4 ms·

I guess we just need the other shoe to drop: punish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues

juujian 9mo ago
Amazon has contributed enough to the current administration that I doubt they will face any consequences. Maybe another round of shakedowns and more financial contributions, but they have figured out pretty quickly how to play the game and end up on the good side of the current administration.
- no_wizard 9mo ago
  Amazon's MGM subsidiary spent 75 million dollars thus far on the Melania Trump documentary that by all accounts, is looking like its going to be a box office bomb. Reportedly, 30 million of that 75 went directly to Melania[0] [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-d...
- belter 9mo ago
  https://youtu.be/B1zKWNB2rho?t=230 https://youtu.be/B1zKWNB2rho?t=230
klipt 9mo ago
Then the US companies will be outcompeted by more competitive companies located outside the US. Now the US lost the jobs and the workers' income tax and the corporate tax. America cannot eternally capture a disproportionate share of global wealth, even with such rent seeking moves. It's unsustainable. We had a golden age after WW2 when we were the only undamaged industrial economy but that age has ended.
- Jeslijar 9mo ago
  Pretty much. America is destined for a decline. The billionaires can make money regardless of border by always moving things around and utilizing their expansive resources for any possible loopholes and escape hatches while manipulating public policy.
  - cucumber3732842 9mo ago
    This is reductive and wrong. The billionares make money hand over fist either way. They own the companies. They don't care if the new campus or factory is in China or India. They skim their cut off it's productivity either way. It's your fellow countrymen who are peddling the policies that, at the margin, push those investments overseas.
- batshit_beaver 9mo ago
  That's what the third shoe is for - aircraft carriers.
- boogrpants 9mo ago
  It's fiat wealth so... write the ledger however. The majority don't care so long as they have enough food and shelter and healthcare. The whole scoreboard based on bank accounts is all made up wankeroo. Let's just have AI avatars fight for gloating rights; Goku beat Superman on PPV so Japan gets to host the inter dimensional cable world cup! And otherwise keep the biologically essential logistics flowing cause that collapse is when the meat suits will toss aside socialized truths of history and go crazy primate.
  - ghurtado 9mo ago
    > It's fiat wealth so... write the ledger however I'd like to see a serious study about the word "fiat" and whether it has been used to make a single valid economic argument in the last 30 years (auto maker excluded) Just kidding, I know it has not.
    - throwway120385 9mo ago
      The whole point of it seems to be to dismiss the entire economic system in favor of something that almost nobody has bought in to like bullion or cryptocurrency or somesuch for the benefit of the speaker. Currency, even paper currency, is one of the most pervasive societal "grand illusions" that we share. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing as it greases the entire system of exchange for literally everyone everywhere.
    - bluecheese452 9mo ago
      The judges of validity will be the architects of the current system.
    - marcosdumay 9mo ago
      Well, history has those uniquely medieval (or early modern) situations where kingdoms adopt fiat currencies just before they fail. I dunno how much academics discuss those.
      - snapcaster 9mo ago
- vidarh 9mo ago
  Or they just move their "headquarters" and the US part of the business will be a subsidiary. This is an old, and well tested strategy. E.g. Commodore International formally had its head office in The Bahamas, but the entire leadership team worked out of the US. You can try putting more constraints on what will get a company considerd a US company to catch those kinds of structures, but as you indirectly point out, there are really only downsides to playing that game.
  - znpy 9mo ago
    You don’t have to dig commodore from the grave, there are current-day examples of companies doing the same. Just to name one (even if it’s not American): Canonical. It (canonical) is registered in the isle of Man, a fairly known tax haven.
    - repstosb 9mo ago
      Also pretty much every company with a "headquarters" of some kind in Ireland, notoriously including Apple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement
    - vidarh 9mo ago
      I didn't have to, but the reason for doing so was to point out that it is an old strategy.
      - znpy 9mo ago
        > I didn't have to, but the reason for doing so was to point out that it is an old strategy. Good point, i had not thought of that!
- hluska 9mo ago
  Canada’s industrial economy was also undamaged. And so, by definition, the US was not the only one.
- reactordev 9mo ago
  No, I think companies that want to stay competitive will leave the US.
- drecked 9mo ago
  Conveniently India and the EU just signed a major trade deal.
- no_wizard 9mo ago
  It would be far smarter to have invested in the workforce continually. A microcosm of this is how we mismanaged college education and is a symptom of a larger problem: As far as US policy goes, got complacent and extractive over innovative and additive. The narrative shifted from 'abundance for all' to 'the pie is only so big' (that is, unless you're a favored incumbent, like defense contractors). It doesn't stop here. Job training programs, continual education, robust workforce displacement services, proper social welfare programs. We lack all of this (and more). Another would be to remove burdens off companies that are better handled by the collective of society, via the government. Take universal healthcare. An often unnoticed benefit is how it would shift liabilities off the books of a huge number of companies, from the auto manufacturers to smaller businesses. A tax is a much easier and simplified expense to deal with over legacy healthcare costs that can weigh down a business. It also has a secondary knock off effect: employers can't use it as a pair of handcuffs. In all likelihood, an unintended side effect of universal healthcare would be an increase in entrepreneurship from the middle class. People who would otherwise be handcuffed to their job because of health insurance. Somehow, the lesson everyone took away from the G.I. Bill was not that the government providing robust funding of social services (IE college, home ownership) works. That part is seemingly ignored by the vast majority of the conversation around the 'good times past' that many Americans romanticize. Too many of my fellow citizens are prioritizing their own short term gains over the long term health of the community and society in which they were empowered by to get ahead in the first place. This will inevitably crater quite spectacularly bad.
  - fragmede 9mo ago
    > employers can't use it as a pair of handcuffs. I think you misunderstand the point of the system.
    - no_wizard 9mo ago
      I don’t, I’m calling it out as toxic and a drain on society
  - irishcoffee 9mo ago
    > The narrative shifted from 'abundance for all' to 'the pie is only so big' (that is, unless you're a favored incumbent, like defense contractors). It would surprise you to know that Booz Allen laid off 3k people last month then, huh? Or Boeing laid off 3200 people in September 2025. You should look these things up before you pop off like that. Three minutes of research is all it takes.
ra7 9mo ago
If you want American companies to not outsource any jobs AND have full foreign market access, get ready to get market access revoked from places like India. They’ll just incentivize their local companies to compete, and Amazon has plenty of local competition there already. Amazon themselves have experienced in the past how heavy-handed Indian regulators can be. It’s not a zero-sum game anymore. You cannot have only one side (US companies) capture 100% of the value.
- greenavocado 9mo ago
  > You cannot have only one side (US companies) capture 100% of the value. This is the value prop of the US military
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  - oytis 9mo ago
    It was, at least it worked for Europe, but Trump has seemingly managed to ruin that too.
- 15155 9mo ago
  > They’ll just incentivize their local companies to compete They already do.
oytis 9mo ago
How do you punish them? Have ICE raid their offices? There is already a significant tax benefit for hiring developers domestically.
alephnerd 9mo ago
> [p]unish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues They ain't doing squat. The Trump admin is encouraging technology transfer to India as part of Pax Silica [0] and GOP politicans in Ag heavy Purple States like Iowa [1] and Montana [2] are trying to mollify India after China pivoted from American to Brazilian soybeans [3] and India began tariffing pulses/lentils [4]. Additonally, Indian ONG majors like Reliance are negotiating with the Trump admin to purchase Venezuelan oil now that Maduro is in custody [5] and India SOEs have starting creating partnerships with ExxonMobil [6], Chevron [7], and Phillips66 [7] to "drill baby drill". As such, what are you going to do lol - Agriculture and Ag adjacent industries employs 22 million Americans [8] and the Energy sector employs 7 million Americans [9] mostly in Red and Purple states. Software only employs around 2 million Americans [10] in either Blue states or Blue pockets of Red States. [0] - https://x.com/USAmbIndia/status/2010718052992618815 https://x.com/USAmbIndia/status/2010718052992618815 [1] - https://governor.iowa.gov/press-release/2025-09-07/gov-reynolds-and-iowa-delegates-return-india-trade-and-investment-mission https://governor.iowa.gov/press-release/2025-09-07/gov-reyno... [2] - https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/01/20/daines-travels-to-india-to-advocate-for-montanas-pulse-crops-and-reaffirm-u-s-india-strategic-partnership/ https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/01/20/daines-travels-to-i... [3] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-favour-brazilian-soybean-imports-h1-despite-renewed-us-inflows-2026-01-26/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-favour-brazilian-s... [4] - https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cramer-daines-urge-president-trump-to-secure-favorable-pulse-crop-trade-deal-with-india https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cramer-dai... [5] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-reliance-talks-us-permit-buy-venezuelan-oil-sources-say-2026-01-09/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-reliance-talk... [6] - https://www.livemint.com/companies/ongc-exxonmobil-collaboration-india-hydrocarbon-block-auctions/amp-11769614641193.html https://www.livemint.com/companies/ongc-exxonmobil-collabora... [7] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-phillips-66-total-win-indias-first-tender-buy-us-lpg-sources-say-2025-11-14/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-phillips-66-... [8] - https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-detail?chartId=58282 https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-d... [9] - https://usafacts.org/articles/renewable-energy-jobs-grew-in-2020-while-fossil-fuel-jobs-dropped/ https://usafacts.org/articles/renewable-energy-jobs-grew-in-... [10] - https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

juujian 9mo ago

Amazon has contributed enough to the current administration that I doubt they will face any consequences. Maybe another round of shakedowns and more financial contributions, but they have figured out pretty quickly how to play the game and end up on the good side of the current administration.

no_wizard 9mo ago
Amazon's MGM subsidiary spent 75 million dollars thus far on the Melania Trump documentary that by all accounts, is looking like its going to be a box office bomb. Reportedly, 30 million of that 75 went directly to Melania[0] [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-documentary-amazon-release https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/28/melania-trump-d...
belter 9mo ago
https://youtu.be/B1zKWNB2rho?t=230 https://youtu.be/B1zKWNB2rho?t=230

klipt 9mo ago

Then the US companies will be outcompeted by more competitive companies located outside the US. Now the US lost the jobs and the workers' income tax and the corporate tax. America cannot eternally capture a disproportionate share of global wealth, even with such rent seeking moves. It's unsustainable. We had a golden age after WW2 when we were the only undamaged industrial economy but that age has ended.

Jeslijar 9mo ago
Pretty much. America is destined for a decline. The billionaires can make money regardless of border by always moving things around and utilizing their expansive resources for any possible loopholes and escape hatches while manipulating public policy.
- cucumber3732842 9mo ago
  This is reductive and wrong. The billionares make money hand over fist either way. They own the companies. They don't care if the new campus or factory is in China or India. They skim their cut off it's productivity either way. It's your fellow countrymen who are peddling the policies that, at the margin, push those investments overseas.
batshit_beaver 9mo ago
That's what the third shoe is for - aircraft carriers.
boogrpants 9mo ago
It's fiat wealth so... write the ledger however. The majority don't care so long as they have enough food and shelter and healthcare. The whole scoreboard based on bank accounts is all made up wankeroo. Let's just have AI avatars fight for gloating rights; Goku beat Superman on PPV so Japan gets to host the inter dimensional cable world cup! And otherwise keep the biologically essential logistics flowing cause that collapse is when the meat suits will toss aside socialized truths of history and go crazy primate.
- ghurtado 9mo ago
  > It's fiat wealth so... write the ledger however I'd like to see a serious study about the word "fiat" and whether it has been used to make a single valid economic argument in the last 30 years (auto maker excluded) Just kidding, I know it has not.
  - throwway120385 9mo ago
    The whole point of it seems to be to dismiss the entire economic system in favor of something that almost nobody has bought in to like bullion or cryptocurrency or somesuch for the benefit of the speaker. Currency, even paper currency, is one of the most pervasive societal "grand illusions" that we share. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing as it greases the entire system of exchange for literally everyone everywhere.
  - bluecheese452 9mo ago
    The judges of validity will be the architects of the current system.
  - marcosdumay 9mo ago
    Well, history has those uniquely medieval (or early modern) situations where kingdoms adopt fiat currencies just before they fail. I dunno how much academics discuss those.
    - snapcaster 9mo ago
vidarh 9mo ago
Or they just move their "headquarters" and the US part of the business will be a subsidiary. This is an old, and well tested strategy. E.g. Commodore International formally had its head office in The Bahamas, but the entire leadership team worked out of the US. You can try putting more constraints on what will get a company considerd a US company to catch those kinds of structures, but as you indirectly point out, there are really only downsides to playing that game.
- znpy 9mo ago
  You don’t have to dig commodore from the grave, there are current-day examples of companies doing the same. Just to name one (even if it’s not American): Canonical. It (canonical) is registered in the isle of Man, a fairly known tax haven.
  - repstosb 9mo ago
    Also pretty much every company with a "headquarters" of some kind in Ireland, notoriously including Apple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement
  - vidarh 9mo ago
    I didn't have to, but the reason for doing so was to point out that it is an old strategy.
    - znpy 9mo ago
      > I didn't have to, but the reason for doing so was to point out that it is an old strategy. Good point, i had not thought of that!
hluska 9mo ago
Canada’s industrial economy was also undamaged. And so, by definition, the US was not the only one.
reactordev 9mo ago
No, I think companies that want to stay competitive will leave the US.
drecked 9mo ago
Conveniently India and the EU just signed a major trade deal.
no_wizard 9mo ago
It would be far smarter to have invested in the workforce continually. A microcosm of this is how we mismanaged college education and is a symptom of a larger problem: As far as US policy goes, got complacent and extractive over innovative and additive. The narrative shifted from 'abundance for all' to 'the pie is only so big' (that is, unless you're a favored incumbent, like defense contractors). It doesn't stop here. Job training programs, continual education, robust workforce displacement services, proper social welfare programs. We lack all of this (and more). Another would be to remove burdens off companies that are better handled by the collective of society, via the government. Take universal healthcare. An often unnoticed benefit is how it would shift liabilities off the books of a huge number of companies, from the auto manufacturers to smaller businesses. A tax is a much easier and simplified expense to deal with over legacy healthcare costs that can weigh down a business. It also has a secondary knock off effect: employers can't use it as a pair of handcuffs. In all likelihood, an unintended side effect of universal healthcare would be an increase in entrepreneurship from the middle class. People who would otherwise be handcuffed to their job because of health insurance. Somehow, the lesson everyone took away from the G.I. Bill was not that the government providing robust funding of social services (IE college, home ownership) works. That part is seemingly ignored by the vast majority of the conversation around the 'good times past' that many Americans romanticize. Too many of my fellow citizens are prioritizing their own short term gains over the long term health of the community and society in which they were empowered by to get ahead in the first place. This will inevitably crater quite spectacularly bad.
- fragmede 9mo ago
  > employers can't use it as a pair of handcuffs. I think you misunderstand the point of the system.
  - no_wizard 9mo ago
    I don’t, I’m calling it out as toxic and a drain on society
- irishcoffee 9mo ago
  > The narrative shifted from 'abundance for all' to 'the pie is only so big' (that is, unless you're a favored incumbent, like defense contractors). It would surprise you to know that Booz Allen laid off 3k people last month then, huh? Or Boeing laid off 3200 people in September 2025. You should look these things up before you pop off like that. Three minutes of research is all it takes.

ra7 9mo ago

If you want American companies to not outsource any jobs AND have full foreign market access, get ready to get market access revoked from places like India. They’ll just incentivize their local companies to compete, and Amazon has plenty of local competition there already. Amazon themselves have experienced in the past how heavy-handed Indian regulators can be. It’s not a zero-sum game anymore. You cannot have only one side (US companies) capture 100% of the value.

greenavocado 9mo ago
> You cannot have only one side (US companies) capture 100% of the value. This is the value prop of the US military
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- oytis 9mo ago
  It was, at least it worked for Europe, but Trump has seemingly managed to ruin that too.
15155 9mo ago
> They’ll just incentivize their local companies to compete They already do.

oytis 9mo ago

How do you punish them? Have ICE raid their offices? There is already a significant tax benefit for hiring developers domestically.

alephnerd 9mo ago

> [p]unish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues They ain't doing squat. The Trump admin is encouraging technology transfer to India as part of Pax Silica [0] and GOP politicans in Ag heavy Purple States like Iowa [1] and Montana [2] are trying to mollify India after China pivoted from American to Brazilian soybeans [3] and India began tariffing pulses/lentils [4]. Additonally, Indian ONG majors like Reliance are negotiating with the Trump admin to purchase Venezuelan oil now that Maduro is in custody [5] and India SOEs have starting creating partnerships with ExxonMobil [6], Chevron [7], and Phillips66 [7] to "drill baby drill". As such, what are you going to do lol - Agriculture and Ag adjacent industries employs 22 million Americans [8] and the Energy sector employs 7 million Americans [9] mostly in Red and Purple states. Software only employs around 2 million Americans [10] in either Blue states or Blue pockets of Red States. [0] - https://x.com/USAmbIndia/status/2010718052992618815 https://x.com/USAmbIndia/status/2010718052992618815 [1] - https://governor.iowa.gov/press-release/2025-09-07/gov-reynolds-and-iowa-delegates-return-india-trade-and-investment-mission https://governor.iowa.gov/press-release/2025-09-07/gov-reyno... [2] - https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/01/20/daines-travels-to-india-to-advocate-for-montanas-pulse-crops-and-reaffirm-u-s-india-strategic-partnership/ https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/01/20/daines-travels-to-i... [3] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-favour-brazilian-soybean-imports-h1-despite-renewed-us-inflows-2026-01-26/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-favour-brazilian-s... [4] - https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cramer-daines-urge-president-trump-to-secure-favorable-pulse-crop-trade-deal-with-india https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cramer-dai... [5] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-reliance-talks-us-permit-buy-venezuelan-oil-sources-say-2026-01-09/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-reliance-talk... [6] - https://www.livemint.com/companies/ongc-exxonmobil-collaboration-india-hydrocarbon-block-auctions/amp-11769614641193.html https://www.livemint.com/companies/ongc-exxonmobil-collabora... [7] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-phillips-66-total-win-indias-first-tender-buy-us-lpg-sources-say-2025-11-14/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-phillips-66-... [8] - https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-detail?chartId=58282 https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-d... [9] - https://usafacts.org/articles/renewable-energy-jobs-grew-in-2020-while-fossil-fuel-jobs-dropped/ https://usafacts.org/articles/renewable-energy-jobs-grew-in-... [10] - https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...