Obama, outsourcing, and lessons not learned

[finknottle]

There has been plenty of discussion of bailing out the automakers, mostly because of the number of workers they and those who rely on them employ. Some have pointed out that one of the root causes of their trouble are the labour contracts negotiated with the unions, in particular the crippling pensions and benefits.

 

I'm guessing Obama doesn't buy this - here is why. On the campaign trail he has frequently railed against the outsourcing of federal jobs. Outsourcing doesn't exist just in Iraq and Afganistan, where it gets the most attention and contract support is almost 1:1. It exists in almost every agency - data entry, food service, custodial work... Wherever you have a mindless, repetative soul-grinding crap job, you will find a contractor doing it. And some good jobs as well - the reason you find so many civilians deployed with the military is that the military cannot retain enough people with cutting-edge technical skills. The biggest source of contract employees for decent jobs are the retired federal employees themselves who want to use their experience but are fed up with the career BS. If I had to guess, the number of workers whose companies depend on outsourcing is now quite substantial, certainly in the millions.

 

But what is the real advantage to the USG? When you outsource, you are not responsible for the pensions and benefits accrued. You are paying fee-for-service, with no ticking time bombs down the road. So when Obama says he wants to roll back the outsourcing, assuming he doesn't get the light shown to him when he assumes office, I see two ramifications. First, a great expansion of the federal workforce, completely reversing the gains of the Clinton Administration (the Bush administration was roughly flat I believe, owing to the war). Second, the government commits itself to yet more pension and retirement obligations - not to mention the fact that the federal workers union becomes all that more powerfull a lobbyist for higher inflation adjustments every year.

 

I'm not trashing federal employees here, we've had more than enough of that from the Republicans in decades past. I am only pointing out that Obama seems to want to do to the federal workforce what the big 3 automakers have done to themselves - take on a bloated workforce, with employment guaranteed for life, and lock yourself into generous retirement and benefits committments that will cripple the books of the government later on.