
[if/when he replies I'll post the response.]
From: Ashtoreth <ashy@xxxxx.com>
To: Lou Dobbs <lou@xxxxx.com>
Subject: Re: Outsourcing
Lou, you are getting perilously close to suggesting how capitalism really works, and if you do too much more of that, you're likely to be declared 'irrelevant' and shut out of the major media. It is not that the wealthy are unaware of what their corporate policies are doing; rather, they are quite aware, and consider the outcome acceptable in light of what it will do for immediate profit, as good businessmen should. Executives don't care about the bulk of the American people, except as a market or a resource; they aren't supposed to. That would be bad business. In the long term, maybe turning the US into a third-world country will hurt their interests, but it will increase the bottom line tomorrow, and maybe by the time it's a problem, they'll have figured something else out. But at any rate they'll have the money. That's capitalism.
Maybe outsourcing is the most egregious manifestation of capitalist policy now, but the principle behind it is a core one. Might I ask, why is outsourcing a problem _now_ rather than in the 80s when blue-collar jobs were being sent overseas? I think the only reason you're being allowed to touch this issue is that it's now starting to affect people like your readers, lower-upper-class professionals who have some say over the socioeconomic system. When _their_ interests are threatened, then it's a problem.
I know you're in a bit of a bind. You have to couch the argument in terms like 'externality,' to quote your colleague, which suggest that outsourcing is a momentary glitch rather than a manifestation of capitalism's core principles. There's not much further you can go without either indicting capitalism itself, or else appealing to morality or other matters irrelevant to those who own the system. Some people can read between the lines, so you could continue at the level of dissemblance you're maintaining now, but I'm sure you're being watched very closely by those who know full well how the system works. You seem like an okay guy, so I wish you luck.
--Ashtoreth Hostility