Offshore Editorial Comment

The following comment appeared in the January 28, 2012 edition of The Hindu. The subject of the editorial was the U.S. State of the Union address.

These talks are just rhetoric of an incumbent president trying to win
over the middle class who got slammed by the neoliberal economics of
the last 30 years. I do not think a president of US can or will
control offshoring of production or services. There are three simple
reasons none of which is lack of skilled labor or taxation policies. 1. The Chinese yuan is cheaper than the US Dollar by around 6 times, Indian Rupee by around 50 times and the life of a third world laborer is even cheaper.2. The politicians have to spend millions ($730 million for Barack Obama in 2008 !) to get the attention of the distracted population. Only the corporations (which by the way are legally "individuals" and there is no cap of campaign contributions by an individual) can handle that kind of money. 3. The social disease of consumption. The population want more of everything and they are not willing to pay more for anything!

from: Adarsh Jose

Posted on: Jan 28, 2012 at 14:28 IST

I hope that Adare Jose is wrong in his assessment of our population.