Tuesday, May 15, 2007

A Sad State of Affairs: War on the Middle Class

Iraq War and War on the Middle Class
Descendents - Sad State of Affairs
War on Iraq? On the Middle Class? What's the difference? When were we ever consulted on either one? Read more on secret, BACKROOM DEALS
Meanwhile, Senator Harry Reid continues to promote Hagel's S 1348 bill which includes the "SKIL Bill."
Do the Democrats really care about the growing millions of our lost jobs? Ask Nancy Pelosi. The bipartisan War on the professional Middle Class is being obscurred by border security zealots and Harry Reid's push for Hagel's S 1348 which includes the SKIL Bill. It seems that liberal Democrats have it half right, when recognizing that a police state to control immigration (legal and illegal) from the poor of Mexico is counterproductive.
But where is that same liberal Democratic support to stop the tech lobby from selling out jobs of our educated, upwardly mobile middle class for millions of journalists, healthcare and tech professionals?
Where are those organized protesters who took on the Iraq war? While the current debate is on illegal immigration from Mexico, the millions of lost professional jobs in media and technology to H1B's from India will continue en masse unless the Democrats unite against this myth of a labor shortage and "free trade" race to the bottom that is only "free" for the increasingly powerful ruling class and "fucked" for over 50 M educated Americans. Read a great post on this issue from Barbara Ehrenreich
"Your Local News -Dateline Delhi"
"No, I don't resent the Indians for moving in on the kind of work I do. I just wish the next time some managers get the idea of cost-saving through outsourcing they'd go for the CEO's job. That's where the big bucks are, and there's no reason to think a Chinese or Indian person couldn't do a CEO's work, whatever it may be, perfectly adequately, and at less than a tenth of the price. As for me, I'm retraining as a massage therapist, at least until they figure out how to do that from Mumbai."
So much for 'community'. No matter how educated and qualified we are, is our community welcome to kick us to the curb -- degrees in hand --- and reduce its own citizens to "massage therapist" status rather than putting the brakes on this out of control outsourcing vehicle that is running over the country?
-2Truthy

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barbara E. cites the culprit: CEO s
who lie about labor shortages and drive down wages when they don't care about quality. This must be fixed before we all turn into massage therapists!!!!!

Citizen Carrie said...

I found your blog today and I love your emphasis on the insanity of the loss of tech jobs and other middle class jobs. I read articles in the Detroit papers almost everyday about job fairs attracting thousands of people. If I read one more article about someone who looks at their layoff as an "opportunity to start a new chapter in their life", I'm going to puke.

Where's the indignation in this country? Aren't any of these highly paid execs going to figure out that if our salaries continue this downward spiral, we won't be able to afford to buy any more of these trendy products they're all trying to push at us?

2Truthy said...

Hi citizen carrie,

Yes, it is insane! Lately I have been asking others just what you said, "Where is the righteous indigntion" of our neighbors and politicians?

There is a War on the Middle Class and just about the only journalist I know of who professionally and diligently hammers it out is David Sirota. (See davidsirota.com)

All of the bullshit we read in the MSM and much of the blogosphere comes down to two words:

CORPORATE WELFARE.

It is amazing and disturbing how many people (Democrats) on the Left are bulldozed by the corporate welfare politicans like Gore, Clinton(s),Obama, Pelosi and others who are tripping all over themselves trying to keep their personal stock portfolios fat by befriending these greedy CEOS and venture capitalists who are selling out our jobs to the third world and are kicking the educated middle class to the curb. All 50+ plus million and counting. Oh and our kids, too.

There is no "skilled" professional labor shortage here. The only shortage that exists here is a shortage of tech professionals who can't afford to work for unjust wages (try one-quarter or more)and then ask the following:

Why should a computer scientist with advanced degrees here in Silicon Valley (with exorbitant housing and cost of living standards) work for anything less than a salary of $180K (minimum)? Why should a veteran airline pilot work for anything less than whatever their value should be? The same for our doctors, nurses, and so on. But instead of corporate executives reducing their own outrageously overinflated payouts and paying their educated workers fair, upwardly mobile wages adjusted to cost of living standards, they do, with the complicity of corrupt beltway poiticians, just the OPPOSITE by seeking tax shelters,loopholes, and moving their corps offshore and then importing cheap foreign labor back here to replace us. When is America going to quit sucking up to these faux Democrats?

This is frat boy mentality running our corporations and these sociopaths and the sycophants who suck up to them would rather rule a caste system of deferring Indians than be challenged by their competent peers, their neighbors.

Thanks for checking in here. You may want to read

Bill Gates Can't Get Enough Burnt Fries: McKennedy Bill Will Destroy Our McJobs

If you live in Detroit, you understand the struggle for Black Americans to rise up against these shitheads and outsourcing their jobs only perpetuates the hopeless struggle. We need to put Americans first.
-t.t.


http://tootruthy.blogspot.com/2007/03/bill-gates-cant-get-enough-burnt-fries.html

Citizen Carrie said...

Bravo,t.t.! Brilliant response. And thanks for the links.

What bugs me is that we can't seem to get the message across that there are significant numbers of unemployed/underemployed tech workers. The concensus still seems to be that those who are out of work are the ones who are not keeping up with the latest trends, or became superfluous when the dot.com bubble burst. (Could talk more about some of the dot.com myths, but some other time).

Even in Michigan, where the unemployment rate is at 7.1%, there is still the attitude that downsizing happens to the "other guy" and only affects poorly educated auto workers. Tech workers who lose their jobs do not go around telling people they are unemployed, because of the ostracism and negativity they face.

I can't help but think that things need to get a lot worse until we get a fundamental shift in attitudes regarding this crisis in the US.

-Citizen Carrie

2Truthy said...

hi citizen carrie,

I believe that the unemployment stats are higher than meet the eye. Also, it is interesting to note thatdespite this problem, labor organization in the tech sector are non-existent because typically, labor unions are representative of workers and not management and most of the good paying jobs that the frat boys are hording are professional jobs that involve management/executive positions.

The high tech scene here in silicon valley is being fashioned after the English colonial rule style of management where there are frat boys running start-ups and companies with legions of imported 'skilled' workers who in fact most often arrive with poor English speaking skills and even poorer programming skills and of course, work for a fraction of market value as adjusted to standard of living and inflation, etc.

The creepy part about this is that these hubris stuffed assholes are so smug that they are threatened by their educted peers/neighbors here who challenge them. Rather than be threatened, they play it safe to hire downscale in both quality and make up for it by hiring x times more to get make up for taxation. The net effect is that for every one educated American programmer/scientist they fire, they replace here with 3-4 (from usually India, sometimes China)so that the local and fed coffers are still 'fed.' Where do these sociopaths running these companies get off doing this and how much more will the middle class take before this war rages out of control?