[governance] Huckabee And Obama On Globalization, Technology

[yehudakatz at mailinator.com]

Huckabee And Obama On Globalization, Technology
InformationWeek's Outsourcing Weblog
Posted by Mary Hayes Weier, Jan 4, 2008
informationweek.com

Art. Ref.:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/01/huckabee_and_ob.html
 
Art. Print:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/01/huckabee_and_ob.html;
jsessionid=TUJNTUYOKBD2GQSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2JVN?print=true

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First off, Huck-a-who? I had to do some research this morning to learn more
about the winning Republican candidate at the Iowa caucus. So Mike Huckabee is
an ultraconservative and former Baptist preacher. Ohh-kay. But I'll resist the
urge to spout out my personal views here and share with you what Huckabee and
Democratic winner Barack Obama have to say on the issues of globalization and
technology at their Web sites.

Huckabee's site includes such topics as "The Secure American Plan," "Sanctity
of Life," and "Faith of Politics." Under the first category, he said he
supports increasing visas "for highly-skilled and highly-educated applicants,"
indicating that he would support an increase in H-1B visas. This is from the
Taxes/Economy section of his site:

I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade. We are losing jobs
because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that has to be fixed. Behind the
statistics, there are real families and real lives and real pain. I'm running
for President because I don't want people who have worked loyally for a company
for twenty or thirty years to walk in one morning and be handed a pink slip and
be told, "I'm sorry, but everything you spent your life working for is no
longer here." 
I believe that globalization, done right, done fairly, can be a blessing for
our society. As the Industrial Revolution raised living standards by allowing
ordinary people to buy mass-produced goods that previously only the rich could
afford, so globalization gives all of us the equivalent of a big pay raise by
letting us buy all kinds of things from clothing to computers to TVs much more
inexpensively.


Obama's site, meanwhile, is far more sophisticated (in my personal view) on the
areas of globalization and technology. Here are his broad plans for technology:

*Ensure an open Internet. 
*Create a transparent and connected democracy. 
*Encourage a modern communications infrastructure. 
*Employ technology to solve our nation’s most pressing problems. 
*Improve America’s competitiveness.

Many of his plans in this area go into great yet ambitious detail (perhaps too
ambitious). It's way more stuff than I can actually copy here. He also promotes
job training for clean technologies and the deployment of next-generation
broadband. It's an interesting read. 

Here's Obama's take on H-1Bs:

While highly skilled immigrants have contributed in beneficial ways to our
domestic technology industry, there are plenty of Americans who could be
filling those positions given the proper training. Barack Obama is committed to
investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and
participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B
new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent
abroad (42.5%). They are not all PhDs. We can and should produce more Americans
with bachelor’s degrees that lead to jobs in technology. A report of the
National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native
Americans as a whole comprise more that 25% of the population but earn, as a
whole, 16% of the bachelor degrees, 11% of the master’s degrees, and 5% of the
doctorate degrees in science and engineering. We can do better than that and go
a long way toward meeting industry’s need for skilled workers with Americans.
That being said, we do not want to shut our doors to innovators from overseas,
who have traditionally helped make America strong. Barack Obama supports
comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa
programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary
programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world’s most
talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees
in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. And we should
examine our ability to increase the number of permanent visas we issue to
foreign skilled workers. Obama will work to ensure immigrant workers are less
dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would
hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers.

Obama indicates he'd take a tougher stance on China:

In its first six years, the Bush Administration has filed only 16 cases to
enforce its rights under WTO agreements. This compares to 68 cases filed during
the first six years of the Clinton Administration. President Bush has failed to
address the fact that China has engaged in ongoing currency manipulation that
undercuts US exports; that China fails to enforce U.S. copyrights and
trademarks and that some of our competitors create regulatory and tax barriers
to the delivery and sale of technology goods and services abroad. Barack Obama
will fight for fair treatment of our companies abroad.

What do you think of these candidates' views, and how will they impact your
vote?

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