? Obviously most of these people are not regular Slashdotters.
Was the story linked to from some right-wing blog?
America needs blue collar work, because many Americans are blue collar. Phone support is entry level white collar, and we could use that too.
Wrong. America needs "blue collar" work because that is how the stuff gets made. We can't all manage each other's investment portfolios or shuffle the papers in accounts receivable. At some point, some actual wealth needs to be created - tangible things whose existence enhances our lives in some way.
This is not because some people are not suited to a nice office job with air conditioning and a good view.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I can tell you this:
Language is a huge part of what makes humans human. That we can encode our thoughts and share them and store them and accumulate them so that thousands of years of learned information can be issued to a child in elementary school like it was nothing. Language is the key enabler which gives rise to all things humans accomplish... ALL THINGS.
Most of us already know this. We say things like "language is the encoding of the mind." And we know that the quality of the language a person exhibits is quite often a reflection of the quality of thought of the person using their language. This understanding is both instinctive and well established.
As a society and as a species, if we hope to improve and to continue to evolve, we cannot easily tolerate a decrease in the quality of language.