They are not alone. The loss of jobs to India related to data processing  is becoming a pandemic... add to this the manufacuring jobs outsourced to Mexico and the textile  industry's outsourcing of jobs to Central America and Southeast Asia. Let us not forget the loss of jobs related to the automotive industry's inability to produce a reasonably priced motor vehicle of quality good enough to compete with the Japanese competitors, and new competition from the anticipated entry of the Chinese into the market.

Hartford, Connecticut is the insurance capital of the world. Just last week it was announced that 100 more jobs were eliminated at one of the largest insurance carriers in the country  headquartered in Hartford. The work was outsourced to India. What makes the situation even more infuriating is when Indian marketers/sales people call to sell their services, introduce themselves using American names, and try to pass themselves off as American citizens. You know immediately by their accents and the general flow of the conversation that this deception is not true.

Makes one wonder what is going to be left for the American worker and the eventual impact on our economy when the jobless American consumer is unable to purchase the goods and services sold by the American companies outsourcing the jobs to the third world. It is going to become interesting(possibly frightening) in years to come when the European Union becomes a more powerful trade competitor of ours.

While on his recent tour of South America, Bush tried to lay the ground work for a free trade zone in the Pacific Rim and Latin America. The attempt was met with mixed reviews and outright opposition led by Chavez of Venezuela. I agree that consolidation of new markets to offset the growth of the European Union is a step in the right direction. However, I think that the concept needs to be tempered by some form of protection for the American worker, and that is something that our elected leaders seem to have forgotten.