Outsourcing

Aren't educated enough to work in a jeans factory?

(i.e. aren't educated enough but not willing to get a minimum wage salary by U.S. standards)

furthermore, there have been arguments that this will eventually "help Americans". The argument was hilarious cyclical.

I was under the impression that Levi's hasn't made the vast majority of their jeans in the US in years, and those two plants were mostly used for research or something, and some of those people are keeping their jobs. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this because I might be.

It's possible the shit will start hitting the fan within the next decade but who knows what will happen by then. But yeah, I am not committing myself to living in the U.S. forever. (In fact, one of my new year's resolutions is to just prepare on the side for any possibility that i might not live in the U.S. in the distant future...)

jeans research¿
what do you think they were doing, trying to unlock the denim code¿

Change the bold phrase to "not lucky enough"

Okay, thanks for pointing out my very American point of view, but that still doesn't make it a valid moral standpoint, although I don't think anyone will challenge me on this point...

One of the pitfalls of hiring an "eductated" workforce is that they read the paper, watch the news, and conspire in the breakroom. I read some economist's article saying that the conditions of which Karl Marx wrote are more prevalent today than in the 1880's... Look out!

You're expecting morality from globalization? Or maybe I misread you?

And before you know it, COMMIES all over the sink and bathroom.

Yes, for premium retailers in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.

Would you pay more for a US-made pair of jeans?

If "you" = the stereotypical american consumer, the answer is no. Price is the name of the game, marketing has shown that price rules over quality, brand recognition, dependability, etc.

the beauty is that prices won't even go down.

the united states apparel retail prices have been in deflation for 3 seasons (1.5 years).

I was under the impression that Levi's hasn't made the vast majority of their jeans in the US in years, and those two plants were mostly used for research or something, and some of those people are keeping their jobs. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this because I might be.

Most of the domestic production (aside from the premium outlets mentioned above) in the last 2 years was exported to Japan, Hong Kong, Europe... places where "Made In America" is a strong selling point. These two points were sundry, sewing, and denim production.

Is the low-price Wallmart revolution the only thing that matters now?

The massmarket channel (comprised of Walmart, Target, etc.) over the past 5 years has risen to be one of the largest consumer channels of denim jeans.

Look at Converse.

Now looks at computer companies such as Dell(many more but not really worth listing). Have you called tech support for one of them lately? If you have you probably got to talk to an Indian...yes and Indian. They have outsourced all tech support to India. India. Fucking India.

nope. the deal with wal-mart was to be able to sell jeans where the consumer is buying them. it had no bearing on production which by that point had shifted dramatically overseas (4 continents mind you, it's operated globally).

yes, but cost of living, so, in terms of their own cost of living, they are getting paid more

God, that used to be places like Detroit, Little Rock, and Baltimore...

er.
i dysagree¡
but i'm at work and haven't the time right now to dig up numbers n stuff.

Here's a link to the op-ed piece:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/opinion/06SCHU.html

The thing is, the white collar workers won't have a goddamn thing to do about it. Hence why I'm thinking the U.S. especially is in the midst of a slow decline in the future.

No worries. We have plenty of fun things to distract/excite/frighten us so that such secondary issues aren't given too much thought.

DOWN WITH HIRING SMARTER PEOPLE OUTSIDE MY COUNTRY AND THAT SORT OF THING!

revolution my friend.
this is how america solves it's problems.

er, by revolution i mean violence.

B-b-b-b-ut we'd be IMPEDING PROGRESS!

(actually, never mind, anthony jumped in and approached it but said it better than me)

It's true that institutions like the WTO are not democratically elected, but the WTO doesn't set policy, it only enforces the treaties that the member countries have ratified - and those treaties are ratified by Congress.

I'm feeling rather politically pessimistic today, so forgive me.

While federal spending on education has gone up under Bush, 93% of the funding for education comes from the state and local level. So that 63% increase you mentioned is only a 63% increase on 7% of the total, in other words about a 4.3% increase. Not very impressive.

As for financial aid for college, the amount given per Pell Grant has remained level, while tuitions have skyrocketed. This is putting college out of reach for more and more students. On the state level, you have people like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposing tuition increases at California colleges combined with cuts to financial aid programs. Government needs to budget more money for financial aid to keep pace with tuitions, as well as to study why the tuitions are increasing so rapidly in the first place and perhaps propose new policies to limit them.

S.A. loses an American institution

By Elizabeth Allen
Express-News Business Writer

Web Posted : 01/09/2004 12:00 AM

Martha Huizar and Armandina Rodriguez had been work pals for almost 24 years, so it's fitting that on the official closing day of operations at the last Levi Strauss & Co. plant in the United States they showed up together to pick up their final paychecks.

The two women were among hundreds who finalized paperwork and talked to potential employers at a job and education fair sponsored by Alamo Workforce Development at the Levi's sewing plant on Old Hwy 90. The company announced in September it would close the San Antonio plant.

"We weren't surprised," Huizar said. "We were like, 'Well, it's time to go on with our lives.' We'd always heard rumors."

Levi Strauss officials said in September that the San Francisco-based company would close its last factories in the United States and Canada, while emphasizing the firm tried as long as possible to make jeans in San Antonio. Now, only the company's three Canadian plants remain open, and those are slated to close in the spring.

Global economic pressures have forced Levi's hand. It no longer could compete with jeans manufacturers that have shifted production to other countries where labor is cheaper.

Levi Strauss once operated 63 U.S. manufacturing plants. In Texas, its plants ranged from El Paso to San Angelo to the Rio Grande Valley. In San Antonio, Levi Strauss was a stalwart in the city's thin manufacturing sector, providing work for 26 years and, at its height, employing 2,400 workers.

At the company's 121,151-square-foot sewing plant, workers made more than 4 million pairs of men's jeans each year, and workers at Levi's nearby 200,000 square-foot finishing center took the jeans and applied a variety of washes and treatments to them.

Work at the sewing plant stopped just before Thanksgiving and at the laundry plant just a week later.

When the company shut down operations, more than 800 people were thrown out of work. They received several weeks' notice and severance packages that include extended health benefits, along with two weeks of pay for each year worked.

Now, Levi's is working with Alamo Workforce to help the workers get job and educational opportunities.

Almost 40 employers and schools manned booths at the job fair, said Ramon and Sunita Trevino, who attended the fair representing Primerica Financial Services.

It will be a tough transition for many, though.

Hundreds of employees had been at Levi's for 20 years or more, and earned more than $10 an hour with little education. Some don't speak English, others don't speak it well, and it will be difficult for them to find jobs with comparable pay.

"They have to go back to the beginning," said Alma Martinez, who'd worked at Levi's for five years.

San Antonio College's Anelia Luna said most of the people she talked to needed General Educational Development diplomas, and about half of those needed classes in English as a second language.

She handed out a lot of information Thursday, but doesn't expect to see many applicants for a few weeks. The hundreds of Levi's workers first must make appointments with a job counselor from Alamo Workforce, and the appointments stretch into mid-February.

Other schools sending representatives to the job fair included Baptist Health System School, Southern Methodist University, Project Quest, and Roadmasters Drivers School. Companies that staffed the fair included H.E. Butt Grocery Co., Bexar County Civil Services, Southwest Airlines and VIP Staffing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
eallen@express-news.net
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Why not Journalism too?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/opinion/30dowd.html?_r=1&hp

I checked in with one of his workers in Mysore City in southern India, 40-year-old G. Sreejayanthi, who puts together Pasadena events listings. She said she had a full-time job in India and didn’t think of herself as a journalist. “I try to do my best, which need not necessarily be correct always,” she wrote back. “Regarding Rose Bowl, my first thought was it was related to some food event but then found that is related to Sports field.”

The bank help person I just spoke with kept telling me that my address was on "Clinton Suh-treet." It was strange, because her accent was somewhat convincing otherwise.

from Matt taibbi's blog mailbag:

"Hi Matt,
In your last mailbag you stated that you believe Lloyd Blankfein was at the White House state dinner for Chinese president Hu Jintao to ensure the "removal of the American manufacturing job market to a slave-labor state." Could you elaborate on this? I mean, what does Goldman Sachs have to do with outsourcing manufacturing jobs? If we were talking about Steve Jobs, the CEO of Nike or even Martha Stewart I would see the connection. Does Goldman Sachs have influence over the running of other corporations? If so, how?

Keep up the great work.
Thanks,
Ryan

Ryan,
I have more coming on this, but the short answer is that the big banks are all heavily invested in companies that outsource their operations to China, they're invested in China itself, and they continually lobby the government to made outsourcing to China easier. I remember speaking to Bernie Sanders about this issue and he was going crazy over the notion that banks like Goldman and companies like GE get public support from the U.S. taxpayer when they do not pledge to abstain from exporting jobs to China. Goldman incidentally was itself a major outsourcer; they moved a huge operation to India years ago. But the major contribution of banks like Goldman to the outsourcing problem is that they finance the export of jobs overseas."

So much wrongness in the OP, glad that "loggedout" was there to set the record straight.