More Jobs Disappear; Stock Market Finally Drops
by Jeff Davis
In the last week, the Dow Jones stock market lost 535 points. 412 points were lost on a single day. Some investors were under the illusion that the market would just keep going up. A few overly optimistic folks took out loans on their houses to invest and are now in serious financial trouble. Financial experts blame the large drop on remarks by retired Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, who warned that a recession might hit sometime in 2007. His remarks were published Monday evening and there was a panic on Wall Street the next day.
This raises the question: Just how solid is the US economy if the opinion of one man can torpedo the stock market? The truth is the US economy isn’t that solid. Greenspan’s doubts about the economy are well-founded. Every year, we load up with millions of new illegal aliens who push our infrastructure to the breaking point. Our manufacturing jobs have been mercilessly outsourced, and Affirmative Action combined with talentless executives has driven both Ford and General Motors to the verge of bankruptcy. To highlight this downward spiral, Chrysler recently announced a lay off of 13,000 jobs.
One of the areas of the economy hardest hit by outsourcing and downsizing has always been the call center. While some people think all these jobs have already been exported to India, many businesses thankfully still hire Americans rather than resort to a “Hindu Hotline.” Call centers include those places you telephone when your computer goes on the fritz, or if you want to order something from a catalog or off TV, or when one of your appliances breaks down, or when you want to talk about your insurance. Call centers have always provided a vital source of bottom-rung employment for people living in rural towns with no other source of work and for middle-aged folks who have been kicked out of their real jobs. These jobs also favor young White people just entering the workforce since most illegal aliens have a hard time with English.
According to an article in the Daily Oregonian newspaper, “IBM plans by July 2007 to close a 620-person call center in Hillsboro, which fields customer service calls for General Motors Corp. The announcement of the closure comes when GM is scrimping on costs, although it is unclear that GM instigated the Hillsboro move. The automaker plans to cut thousands of jobs, trim employee benefits and reorganize operations to stem losses….An employee of the Hillsboro call center said an IBM subcontractor told workers that the GM work would be sent out of the country.” This means outsourced to India, most likely.
The article goes on: “IBM spokeswoman Jenny Galitz would not specify where the work would go. IBM, which recently won the contract to operate GM’s three U.S. vehicle services call centers, decided with its subcontractors that the work would be better ‘integrated into our global network of delivery centers,’ Galitz said… IBM also plans to close a 400-person call center in Tampa, Fla. …and reduce staff at a 500-person call center in Austin, Texas. All three centers handle GM’s vehicle sales, service and marketing activity in North America.” So from now on, if you have problems with your car or truck, you can give Deepak Punjab in Bombay a call and see if he understands you.
In India itself, the call center business is booming. Paid on the average about three dollars a day, working under unsanitary and sometimes oppressive labor conditions, call center “reps” in such places as Calcutta and Bangalore are ordered to call themselves names like “Kevin” or “Jennifer.” They are also given mandatory English diction lessons so they can assume white-sounding, Americanized accents when speaking with callers, or British accents if the jobs they have stolen were from Britain. The companies who are subcontracting out what amounts to white-collar slave labor do not want their customers to know they are helping support outsourcing and driving white Americans and Britons into the unemployment office, or even worse, into the military because those are the only jobs available.
Perhaps this is why the Bush administration has done nothing about the ceaseless hemorrhaging of jobs. It isn’t just their unconditional devotion to the robber barons of the corporate world. They want people so desperate for work that they join the military so the war in Iraq can go on forever. Meanwhile, big companies will keep on outsourcing American jobs. Why shouldn’t they? They know perfectly well that no one is going to stop them.