by An American in London
Sun May 13th, 2007 at 11:46:07 AM EST
An illuminating story on how one American business went broke due to global outsourcing at such a frenetic pace as to not allow any planned redundancy.
This example of American business is what France has to look forward to if Sarkozy adopts the policies of the 'elites' who supported his campaign to be President.
Outsourcing swept away my company, my father's life savings, and my sanity. But I'm still not singing Lou Dobbs' protectionist song
By David Silverman
I would love to blame outsourcing. I would love to agree with CNN's Lou Dobbs that by exporting jobs to India, greedy American corporations are killing independent businesses. I could say this is exactly what happened to me, that it explains why I lost my father's life savings, my company, $4 million and my entrepreneurial American dream. I could take comfort in the fact that outsourcing swept me away in its capitalistic tide, and that there was nothing I could do about it. But this is not what I believe. And these are not the lessons I learned. The truth about America's small businesses in today's global market is a harder and more indelible one, it contains seeds of hope, and this is the story I want to tell.
Let me begin in 2000. I owned a prosperous typesetting business and employed 200 people. My company, Clarinda, had 100 middle-aged women in "World's Best Grandmother" sweat shirts in two light-industrial brick buildings in the fields of Iowa; 30 young Filipinos in a five-story office tower with windows that looked out at South Super Highway in Manila; and the remaining 70 scattered in small locations about the Northeast.