To the Republican Whips, Democratic Whips, Members of Congress, and every elected official who still remembers who sent them to Washington:
America has developed a fascinating business model.
American customers spend the money.
American workers pay the taxes.
American students take out the loans.
American families absorb the risk.
Then comes the outsourcing of American jobs.
The jobs, data, and opportunities get packed into a digital shipping container and sent overseas so another corporation can squeeze out a few extra pennies for the next earnings call.
Apparently we’re all supposed to applaud.
No, thank you.
Study Hard, Graduate, Get Replaced
The American people did not build the largest economy on Earth so a handful of executives could discover a new labor market every quarter while telling American graduates that they need more education, more certifications, more patience, and somehow less rent.
We are raising a generation of young Americans who were told:
Go to school.
Work hard.
Get the degree.
Follow the rules.
Then they graduate and discover the entry-level job has already been outsourced.
That’s not a workforce strategy.
That’s a bait-and-switch.
Republicans say they support American workers.
Democrats say they support working families.
Wonderful.
Then this should be easy.
Let’s stop pretending that offshoring American jobs while importing record profits is some kind of patriotic achievement.
Corporate Responsibility Starts at Home
If a corporation benefits from American consumers, American infrastructure, American courts, American laws, and American taxpayers, then that corporation should have a meaningful obligation to invest in American workers.
Congress should consider legislation that:
- Restricts the transfer of highly sensitive personal information, including passport numbers, driver’s license information, financial records, and similar identifying data outside the United States except under narrowly defined circumstances.
- Requires clear disclosure whenever customer support, technical operations, data processing, or similar services are performed overseas.
- Creates incentives for companies that hire, train, and retain American workers.
- Requires large corporations benefiting from offshoring savings to reinvest a portion of those savings into American apprenticeships, scholarships, workforce development, and technical training.
- Encourages the hiring of American senior citizens, veterans, disabled workers, stay-at-home parents returning to the workforce, and students seeking part-time employment opportunities.
For decades, call centers were viewed as jobs that anyone could learn with training, patience, and a willingness to help people.
They provided flexible work for retirees looking to supplement fixed incomes, college students trying to avoid excessive debt, parents balancing family responsibilities, and workers seeking a path into larger careers.
Why shouldn’t those opportunities belong to Americans?
Why shouldn’t a single mother in Ohio be answering customer service calls?
Why shouldn’t a college student in Michigan earn tuition money by helping customers after class?
Why shouldn’t a veteran in Texas, a grandmother in Florida, or a disabled worker in Washington have the opportunity to work from home serving American customers?
Wall Street’s Favorite Layoff Plan
Instead, corporations increasingly tell us that there is no choice but to send those jobs abroad.
Strangely, there is always enough money for stock buybacks.
There is always enough money for executive compensation.
There is always enough money for another earnings celebration on Wall Street.
Funny how the shortage only appears when it’s time to hire Americans.
Let’s be honest about what’s happening.
When corporations announce layoffs, Wall Street cheers.
When executives cut labor costs, investors celebrate.
When communities lose jobs, suddenly everyone becomes very interested in “market efficiency.”
Funny how efficiency is always somebody else’s paycheck.
The average American is being asked to compete with labor markets thousands of miles away while paying American housing costs, American food prices, American healthcare bills, and American taxes.
Then politicians wonder why people are angry.
It’s not a mystery.
It’s arithmetic.
The Real Cost of Outsourcing Jobs
This is not an attack on workers in India, the Philippines, or anywhere else. They are doing exactly what hardworking people everywhere do, trying to build a better life.
The question is why American public policy increasingly rewards corporations for moving opportunities away from the very people who helped build those corporations in the first place.
At some point Congress must decide whether its primary responsibility is to American citizens or to quarterly earnings reports.
Because the shareholders are doing just fine.
The lobbyists are doing just fine.
The executives are doing just fine.
The question is whether the senior citizen trying to stretch a Social Security check, the student carrying thousands of dollars in debt, and the worker looking for a decent job are doing fine.
Many are not.
A healthy nation cannot survive on stock prices alone.
It survives when ordinary people can find work, build careers, support families, buy homes, and believe their children will have a better future than they did.
That belief built America.
We should stop outsourcing it.
May our leaders remember who they serve.
May our corporations remember where their prosperity came from.
And may America once again invest in the people who made America possible in the first place.
God bless America, and may common sense make a comeback before the next earnings report.
