Kerry, Our Ally Against BPO Backlash

: The election fever is on in the US. TV channels are all agog with the news about the winners and losers at the Democratic Party primaries and caucuses. By the 12th of this month, primaries were completed in 10 states

(New Hampshire, South Carolina, Arizona, Missouri, Delaware, Oklahoma, Michigan, Washington, Tennessee and Virginia) and caucuses in four (Iowa, New Mexico, North Dakota and Maine).

Senator John Kerry won in 12 of the 14 states and could well be nominated in July at the Democratic Party National Convention to challenge President Bush in the November presidential election. Senator Kerry, who turned 60 in December, graduated from Yale, served on a gunboat in Vietnam, received honours for service in combat, founded Vietnam Veterans of America and was a spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In 1984, he was elected to the US Senate and is currently serving his fourth term.

The website of the senator has pages and pages on policy issues — on health care, fiscal deficits, domestic economy, external trade, homeland security and so on. Going by the press and electronic media focus in recent months, however, the single most important problem facing the American people is that of growing unemployment, and Senator Kerry has the right focus and emphasis on the crucial issue — as the following facts indicate.

The overall unemployment rate increased from 4.1 per cent in January 2001 to 6.3 per cent in June 2003 and since, declined marginally to 5.7 per cent in December. The African-American unemployment rate rose from 8.2 per cent in January 2001 to 11.2 in September 2003, while the Hispanic unemployment rate increased from 5.8 per cent to 7.8 per cent.

How did it all happen? The Economic Report of the President issued just a few days ago says it all, if one has the patience to look into the data. Manufacturing employment declined marginally from 17.7 million in 1990 to 17.3 million in 2000. By December 2003, the figure plummeted to 14.5 million. In contrast, services absorbed 85.8 million in 1990, 107.1 million in 2000 and 108.2 million in December 2003. Where have the manufacturing jobs gone? No economic expertise is needed to get to the answer. A visit to any popular superstore anywhere in the US will tell you: to China, of course.

The above numbers speak well about where the emphasis should be. Unlike Mr Bush who seems to worry about...