Maureen Lane

Economic Integration

A student I work with at Welfare Rights Initiative noted to me that in President Bush's India-is-our-economic-ally speech recently given at Hyderabad's Indian School of Business, the President claims that there are two ways to look at Americas outsourcing of jobs to India. The President's preferred way to view outsourcing is to say, "losing jobs is painful, so lets make sure people are educated so they can find and fill the jobs of the 21st Century."

Clearly, the president's rhetoric does not reflect his policies as he has cut money for programs that impact poor and middle class families from health care to education. " Yesterday Michael C.D. MacDonald wrote in his expansive piece for the New York Observer, "Where our top fifth earned 7.7 times what our bottom fifth did in 1980, they earned 11.4 times as much in 2001." . Shrinking government commitment to access for education and training widens the gap between the two groups. We applaud Mr. Macdonald's column and urge leaders to take note our values include certain basic needs for families to maintain themselves: health care, food, shelter and education - fundamentals to integrating economically.

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Posted at 5:43 AM, Mar 09, 2006 in Economy | Education | Employment
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