U.S. Suspends JEEP Aid

gManZboy writes "As noted last week, the USAID's JEEP (Job Enabling English Proficiency) program has been using U.S. taxpayer dollars to train students in the Philippines to work at outsourcing call centers. An update: After Congressman Tim Bishop and a colleague protested to USAID, USAID decided to suspend funding to the effort. 'In response to the concerns you have raised, the Agency is suspending its participation in the English language training project in Mindanao pending further review of the facts,' said USAID deputy assistant administrator Barbara Feinstein, in a letter Monday to Bishop. 'Furthermore, the Agency has established a high-level taskforce to review these matters.' Bishop says that USAID needs to find ways to assist developing regions without compromising the jobs of U.S. call center workers"

Comments

Re:Why?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Tell me exactly why it is our responsibility to find ways to assist developing regions.

Because a rising tide floats all boats. In this case I'd much rather have filipinos learn to speak american standard english than something like learning to speak chinese because the long-term effects are good for the USA in general.

There are americans that would love call center work. It beats a lot of other bad jobs.

The same argument can be made for any job at all and maybe that's how you feel too. However, not all of us see the world economy as a zero-sum game.

Re:Boohoo

[garyebickford]

Just for grins, do a bit of research to find out just how much taxes that 1% actually pays. You'll be surprised (hint - average, according to this is in the range of 20% of income. the top 0.1% is the Buffett group, paying about 8% of gross income.). The bottom 50% pay about 12% of their income - but almost 4/5 of that group actually gets subsidies back from the gov that exceed their tax payments for a net negative payment for that group.

The top 1% of income earners in the US pay about 40% of the total income tax, the top 5% about 60%. The top 25% pay 87%. The bottom 50% pay about 2.7% , but again receive more than they put in.

We also have the highest corporate tax rates in the world, ameliorated slightly by the plethora of silly loopholes and exceptions, that keep a million or so accountants busy.

I note that when the Constitutional amendment to allow the income tax was passed, the PR was that it would always be limited to the top 2% of income earners, and would be limited to 2% of their income. Obviously once the camel got into the tent, it began to eat everything in sight. Too bad the amendment didn't include any limits! At one time the entire federal government was paid for by the postage on mail, and the liquor tax. Was that so bad? When you didn't like how one state did things, you could move to another. Now the feds have their noses in everyone's behinds, sniffing to see what we had for dinner. That, IMHO is not the role of a FEDERAL government structure.

Meanwhile, the present administration's spending is (IIRC) 40% of the entire GDP. Of that, it is borrowing about 40% and of that, the Federal Reserve is buying about 60% because the number of suckers willing to buy US debt has dropped precipitously. When the Fed buys it, it is just a silent form of 'quantitative easing', in essence creating money out of thin air. Another name for that is inflation - the most regressive hidden tax there is. 60%X40%x40% = about 10% inflation PER YEAR. :)

Regardless of whose party is in, this has to stop before, like Germany a few decades ago, we will be in the boat where a postage stamp costs $5 billion (no joke - that's what happened, only marks instead of dollars.)