Discussing Outsourcing with Republicans

[sistersofmercy]

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of discussing the outsourcing of American jobs to countries such as India with a Republican. Our conversation began with the topic of the current political climate which both sides conceded is heated and greatly divided. Then we moved quickly through several topics which admittedly I would call a draw. However, being one who loves to trump the capitalistic argument as the foundations of our great country and expose the nasty corporate agenda for what is, I brought up outsourcing.
Stating that one of my central issues against the current administration is outsourcing, because it not only takes jobs away from americans but also contributes to the deficit by losing tax revenue, I baited this Republican into an argument I knew he could not win. My opponent, a businessman, of course retorted with the standard response of, "some businesses could not survive without outsourcing" and went on to state that he personally knew companies who had had to make that decision. My rebuttal, "I have no problem with outsourcing when it is absolutely necessary for the survival of an American company. I do, however, have a problem with CEO's who base their decision on outsourcing solely to increase their personal income. It is my opinion that these companies who are merely motivated by greed for taking jobs away from Americans can not in good conscience call themselves American patriots. It is as unpatriotic as is gets!"
I left him with a loss of words and it was the end of the debate. I believe he was absolutely flabbergasted to hear a Democrat fire back with the unpatriotic card applied to his corporate cronies. He had obviously never thought of it that way.

[TexasChick]

1. Yeah, we "outsourced" victims have two words for this:

"Economic treason"! This greed won't last long with these companies paying this foreigners with pennies on the dollar. They aren't gonna be able to afford their products and when Americans with no jobs can't afford them either, well, just maybe, they'll finally get it!

[Village Idiot]

2. Greed, greed and more of the same...

Americans deserve better.


GO KERRY, GO!!!

[PittLib]

3. I think the difference lies in the recognition of humanity ...

I am a liberal, who admittedly has no real grasp on economic issues. I had a long conversation with my repub but Kerry supporting friend, who is trying to catch me up on the fine points of economic theory and principle. I realize that the problem lies in the fact that I tend to argue almost completely from the heart - wanting equal opportunity for all Americans (I champion the underdog)which tosses structure in the can - and he would tend to argue completely from black & white on paper theory, which doesn't usually factor in human error. I think we are starting to balance each other nicely. They have to stop looking at the bottom line for their arguments and acknowledge the humanity - and we have to acknowledge the logic behind such theory. Just a personal insight.