dmcowen674
No Lifer
Trading Away Jobs and Liberty
??Outsourcing," "offshoring," "human resource realignment," "training your replacement." These are words that send chills through millions of workers in IT ("information technology") and other hi-tech industries. They also send waves of anger and depression. In the tragic case of Kevin Flanagan, they are being blamed for his suicide. For months, the 41-year-old Silicon Valley software programmer had been anticipating a layoff announcement from his employer, Bank of America.
"He knew that Bank of America was sending jobs overseas," Contra Costa Times reporter Ellen Lee wrote in a May 13th article. "He had seen his friends and coworkers leave until only he and one other person remained on the last project Flanagan worked on." On the April afternoon after he had been told his job was terminated, Kevin Flanagan went outside and shot himself dead in the parking lot of the Bank of America?s Concord Technology Center.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services will affect virtually all service industries and service jobs, which means virtually all American businesses and jobs. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which takes the lead in negotiating trade agreements, provides this answer to its own question, "What are services?":
Services are what most Americans do for a living. Service industries account for nearly 80 percent of U.S. employment and GDP. U.S. exports of commercial services (i.e., excluding military and government) were $246 billion in 1998, supporting over 4 million services and manufacturing jobs in the United States.
GATS targets all of these service industries, including insurance, banking, legal services, accounting, engineering, teaching, real estate, tourism, consulting, energy distribution, transportation, telecommunications, courier and postal services, and much, much more.
This is the essence of the message delivered to U.S. corporate leaders in an influential 2003 report from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a CFR corporate member. Entitled The Cusp of a Revolution: How offshoring will transform the financial services industry, the Deloitte report tells CEOs that they had better get their companies aboard the offshore express before they miss out completely on this "transformational" opportunity and are left in the dust.
"The shifting of activities to lower-cost locations," it claims, "ignites the possibility of transforming the structure of the financial-services industry. Indeed, it offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reduce significantly the operating costs of the majority of financial institutions." According to the report, "$356 billion of cost for the global financial-services industry will be relocated offshore within the next five years. We calculate that this will translate into a bottom-line annual cost savings of $138 billion (or $1.4 billion each) for the world?s top 100 financial-services companies by 2008."
Estimating that 13 million people are employed in financial services jobs in "mature industrial economies," the Deloitte analysis predicts a "potential movement of up to two million jobs" offshore. Cusp of a Revolution notes: "In 5 years GE Capital has offshored 11,000 positions to India and is now considering the impact of commercializing their offshore capabilities on their competitive advantage."
Relatively little organized opposition to these schemes has materialized, except for that led by the left-wing anti-globalization forces. Most Republicans and conservative, patriotic Americans, still enamored of President Bush, have bought into the nonsensical arguments of the administration that these FTAs are the ticket to ever-expanding prosperity.
But that is changing rapidly, as more and more Americans are feeling the harsh reality of the planned "new world order" or are beginning to see the writing on the wall concerning their own jobs, businesses, and professions.
By attacking virtually every segment of society simultaneously, the one-worlders may be miscalculating; they risk awakening, angering, and activating an immense resistance involving Americans from all socio-economic backgrounds and every walk of life. These newly awakened Americans can be reached and organized into a formidable force to upset the subversive globalist agenda and preserve our independence. But we have no time to waste.
The NewAmerican.com - Engineered Extinction
??Outsourcing," "offshoring," "human resource realignment," "training your replacement." These are words that send chills through millions of workers in IT ("information technology") and other hi-tech industries. They also send waves of anger and depression. In the tragic case of Kevin Flanagan, they are being blamed for his suicide. For months, the 41-year-old Silicon Valley software programmer had been anticipating a layoff announcement from his employer, Bank of America.
"He knew that Bank of America was sending jobs overseas," Contra Costa Times reporter Ellen Lee wrote in a May 13th article. "He had seen his friends and coworkers leave until only he and one other person remained on the last project Flanagan worked on." On the April afternoon after he had been told his job was terminated, Kevin Flanagan went outside and shot himself dead in the parking lot of the Bank of America?s Concord Technology Center.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services will affect virtually all service industries and service jobs, which means virtually all American businesses and jobs. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which takes the lead in negotiating trade agreements, provides this answer to its own question, "What are services?":
Services are what most Americans do for a living. Service industries account for nearly 80 percent of U.S. employment and GDP. U.S. exports of commercial services (i.e., excluding military and government) were $246 billion in 1998, supporting over 4 million services and manufacturing jobs in the United States.
GATS targets all of these service industries, including insurance, banking, legal services, accounting, engineering, teaching, real estate, tourism, consulting, energy distribution, transportation, telecommunications, courier and postal services, and much, much more.
This is the essence of the message delivered to U.S. corporate leaders in an influential 2003 report from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a CFR corporate member. Entitled The Cusp of a Revolution: How offshoring will transform the financial services industry, the Deloitte report tells CEOs that they had better get their companies aboard the offshore express before they miss out completely on this "transformational" opportunity and are left in the dust.
"The shifting of activities to lower-cost locations," it claims, "ignites the possibility of transforming the structure of the financial-services industry. Indeed, it offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reduce significantly the operating costs of the majority of financial institutions." According to the report, "$356 billion of cost for the global financial-services industry will be relocated offshore within the next five years. We calculate that this will translate into a bottom-line annual cost savings of $138 billion (or $1.4 billion each) for the world?s top 100 financial-services companies by 2008."
Estimating that 13 million people are employed in financial services jobs in "mature industrial economies," the Deloitte analysis predicts a "potential movement of up to two million jobs" offshore. Cusp of a Revolution notes: "In 5 years GE Capital has offshored 11,000 positions to India and is now considering the impact of commercializing their offshore capabilities on their competitive advantage."
Relatively little organized opposition to these schemes has materialized, except for that led by the left-wing anti-globalization forces. Most Republicans and conservative, patriotic Americans, still enamored of President Bush, have bought into the nonsensical arguments of the administration that these FTAs are the ticket to ever-expanding prosperity.
But that is changing rapidly, as more and more Americans are feeling the harsh reality of the planned "new world order" or are beginning to see the writing on the wall concerning their own jobs, businesses, and professions.
By attacking virtually every segment of society simultaneously, the one-worlders may be miscalculating; they risk awakening, angering, and activating an immense resistance involving Americans from all socio-economic backgrounds and every walk of life. These newly awakened Americans can be reached and organized into a formidable force to upset the subversive globalist agenda and preserve our independence. But we have no time to waste.
The NewAmerican.com - Engineered Extinction
