Labor Day

He's WAY too much of a coward.

As far as bush goes, his credibility was destroyed about 7 years ago.

Thank you for an intelligent and well written post. That seems a bit rare around here lately.

Lately however, it is the American worker that seems to be suffering the brunt of these sluggish economic times

It is the American worker that must take on two jobs and work on holidays to make ends meet and feed the family.

From the very beginning of the Bush Administration U.S. companies have lobbied Congress and President Bush extensively to obtain greater freedom in hiring cheaper foreign technology workers via H-1B and L1 visa programs. Concurrently, U.S. companies have also been busy relocating many technology jobs offshore to India and China where salaries are a fraction of U.S.-base technology salaries and where there is no health insurance cost because the governments of those countries provide social health care for their citizens.

Last year 25% of the American workforce did not take a vacation and fewer still took a week off from their job. American workers receive the least vacation time among wealthy industrial nations. And it is no thanks to our government. One hundred and twenty seven other countries in the world have a vacation law.

Safety is also a concern on the job for the American worker. There were a couple of coal mine accidents this month that made the news and lives have been lost. Despite the enormous loss of lives and millions of serious injuries and illness caused by workplace hazards, the Bush administration continues to blatantly disregard its legal obligation to curtail the needless dying and suffering, by simply raising workplace standards.

OK, here you go:



Sluggish economic times? The economy strong, and unemployment rates are low. Recent years have included sluggish economic times. Can you acknowledge the upswing in the last 3-4 years?

Americans make the most money and save the least. The standard of living is ridiculously high for most Americans. I believe this is why many are taking on two jobs...because they are buying what they cannot afford.

Offshoring is a not a Republican thing or a Bush thing, it is a capitalism thing. Globalization of business is what companies must do now to remain competitive. My company did not move to "offshoring", it was started with an onsite/offshore model. Much of the development is and always was done in India. This allows us to be competitive and successful, enables us to gain more business in the U.S., and in turn, hire more U.S. employees for the customer-facing roles. Again, not a bad thing, not a Bush thing, not a Republican thing. Thankfully, voters saw right through John Kerry's lame attempts to make this a partisan issue in 2004.

Guess what! We agree on something. Americans do not get enough vacation time, and I would fully support a vacation law. Has such a bill been introduced? If so, please give me the details.

Safety is a concern. Disasters such as coal mine and bridge collapses are symptoms of decades of sub-standard maintenance. Blame Bush, blame Congress...but to be fair, spread the blame over the leaders for the last 3 decades at least. The problems did not begin in January 2001.