When it rains, it pours.
I received a polite email informing me of yet another pay rate DEcrease for transcription work. This is the second such significant decrease in the last three months. This time, however, the decrease clenches the fact that sustaining my family on that rate is no longer feasible, and I must drop this client, and so I email back my equally polite response.
After over seven years of working for this firm with not a single pay increase, I have already received the standard terse, “Good luck, and thanks for your hard work over the years” reply. They are off to save thousands with an Indian transcription firm, leaving this American without a job, and without any warning it was coming. I’m a bit stupefied.
The reason? More transcription work being moved to overseas operations (most in India and Philippines) for cents on the dollar, or shall I say rupees/pisos on the dollar.
Whose fault is it that we Americans are losing our jobs, unable to compete with the much lower salaries of these developing countries?
Is it the faults of the people in those countries, willing to work just as hard as I for their incomes? No! They are only grasping at opportunities, trying to better their situations in their countries, for their own families. Plus, they work hard and educate themselves, and prove themselves competent and efficient.
It is purely the fault of the American-based corporations, the fat cats, the American execs who earn in the hundreds of thousands up to the millions for their own salaries from our own American economy, but are unable to relate or are just unwilling to empathize with Americans’ employment problems. They are supported by America but they do not give back to America.
The American corporation is to blame for this problem of outsourcing jobs and leaving many Americans like me with no source of income. American Government will not deal with these disparities because their own hands are sunk too deeply into the American corporations’ bulging pockets.
It’s all about greed. It is all about our Government turning a blind eye. It is all about American corporations making billions from us as consumers while being protected by those in Government who should be representing us Americans. They do not give back to consumers of their goods by providing jobs. Sure, they give donations to charities, paltry in comparison to what they make, and they offer bargains from time to time, but they withdraw employing those who support them. They take the money and run…and we keep giving it.
Face it, America. You are no longer a true democracy, as We the People no longer have any say. (Remember the bailouts given behind closed doors? Did you vote for those?) America is a corporatocracy and has been for some time.
Personally, I think all the problems started with the creation of lobbyists, or legalized bribery of government officials, and the Federal Reserve Bank, Think about it — the Fed is based on money because America is a capitalistic system. Since our economy and government are based on money, those in power, meaning those with the most money, found it necessary to protect their interests and created this oligarchical system — the Federal Reserve Bank — which is a government that runs alongside our own political government. So the 12 major cities (which are all that really matter economically) each have a Federal official called a — that’s right — governor. But what makes this government dangerous is that the Congress oversees it, and it does not answer to the American people.
According to the Board of Governors, the Federal Reserve is independent within government in that “its decisions do not have to be ratified by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branch of government.” However, its authority is derived from the U.S. Congress and is subject to congressional oversight.
Oh, yeah, I agree that there are many oversights. Now, most Americans know this, but what we are only just now realizing is that the Federal Reserve is who really runs the country and, in fact, the world. It is not about the governments, it is about economies, and the Fed calls the shots. On one side, we have the American Government, which is set to represent We, the People…but on the other hand, there is this other American government running alongside it that represents the interests of big business. Guess which government is just a figurehead government. Guess which is truly powerful.
And while Americans are polarizing downward, and our middle class is disappearing because, hey, poverty is a downward spiral, lobbying in America is growing by leaps and bounds. Do you know why? Corporations would rather put what money they are willing to part with toward influencing the government that protects their interests rather than putting that money back into Americans’ pockets because everyone knows that would give us consumers power we deserve, to keep a kind of check and balance with corporations. The greedy corporations instead like to keep their money with the governments that further their interests, not the people:
For every day Congress was in session last year, lobbyists spent an average of 17 million dollars currying favour with legislators and federal officials, the nonpartisan Centre for Responsive Politics (CRP) said in a new report.
Corporations, labour unions, governments, and other interests spent a record-setting 2.79 billion dollars last year in hopes of influencing policy, the group said. This marked a 7.7 percent, or 200-million-dollar, increase over 2006, also a bumper year for the influence industry. – (read more here)
We Americans are all far too apathetic about it because we still trust our leaders for the most part, though not as blindly anymore — eating our fast food, happily distracted by the mall sales, and clipping coupons so that we can get more bang for our buck — since consumerism is woven into the fabric of who we are as Americans.
No way to correct this exploitation exists short of a revolution of some kind, maybe beginning at a personal level and affecting those around us through boycotting outsourcing corporations and retail chains and their products for a start. We begin with a collective effort to refuse to buy what the big mega-stores are selling as much as possible. When Americans are hurting as we are, the LAST thing the government needs to be telling us is to spend to support the economy! What government encourages people to spend when they are hurting, when they should be saving, when it is clear Social Security is drying up? Think about it. Why would those with money be telling those of us without jobs, with so little disposable income to spend?!
In short, Americans, we have sold out for convenience. With this latest loss of a client, I am more determined than ever now to support only U.S.-based businesses that do not outsource, companies that ethically employ Americans knowing that Americans are the ones supporting them. And if that means spending a little more for something manufactured here, then so be it. Even Obama agrees with that. In short, if a U.S.-based business outsources, I will do all in my power to find the right supplier and not buy their goods, even if I must pay a little more.
To U.S.-based corporations that profit from American consumers but outsource key jobs overseas — you have a responsibility to us and are accountable to provide jobs with good pay to people who support you. You are operating businesses unethically, betraying your consumers, . Why did your Ivy League and prestigious business schools fail you in educating you on business ethics? That is because, once embedded into a corporation, executives are relatively faceless and have little need of conscience.
In the meantime, since I am out half of my income now, I am off to search for a new client. I’m getting used to it; a lot of us Americans are.
