A Letter to Pres. Bush

[Resume Writer]

Hi Everyone,

I felt compelled to write a letter to President Bush tonight after several years of seeing this economy in such poor shape and the affect it is having in all industries, especially Information Technology. I thought I would share the letter with all of you. I will be curious to see if I get a response of any kind...

Dear President Bush,

First, let me state, that I am a Republican. I have a strong belief that no one should get anything without working for it. However, the issue that concerns me most at this time is the job market. Let me explain.

I am a professional Resume Writer. Primarily I compose job search related tools for candidates and help with career selection and interview coaching. In the past few years, I have seen an inordinate amount of people in the Information Technology industry lose their positions. Most of these positions are in the programming arena. I believe this is a direct result of the jobs being shipped overseas to India and other countries.

While it may seem prudent for big business to ship their jobs elsewhere, I want to provide you with a different view. When individuals are downsized because these businesses hire people for lower wages, everyone loses.

For instance, for every employee that an employer terminates, the employer’s “experience rating” for unemployment goes up. This in turn costs the company more money. Perhaps they do not see it outright on their bottom line, but it is definitely there. Further, when workers are displaced, they become a drain on the state in which they reside. Not only in unemployment benefits, but also in Welfare and Healthcare provided by the state. In addition, when they have to be retrained, government money is spent once again through the Workforce Development Act. Soon, most states will probably be bankrupt from the money that is being used for these individuals in all government services.

Let’s take this one step further. With this many people unemployed (the jobs statistics are for new claims only, it does not show the number of people currently unemployed or off the unemployment roles because their time has run out), the available dollars that can be spent on luxury items is diminished. Therefore, in the long run, the companies that are shipping their jobs overseas are truly creating their own problems down the line; they just do not see it yet.

With the number of people being laid off, the incidence of personal bankruptcy has risen to unprecedented levels. Once again, this costs companies a great deal of money because they have to write off bad debt. As you can see, this is a very vicious cycle.

Now, I am by no means an economist, but I deal with people every day that are searching for jobs. It becomes very disheartening to not be able to help people.

I conduct job search seminars every 3 months here in the Phoenix area. It is very hard when I cannot offer these people any hope because the fact is, there are no jobs for them. I have also seen many older workers who are displaced and like it or not, there is age discrimination that goes on. What do we have to offer them? After many years of paying taxes, are they supposed to give up everything they have worked so hard for because of a poor economy?

I thought that perhaps you would like to hear from an ordinary citizen, who sees the harm that exporting jobs is going to have on our economy. There is definitely a trickle down effect.

The only solution that I can think of is to not have jobs sent overseas. We need to take care of our own people. We should not be responsible for solving the problems of the world when our own house is not in order. I ask that you seriously consider the ramifications that the outsourcing of corporate America is causing.

I am not even sure if you read emails that you get from regular people, but if you do, I would certainly appreciate a response.

Sincerely,
Kathy Sweeney

 

[Dubya]

Kathy...a very thoughtful letter with lots of good points. Unfortunately you are probably trying to climb a tree with no limbs. The political process in this country has become so twisted and elite that the important voices..such as yours and mine and others in the middle of tough times...are largely paid lip service. I applaud your 'gumption though. I look forward to your forum and other comments on these issues.


W

 

[Timebuilder]

While it may seem prudent for big business to ship their jobs elsewhere, I want to provide you with a different view. When individuals are downsized because these businesses hire people for lower wages, everyone loses.

I isn't a case of it being prudent for "big business" to ship jobs overseas. It is a matter of the economics of free trade. Democrats and republicans agree on this for the most part, because all of the leading economists are saying the same thing: free trade is the only kind of trade to have. Not one leading, respected economist suggests that we should go down the protectionist path. Not one.

Protectionism leads to isolation, and we would have lost those markets where we would not only like to sell our products, but where we must sell our products. It isn't because businesses "need" to do this. They "must" do this to remain competitive with other businesses all over the world. We used to be able to compete more sucessfully with the majority of other countries. Over time, our labor costs have gone to stratospheric levels when compared to other less costly countries. We meant to make things better, but hobbled ourselves in the process of our attempts to "do good."

Now, I am by no means an economist, but I deal with people every day that are searching for jobs. It becomes very disheartening to not be able to help people.

It is disheartening when the world moves quickly and we are found resting on our laurels.

We have some fierce competitors out there. Go to India and look around to see if there are any fat kids watching Jerry Springer instead of learning Calculus. You won't find any. Go to Japan and observe the lengths to which an average Japanese family goes to get their child into the "right" kindergarten. They recognize the necessity of discipline and education in these competing countries. I worked next to a guy from Pakistan for five years while repairing cars and writing review texts for mechanics. Know what education this grease monkey had? He was a mathematics major in Pakistan, with a master's degree. He was typical of the education level of the Pakistani middle class. He enjoys working on cars.

I thought that perhaps you would like to hear from an ordinary citizen, who sees the harm that exporting jobs is going to have on our economy. There is definitely a trickle down effect.

Since this is supposedly a letter to President Bush, I am compelled to believe that you think there is some sort of "action" he should be taking, yet isn't. What would that action be?

The only solution that I can think of is to not have jobs sent overseas. We need to take care of our own people. We should not be responsible for solving the problems of the world when our own house is not in order. I ask that you seriously consider the ramifications that the outsourcing of corporate America is causing.

Ah. You are suggesting protectionism. I suppose the reason you are suggesting this is that you think it would help people, and somewhat help solve the problem that you have described. That is a worthy and noble idea, but it is inconsistent with economics. In fact, I heard one economist today on MSNBC during their business programming. He suggested that protectionism would lead to another "Great Depression." Those were his words.

So Kathy, while a newspaper writer once suggested that "yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", there is no Santa when it comes to economics. It is a force larger than the United States, and certainly any president or power. We can stimulate economies with tax cuts, which have staved off far worse conditions than you have seen over the past three years, but we cannot run away from the forces that move economic value in the global economy. We can't pick up our marbles and go home, because our very survival depends on our ability to stay in the game, compete heartily, and win as often as possible.

When we don't play, we are sure to lose by default.

While the president may not answer letters on a routine basis, I wanted you to have a better understanding of the Big Picture. There is no panacea except to cut costs, get smart, become more motivated, and find new and better ways to meet the efforts of our competitors, and make better game plans to lead to economic victories. So, if you or anyone else has a better idea, then speak up. If I had it, you would see me at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with my briefcase in hand.

My best suggestion is to rediscover the cultural values that made this nation great, and made us a leading nation. If we continue Slouching Toward Gomorrah, we will be lost.

 

[Resume Writer]

Timebuilder,

Thanks for educating me on economics. I completely and thoroughly understand economic principles and the free trade system. I was presenting a different viewpoint of "trickle down economics" - just from another perspective.

I am not suggesting protectionism. I am talking about corporate greed. Since you do not deal with jobseekers on a daily basis, you are not privy to the number of people I deal with who cannot find work in the IT field - and that is just one example. Manufacturing is another. I could go on....

Look at the airline industry. If people do not have the money to travel, there go even more jobs in this industry. If the people in the airline industry (or any other industry for that matter) cannot find work, then they default on loans, and companies eventually go bankrupt. As I stated in my email to the President, it is a vicious cycle.

Perhaps if the CEO's of companies took a paycut and cared about whether they saved the jobs of their workers, then this would not be an issue.

You write about getting back to the principles that made this country great - caring about each other and helping each other to succeed is one of them. There are many times when a farmer would fall ill and could not bring in his crops. The whole community would rally around him and help him harvest. They could have said to heck with Farmer Johnson, his lack of crops will drive the supply and demand theory of economics. But even they understood that if Farmer Johnson did not make his money, he could not pay his bills or buy goods from the local merchants.

If things are so wonderful in other countries, then why was your Pakistani friend working here in America? A lot of good his education did him. I do not believe for one second that he worked on cars because he liked it. He most likely could not find a position within his educational background - either here or in Pakistan.

Last Thursday when I presented my seminars at the Career Expo, there were over 5000 people that came through that job fair. I have been doing these seminars for two years, and each time that seems to be the consistent number. So, has the economy truly improved? I think in some cases it is on the way, however, when these companies send their jobs overseas, it is just a fresh lot of people that are unemployed.

As I stated in my email, the job stats are only for NEW claims. If the national average is 5.6% for new claims, and the statistics show that for every one person that files a new claim, there are ten that are sitting on unemployment or have been washed out of the system because their money is used up, then you can raise that number by a huge percentage. If people knew the true percentage, there would be chaos - hence the reason why they do not post the true numbers.

The following article is what I was responding to with my email to President Bush. This is a very hot topic right now. The President himself even disagreed with his Chief Economist about job growth. You cannot have growth in jobs when those jobs are being shipped overseas.


WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) - President Bush distanced himself Wednesday from White House predictions that the economy will add 2.6 million jobs this year, the second embarrassing economic retreat in a week and new fuel for Democratic criticism.

''Now they're already walking backwards on their own predictions,'' Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry said in Ohio, where unemployment has risen from 3.9 percent to 6 percent since Bush took office.

The jobs controversy came on the heels of White House economist N. Gregory Mankiw's assertion that ''outsourcing'' American jobs overseas was good for the U.S. economy in the long run. Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans quickly disavowed Mankiw's remarks, and the economist had to apologize for a ''lack of clarity.''

Jobs are a sensitive political issue for Bush as he fights to keep his own job in a second term. The economy has lost 2.2 million payroll jobs since Bush took office, the worst job-creation record of any president since Herbert Hoover.

The forecast of 2.6 million new jobs was contained in the annual Economic Report of the President, a 412-page volume of charts, graphs and text that predicted a bright economic future. The forecast came under special scrutiny after Treasury Secretary John Snow and Commerce Secretary Don Evans refused to repeat the optimistic prediction as they toured Washington and Oregon to promote the president's economic programs.

Bush himself avoided embracing the 2.6 million number when asked about it Wednesday. ''I think the economy is growing,'' Bush said. ''And I think it's going to get stronger.'' He said he was pleased that 366,000 jobs have been added since August.
''We are interested in reality,'' presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Democrats jumped on the White House retreat.

Six Democratic senators sent Bush a letter lambasting the administration for the Mankiw and jobs flaps. ''When the White House's official economic report makes the wrongheaded suggestion that moving jobs overseas is beneficial to the economy and contains job projections that are not endorsed by your own Cabinet members, serious questions are raised that the administration's economic policies are in disarray,'' the letter said. It was signed by Sens. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York, Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, said, ''President Bush is rapidly becoming the permanently surprised president. He is surprised that every economic prediction that he and his administration make does not pan out.''

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill, a senior adviser in the Clinton White House, said, ''This president faces a credibility gap with his own economic team that's as wide as the employment gap for millions of American workers.''

McClellan said the economic forecast was simply the work of ''number crunchers.'' He said Bush - who bills himself as the first president with a Master of Business Administration degree - was not a statistician or predictor.

''People can debate the numbers all they want,'' McClellan said. ''The president is interested in the actual number of jobs being created, and the president is interested in making sure that everybody who is looking for a job can find one.''

Trying to turn the tables on Kerry, McClellan said, ''Some people want to turn back and take actions that would raise taxes on people at a time when our economy is really starting to grow strong.'' Kerry has proposed cutting the deficit by half, at least, in a first term, in part through repeal of Bush tax cuts for wealthier Americans.

The administration's economic forecast, on which it based its budget projections, predicted that payroll jobs would average 132.7 million per month this year, an increase of 2.6 million from the 2003 monthly average.

However, to achieve that average, the economy would have to create more than 2.6 million jobs in coming months because the level of jobs at the beginning of the year was lower than the administration had built into its forecast.

For January, there were 130.2 million Americans working, according to the Labor Department's payroll survey. To achieve its forecast of 132.7 million jobs on average each month this year would require the creation of 460,000 jobs per month over the next 11 months, according to an analysis by two liberal think tanks, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.

 

[Capt. Tex]

My best suggestion is to rediscover the cultural values that made this nation great, and made us a leading nation. If we continue Slouching Toward Gomorrah, we will be lost.

Rediscover values?? Tell that to the repubies in charge.

 

[rettofly]

Six Democratic senators sent Bush a letter lambasting the administration for the Mankiw and jobs flaps. ''When the White House's official economic report makes the wrongheaded suggestion that moving jobs overseas is beneficial to the economy and contains job projections that are not endorsed by your own Cabinet members, serious questions are raised that the administration's economic policies are in disarray,'' the letter said. It was signed by Sens. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York, Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, said, ''President Bush is rapidly becoming the permanently surprised president. He is surprised that every economic prediction that he and his administration make does not pan out.''

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill, a senior adviser in the Clinton White House, said, ''This president faces a credibility gap with his own economic team that's as wide as the employment gap for millions of American workers.''

Is it mere coincidence that all the people who are denigrating the efforts and the motives of the current administration are prominent members of the party that still thinks the 2000 election was stolen by the Republicans?
Is it mere coincidence that these same people were trumpeting the praises of the previous administration because the unemployment rate was "only" 6%?
How did "only 6%" become "catastrophic" in a few short years?

 

[Resume Writer]

The Thread Digresses

My intent here was NOT to start a political battle. (although this jobs problem has definately become one in this election year)

My intent was to show my concern for a real problem that is affecting so many people. The loss of jobs hits every political sector.

In November of 2003, I was conducting seminars at the Career Expo, which happened to be a "diversity fair." In a hall across the way, Mexican President Vicente Fox was speaking about the guest worker program and how more businesses should ship their jobs to Mexico! The irony! Here we were trying to help people get jobs while our Democratic Governor was next door rubbing shoulders with the President of Mexico! She is just as guilty in my opinion of not seeing the big picture.

The bottom line here is that when people are out of work, it affects EVERYONE! It will end up in taxes being raised to pay for the programs for these unemployed workers. Government programs are budgeted just like a company. If you pay people more (the benefits of unemployment) then eventually you will have to raise prices (taxes) to cover that amount or the company will go bankrupt (the deficit).

I do not want to turn this into a political debate. I was simply writing my thoughts to President Bush as a concerned citizen. End of story.

 

[bart]

JESUS H CHRIST

Another the government needs to protect me from stupid decisions liberal.

What would you have the President do to create jobs?

Lay out your plan for stopping jobs from moving freely from one labor market to another...

You did an excellent job of laying out your complaints, what are your proposed solutions?

I would suggest that you look at where you are letting your clients down, rather than blame your inability to find them work on someone else. Perhaps you have some shortcomings that need addressing...

 

[bart]

I do not want to turn this into a political debate.

Yes, I am sure you just wanted to make a controversial statement and have everyone yell: "Yeah, what she said!"

Well too late, post drivel, and it will get responded too.

 

[bart]

Funny, Neal Boortz had this to say this morning on this very subject:

" Nealz Nuze

STEPPING ON TOES

Do you really want to make someone completely and irrationally furious? It's really so simple. Just tell them that they bear the responsibility for where they are, right now, here, at this point in their lives.

My sermon yesterday on the great jobs debate really rubbed some folks the wrong way ... especially those who have lost jobs to overseas competition. The last thing they wanted to hear was that these jobs were not theirs ... that they belonged to the employer and that the employer could **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** well do what he wanted with them. Yesterday's email offerings called me everything ... monster, idiot, f***ing moron, nazi, fascist .. you name it.

OK, whiners. Let's go to the bottom line here. So, you don't have a job. Well, guess what? MOST Americans do have jobs. Most Americans are working, earning a living, providing for their families, planning for the future, saving money, putting their children through college, and just generally living large. But you're not. Most Americans have jobs. You don't ... and you can't see that the problem here is YOU?

Stop whining ... stop demanding the government save you from your own decisions ... and stop blaming your situation on someone else ... including the president. Grow up, suck it up and get out there and fight. You own you, nobody else does. If you own you then you are responsible for you. Accept the responsibility and knock off the **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**ed whining."

According to the statistics, 94% of people who want to work have a job.

 

[chawbein]

There is an oversupply of IT people in this country (have you seen the ITT Tech commercials "Aahm a manager of broadband operiiitions"). The "internet bubble" is the main cause. Companies went nuts when they had lots of money and spent bundles on "IT" (interesting that IT has never been defined....). They hired inexperienced people and gave them huge salaries. When the bubble burst, the companies had to cut costs, so they let those folks go. Most have 3-5 years of experience, no higher education, and demand 70k or better (although I'm sure that number has dropped the longer people have been out of work). Why pay someone in the good 'ole USA 60k when you can pay someone in India 5k for AT LEAST AS GOOD OF A PRODUCT.

Just my $0.02

 

[Resume Writer]

JESUS H CHRIST

Another the government needs to protect me from stupid decisions liberal.

What would you have the President do to create jobs?

Lay out your plan for stopping jobs from moving freely from one labor market to another...

You did an excellent job of laying out your complaints, what are your proposed solutions?

I would suggest that you look at where you are letting your clients down, rather than blame your inability to find them work on someone else. Perhaps you have some shortcomings that need addressing...

I really think that your comments were uncalled for. I am not a liberal. If I was, I would not own a business. If you had read any of my posts thoroughly, my main point here is that without the creation of jobs, we have to pay for people to be on welfare. I prefer NOT to have my taxes raised because of this. How does that make me a liberal?

As far as letting my clients down, I beg to differ. My clients get interviews. In fact, if you were to ask the pilots on this board how many of them have gotten interviews or new jobs because of my advice and resume writing, I think you would find about a 98% success rate, if not higher.

That does not include my regular clientele. Recently I had an Executive who was getting NO response from his resume. After preparing his documents, he had THREE six figure job offers. This is the common theme of my clients. So please, do not denigrate my ability to help people.

I am doing my part to help people secure jobs. The seminars I conduct are free of charge. I understand that to lower taxes, people have to be working, so I give of my time to make that happen.

Apparently you did not read my posts, because no where in them did I say that we should just let people get money for nothing. In fact, in my letter to President Bush, I start the first sentence with being a Republican and believing that people should work for what they have. I do and I contribute to the tax base.

 

[bart]

I will ask again:

What would you have the President do?

 

[Indigo]

There is an oversupply of IT people in this country

Doesn't this sound familiar? Five or ten years ago the "people who are supposed to know these things" were encouraging others to get into IT because that's where the next hiring boom would be. Sounds a little bit like "pilot shortage".

The problem with choosing a career field based on the projected job situation five or ten years down the line is that by the time you are trained and experienced at that job, the whole picture may be different. So the best idea is probably to go with what really interests you and be prepared to be flexible.

 

[Ivan Yankenoff]

Neil Bortz is great and all but could he please post accurate "Facts."

According to the statistics, 94% of people who want to work have a job.

These are the number of people drawing unemployment. There are thousands upon thousands who have exhausted unemployment, refused to use unemployment or have severance to help get them through. Most of the people I know who are unemployed aren't even counted in the "Official" federal statistics. If I would venture a guess at the true unemployment rate, it would be closer to 10%.

 

[46Driver]

I will ask again:

What would you have the President do?

Good question. I'm waiting for that answer myself.

 

[Typhoon1244]

This is what bugs me about an awful lot of people on Flightinfo:

I am not a liberal. If I was, I would not own a business.

Huh? Liberals don't own businesses? Do you really believe that?

If only the real world was as simple, as black-and-white as this forum...where all Democrats are tax-and-spend faggots and all Republicans are souless gun-nuts.

 

[Resume Writer]

I have never claimed to know all the answers. I was simply stating what I saw as a problem.

What if the government created tax incentives to keep the businesses here in America? Perhaps tariffs could be increased on imported goods? I am not an economist - never claimed to be one. I do not think that sourcing jobs to overseas operations is the answer.

My question back is what would you do? Do you believe that sending jobs overseas and creating unemployment is the answer to a strong economy? I want to see people working and paying their fair share in taxes. Most of the people I speak with want to work. They get very frustrated that they cannot find jobs in their chosen profession.

 

[46Driver]

I have never claimed to know all the answers. I was simply stating what I saw as a problem.

What if the government created tax incentives to keep the businesses here in America? Perhaps tariffs could be increased on imported goods? I am not an economist - never claimed to be one. I do not think that sourcing jobs to overseas operations is the answer.

My question back is what would you do? Do you believe that sending jobs overseas and creating unemployment is the answer to a strong economy? I want to see people working and paying their fair share in taxes. Most of the people I speak with want to work. They get very frustrated that they cannot find jobs in their chosen profession.

Well, with that last sentence, you are preaching to the choir. It is not a good time for aviation right now - but a lot of that has to do with the changing customer and hence business model.

When you have a tariff, you are protecting one segment at the expense of the other. Take the tariff on sugar for instance. It has worked - for a while - to protect sugar farmers. However, companies such as Lifesavers and Brachs are closing up American factories, not only because of higher labor, but because the price of the raw materials (in this case sugar) are so much higher than on the world market - the companies are not competitive. Thus the people who work in the candy factories are losing their jobs because the sugar farmers have a tariff to protect theirs.

 

[Brett Hull]

Kathy

Ask them what they'd do if suddenly their cush airline jobs got outsourced to cheap European or Indian labor.

Cabotage anyone?