I don't know about you, but my opinion of a company goes down a few dozen notches when I call up their "customer service" department, only to find out that I've been connected to a phone slave half a world away. No offense intended against the citizens of the countries which so many companies' 800-numbers connect us to, but if I'm dealing with an (ostensibly) American corporation, I have a right to expect that the person on the other end of the line is a skilled, trained representative of the company who knows enough about its products to deal successfully with any reasonable inquiries and who isn't struggling to choose, often under pressure, the right response from a list of scripts (and getting put between a rock and a hard place in the event of a situation that isn't covered by the scripts).

There's no way American workers can compete against workers on the other side of the globe who'll gladly work for what might very well be considered starvation wages here. So Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has introduced a bill which would, like the import tariffs of old, level the playing field.

Personally, I think we should all call Senator Schumer's office and thank him profusely for doing what too many other members of congress won't do – give unemployed Americans a fighting chance. Secondly, I think we should call the Washington offices of any member of congress who's got any excuse for not supporting it. Sure, they'll try to bury it in lies, just like they all but did with health care reform. But if you're as sick and tired as I am of corporations taking the cheapest way out no matter what it does to the rest of us, I'd like to suggest doing all we can to help push this measure and others like it over the top.