Software Tariffs and US IT Outsourcing? 670
HeelToe asks: "A while back I worked with someone who thought the US should simply impose tariffs on imported products to adjust their price to equalize foreign labor rates to the US minimum wage. I was laid off and my position moved to Canada last year. Since then, I've thought a lot about his ideas, as well as one of our topics of conversation a while back: Why doesn't the US tax the import of software? It seems to me like they should. It's not a "tangible" product (same reason used to deny my co-workers and me NAFTA and Trade Act benefits), but when someone outsources to another country with cheap labor for any other industry, there are usually import tariffs. Why is software different, and how would this change the climate of US IT jobs leaving for other parts of the world if we did tax software imports? I've done some looking on the web, but can find nothing in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. I did find this thread from a few months back on informationweek.com's Career Development Forum, but not much else. What does Slashdot think?"
I'm against it... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Depends on the situation (Score:5, Funny)
Iraq: It's not about Oil! (Score:5, Funny)
It must be those damn software tarrifs!
Re:who cares (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, it's been made pretty clear, especially by your current government. Actually, your government doesn't seem to care what anyone thinks... not Canadians, nor Europeans, nor even Americans.
Well, I don't think my karma's gonna be "Excellent" anymore...
Re:Bad Idea (Score:4, Funny)
I am opposed to tariffs (Score:3, Funny)
We need to do more business with countries where child labor is encouraged, and where prisoners provide more skilled work for free. The United States needs to take the lead in encouraging nations to avoid imposing socialist employee safety laws on employers.
America! Of corporations! By corporations! For corporations!
Sincerely,
Fascistus Maximus
CEO, Omni Consumer Products
Re:*NO* (Score:1, Funny)
Still not enough?
How about $1000.
How about a billion.
How about a trillion dollars.
I don't know much, but one thing I do know is that eventually, you will become a capitalist and suck my cock. We're just arguing over the price, that's all.
If you mod me down, you're missing the point. You too, will mod me up for the proper amount of money.