So I call up Intuit customer support last night and got a person in India…

[SnoopDog]

The representative started to ask me about my technical problem when I asked him where he was located. He said India. When he said that, I ask to speak to an American . He placed me on hold and a few minutes later his manager got on the phone.

I informed her that I have no problems with her or any of my fellow humans from India – I had a problem with Intuit outsourcing jobs . She said someone would call you back.

This morning I got a call back from Intuit – this time a guy in Arizona. I asked my question and got my answer. I then proceeded to tell him why I wanted to speak to an American. I told him that I do not believe in outsourcing jobs overseas at the expense and hardships of my fellow American citizens. He said, ‘yes, we get that a lot’.

My point is that I try to do whatever I can to stop the harmful policies of this bush administration. When you send jobs overseas, not only does an American not have a job, but also the payroll taxes gleaned from American employment are not deposited into our Social Security system.

In my opinion, outsourcing of jobs only helps the CEO and upper management. Savings from labor costs are not propagated to other workers salaries or benefits nor are the cost of the product reduced.

Once again, wealth is filtered only to the top – at the expense of the citizenship.

[shoelace414]

People of India when trying to speak "American"

seem to talk a lot with their nose (i.e. Nasally)

[politicaholic]

1. Good job!

:thumbsup:

[justinsb]

2. It actually helps the people

that are outsourced to. The average programmer in India, from what I've read, makes about 13,000/yr. That's illegal for a full time job in the US but in India 13,000 US is a lot of money. The days of the US as an economic superpower are over, China and India will both eclipse the US in terms of economic power within a decade.

[SnoopDog]

3. Yes it does help Indians... I think we should help Americans first. nt

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. Have you read this?

"After The Empire: The Breakdown Of The American Order," by Emmanuel Todd.

Smashing book, excellent read. If you haven't read it yet (you sound like you have), I highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/023113102X/qid=1103137932/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-7514536-8807322

[SnoopDog]

5. I have not read it...What is it about? nt

[OldLeftieLawyer]

7. Here's one reader's take on it

plus a link to the amazon.com site for the book:

http://tinyurl.com/67g26

[SnoopDog]

11. Thank you - just read the exerp...

So here we are the 'greatest' country in the world - oh, but wait, not necessarily...

And the idiot we call * is driving our country and our world down the toilet.

I want to take back our America to the greatness it once had. I do what ever I can.

[justinsb]

13. Quote

We're not manufacturing anything that gives us any kind of standing in international markets, and so our balance (rather - IMbalance of trade) places us even further in the hole as we continually import the things we once made, thereby driving our withering economy even deeper into its already-deep grave. We are almost totally dependent on foreign money, and that dependency just makes us weaker and weaker.

(Remember the surplus Bill Clinton left when he concluded his second term?)

What people need to understand is that we are no longer the big-deal leader of democracy that we insist we are - there are democracies that are smarter than we are and are banding together to make sure they remain economically strong and independently unified against the hubris and disconnect from reality that now characterizes the United States.

Japan and Europe are going to become two of the world's most productive industrial centers, leaving the US with its dick in its hand, peeing on its foot, while Russia and the Middle East are evolving into regions of military and demographic strength, even as we continue to increase our dependence on their oil.

And, finally, we have allowed ourselves to become the victims of the hysterical exaggeration of the neocons and rightwingnuts who claim that our power and strength are eternal and that we rule the world. Plainly, that is not the case, and Todd has written a book that was a bestseller in France and Germany, and should be required reading for everyone who cares about what is happening to our beloved country.

This is a quote from the link and it's dead on. The US as superpower is esentially over, yes there is still a large military but it is living on borrowed money. The US doesn't really manufacture anything, and has few natural resources remaining, the US does innovate but even in this was long ago left behind by western europe and japan. I'm not trying to rant, or to insult anyone, it's just reality. When planning for 08, 12, 16 etc you have to plan for post empire US, otherwise it is based on myth.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

19. Why, thank you,,,,,,,,,,,,

That's my quote from my site.

<puffed with pride>

[justinsb]

20. lol..you're welcome!

Thanks for being right. :toast:

[pelagius]

9. Second the recommendation!

It's a truly provocative, fun book, polemical as hell, but not bound by the constraints of the typical left/right talking points.

[DrGonzoLives]

14. So

Indian and China should be economically dependent on U.S. corporations shipping them jobs? That's called imperialism, son. Because they are dependent on us, what happens when our economy crashes? They will end up feeling it even worse.

[justinsb]

17. On the contrary

US Corporations are dependent on India and China, if the US were to lose the Indian and Chinese labour markets, consumer markets and investment most of them would go under overnight.

[SnoopDog]

21. That...that would not happen...

We would get Americans to fill their jobs..

[OldLeftieLawyer]

24. Guess what?

China owns our paper.

We are SO owned by the Chinese. If they wanted to send the planet into flux, all they'd have to do would be to call in the loans we owe them.

[justinsb]

25. What jobs?

Inflation would go through the roof for american made products, Chinese companies would take over the abandoned factories and Americans wouldn't be able to afford to buy American. The Chinese can already make a DVD player and sell it for $40. It's called the 'china price'

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_49/b3911401.htm

American companies may not survive anyway. If they were forced to move manufacturing back to the US they would likely just fold up shop and pocket what money they could.

[DrGonzoLives]

27. Do you approve, then

of tax breaks to companies who move those jobs overseas? And we are not dependent on them - we could yank those jobs back anytime and the only sting would be a slight increase in prices, offset by the fact that more people would have jobs and disposable income.

[justinsb]

28. I'm not talking about approving or disaproving

It's just the reality, the jobs aren't coming back. It wouldn't be a slight increase in prices - the likely result would be that those companies would go bankrupt and the jobs that did come back wouldn't pay more than minimum wage. If the US is going to reconver massive amounts of money have to be invested in things like education and infrastructure and stop doing things you can't afford (ie no more war on drugs, no more wars, no more troops in the Middle East, South America, Central America, Europe, Japan etc.) and a serious tax hike to pay for the needed investments. That's the reality now.

[rkc3]

15. What we're learning is that it's easier to lower the standard of living

for one country (the US) than it is to raise the economies of many, disparate countries.

The idea of raising the standard of living throughout the world was based on the fact that what was produced here in the US would be sold overseas as other countries were able to afford our goods and services.

To aid in their growth, we exported our jobs, technologies, and manufacturing capabilities. Now we have economies ready to buy our goods but there are no companies in the US really making anything.

[JAbuchan08]

6. I understand the frustration

but I don't think its really fair to take it out on the Indian person. It's not their fault, again, I understand the frustration.

[SnoopDog]

10. I did not degrade my Indian friend at all...

I was polite and stated exactly why I wanted to speak to an American. Yes, they have to work too, but not at the expense of my American friends.

[JAbuchan08]

22. I wasn't trying to say you were being rude,

I apologize. Maybe we should all react like this when we are connected to an outsourced customer service department, if for no more reason than to make a point, but I can't help but wonder how Indians feel when they are asked inevitably asked, "so where are you speaking from?"

[SnoopDog]

26. No problem my friend...

I just feel America is, well, being destroyed by the idiots that run our country. I posted this thread because I want to tell how I attempt to help America.

I feel for all of our fellow human beings of the world, but we can not help them until we help ourselves.

[JAbuchan08]

30. It's always been my philosophy re: outsourcing

immigration etc. that that the problem is not that Americans are paid to much, but that people in other countries are paid to little.
Its in our interest to agitate for improved wages and general working conditions world wide so as to level the playing field and reduce the power of the outsourcing "threat". Its not a case of "them" taking "our" jobs, it is more a case of all of "us" being played against one another to the benefit of the employers.
Eventually the wages in India will rise and their jobs will be outsourced to Indonesia, then to Bangladesh and so on and so forth.

[bluedog]

8. Citibank also

did the same thing to me...I got pissed when they wouldn't let me talk to their supervisor and contacted the office again.this time I got on a three way call with India and India would not let me and our US rep speak to him/her..the rep here was pissed and I said thats what happens when jobs go overseas...and she said "yep, damn it..happens all the time..people should raise holy hell about this problem.

finally got the problem with citibank straightened out after calling the Fed agencies....and filing numerous complaints.........damn what a f'ing pain in the ass!!

[Al-CIAda]

18. Citibank is Saudi owned...just FYI...better to not use them -eom

[arcane1]

12. sadly, call-centers are only the most visible of the out-sourced jobs

while much of the clothing on our backs, and the belongings in our homes, are made by faceless nameless invisible people in poor countries, working under wages and conditions that haven't been legal in America for 100 years :(

[Cadence]

16. A friend of mine called Cingular customer support

for his cell phone last week. After spending two and half hours getting shuffled around and waiting on hold he finally got someone in India that had a five minute conversation and determined he should call back "yesterday". :D

He hung up, went to the local verizon store and got a different phone.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

23. I got a great woman to help me

when my brand-new HP computer went bust on me five days after I bought it.

No matter what she did, nothing helped. After two hours - these people are working hard for their money - I said, "Look, this is futile. I don't want this computer any more. I want to take it back to the store and get something else."

She said, "That's not possible. Our refund policy is only good for seventy-two hours."

I said, "For want of forty-eight hours, I'm out fifteen hundred dollars and I have a machine that doesn't work?"

(I never got angry, didn't raise my voice - I am, after all, an OldLeftieLawyer.)

I continued, "This doesn't seem fair to me, does it?"

She put me on hold, went to talk with her supervisor, and came back with an authorization number that I took, along with the bum computer, to CompUSA, where I used the refund - plus a bit more - to have them build me a super-duper computer.

I doubt that even one component in it was made in the USA.

But that lady in India was terrific.

I just thought I'd post this here, even though I, too, lament the loss of American jobs.

[pelagius]

29. self-deleted/wrong place

[pelagius]

31. I sure hope we're all driving American cars! n/t

[SnoopDog]

32. I drive a Jeep.... n/t

[justinsb]

33. I don't drive at all

Don't own a car, don't have a licence - I use public transit, walk and ride a bike. But there are more cars manufactured in Ontario than Michigan now and more foreign cars (Toyota, Mitsubishi etc) manufactured in the US than 'US' Cars.