NY Senator Charles Schumer Fights Job Outsourcing

New York Senator Charles Schumer has been fighting outsourcing. He publicly berated Adidas for outsourcing NBA jerseys. He attended a rally at National Grid in Syracuse, New York to protest its plan to outsource jobs. And he introduced a bill that will penalize companies with foreign call centers. Among other punishments, they will pay 25 cents a call for every foreign call.

Schumer's efforts and the efforts of other politicians are a start, and long overdue, but will probably not bring jobs back to America. Proposed anti-outsourcing bills probably will not pass because businesses want outsourcing and they will lean on politicians not to vote for the bills.

Even if some of the anti-outsourcing legislation was to pass, businesses might opt to pay fines and taxes, lose government contracts and more rather than bring jobs back to the good ol' U. S. of A. Punishments might not compare to the huge amounts businesses save on wages by outsourcing jobs to foreign lands where desperate people work cheap.

Fines and taxes will give the government more money, but they will not give the average American a job. Politicians cannot or will not help the average American who has been hurt and continues to be hurt by the greed of the businesses that outsource.

I know an average American who has been hurt by outsourcing. He did everything right and played by the rules, yet greedy businesses and our impotent government who does nothing to stop them are ruining his life.

After graduating from high school, this average American worked his way through college and earned a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems (MIS). When he began college, Information Technology (IT) was all the rage and the rave of the future. By the time he graduated many jobs had been outsourced and IT was the past.

He worked non-IT jobs in K-Mart and Sears while news reports spread rumors that IT jobs would soon be back in America. So, this average American earned a Master's in MIS while he worked to be better prepared when the jobs returned as he lacked work experience.

In 2007, after spending six years in college and a paying a small fortune to "American" schools, he was deeply in debt with college loans. Yet, he still could not find an IT job to make the income required to pay back the loans. So, he moved to New York City on a shoestring in search of an IT job. He found one within a month.

He worked hard at his new IT job, his new career, for two years and was getting on his feet. Then, his new IT job was outsourced. He has been collecting unemployment for the last year which is scheduled to run out next month. With a Master's Degree and two years of experience, he has not been able to find another IT job in New York City.

This is what outsourcing does for the average American. It ruins his life.

Our government should never have allowed the unscrupulous practice of outsourcing in the first place.The unemployment rate would not be what it is in America if all of the outsourced jobs were in America.

Sources:

Jill Colvin, "Sen. Schumer rips Adidas for outsourcing of NBA jerseys," NY Daily News

Tim Knauss, "Sen. Charles Schumer to lead rally Thursday against outsourcing National Grid jobs," Syracuse Online

Senator Charles E. Schumer, "SCHUMER UNVEILS BILL TO REIN IN OUTSOURCING OF CALL CENTER JOBS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES; BILL WOULD MAINTAIN THOUSANDS OF JOBS IN NY AND US AND PROVIDE INCENTIVE FOR JOBS TO RETURN"