As a software consultant in the US, I am very encouraged by Clark's stated positions on a range of issues that affect my industry, from H1-B visas, to the outsourcing of jobs. I took the liberty of transcribing some of Clark's comments on these topics from a NH Town Hall meeting he did a few weeks back. Please treat this as an unofficial / rush transcript.
From the VFW pancake breakfast in Nashua, NH, broadcast on CSPAN (12/20/03)
Question: I'd like to know your philosophy surrounding globalism and what you'll do with H1-B visas and also the dramatic amount of offshore outsourcing.
General Clark: Yeah, I'm very concerned about it. You know- the issue is globalism - H1-B visas are the visas that are given to these very smart, computer literate experts from the Indian Institute of Technology who come into the country. They often work at reduced wages to the native... to American citizens, and then they leave and they take back their skills, and they take back what they've learned here and start businesses at home. And, what's happened is, is that we- we took advantage of an explosion in trade opening, technology, improved communications, the fall of the Iron Curtain and so forth in the 1990's. And it brought an immediate surge of prosperity to the United States. But we didn't understand the full dimensions of what we were dealing with. In the 19th century, when we began to develop railroads, first they were developed in Britain. And then the British invested in America. And of course to build railroads you have to have steel and to have steel you have to dig up iron ore and you have to... and so it...it was a 30 year process to industrialize America. Started before the Civil War, really picked up speed after the Civil War... by the turn of the Century we were the greatest power in the world, but it took 30 years.
A hundred years ago the Brits were asking themselves, "What happened? We, We - Britain - We were the leaders in the industrial age and now America and even Germany has overtaken us in Steel production. And we're no longer the greatest industrial power." And they paid for it.
What we didn't understand is with the knowledge industry it doesn't take 30 years. You don't have to build blast furnaces and Bessimer converters and open pit iron mines. All you have to have is a telephone wire, and a laptop computer, and you simply bring it in and work. And so it's meant an export of software jobs and service industry jobs things like telephone calling and other things that have migrated overseas at an astonishingly rapid rate. And that's what's happening to America. Not only cheap Chinese manufacturing, but also the software stuff.
So here's what I will do. In the first place, I believe in 'Buy American'- not only hardware, but software. Everything that's associated with national security we will procure in the United States. (APPLAUSE) Our financial industry, our utility industries, virtually every aspect of American life is controlled in some way by information technology. And we simply can't afford to have that developed abroad in other countries, because you can't tell what's in it. It works but you don't know whether it's got these so called trap doors and other things that could sabotage it at some point. So the essential stuff is, buy American hardware and software. We need to relook the H1-B visa. I'm all in favor of bringing people into this country, but only at fully competitive wage rates. (APPLAUSE) Not bringing people in to take jobs from Americans. (APPLAUSE continuing) And when they come here, I'd like them to stay and become American citizens... I met a man in Manchester the other day from India, he's a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, he came here, started a software company, married an American woman, they're running a serires of Nursing Homes - I congratulate him. It's the American dream. It's a success story. And we're glad to have him. So we want 'em to come but we want them to stay and be with us and put that creativity to work here and keep it in our economy.
And I will also remove all the business incentives that will let companies profit, taxwise or otherwise, from outsourcing jobs or moving their headquarters abroad. (APPLAUSE). We're not gonna keep America safe and we're not gonna make ourselves prosperous by walling off America from the outside world. But trade and markets exist to help people. They're not gods... you don't worship them... you dont let them go and do whatever they want. They have to be regulated, they have to be made fair, they have to be made transparent, people have to have information to participate in them. We're going to ask every company that outsources jobs to report it so that as Americans we know which companies are preparing to outsource jobs, and we're going to provide incentives for companies who want to keep jobs and expand jobs in America. We're going to protect American employment (APPLAUSE). (Person asking question nods head).
In Berlin New Hampshire a man in the Paper Mill said to me, he said, "You know I'm really worried" he said, "You know we got a hundred and twenty people laid off here. We're working through Christmas we're working 12 hour days but we don't know if we're going to have our jobs after Christmas. We're under foreign competition, we just don't know what's happening," he said, "And this country can't live if it doesn't produce things - it can't just buy Chinese manufactured goods." And he's exactly right, and I promise you (APPLAUSE) I promise you as president of the United States, we'll put America back to work and we will produce - we won't just service, we will produce- and we'll make the finest products in the world in everything from energy technology, to environmental technology, to new automobiles, to battery chips, generators, software, hardware, jet planes and whatever else there is, and we'll be proud to see on our products, Made in the USA.(APPLAUSE)
http://abby.forclark.com/story/2003/12/31/17032/961The original video of the breakfast is at
http://www.span.org. Search for "Clark". Can't miss it.
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