Posted on 02/19/2004 7:03:48 PM PST by dennisw
Outsource the work of our economic advisers
I read that my first job after college is being outsourced to India. Reuters Ltd., the wire service, is hiring workers halfway around the world to report on American companies' earnings, dividends, oil discoveries — anything that could move a company's stock price. Reuters will now pay Indians a fraction of what it was spending to employ Americans doing my old job.
That's the wave of the future, we are told. Skilled jobs are pulling up anchor and sailing off. Computer-programming jobs have already left by the thousands. Radiologists on other continents are reading our X-rays and CAT scans.
Intel CEO Craig Barnett says that approximately 300 million educated people in India, China and Russia can "do effectively any job that can be done in the United States." Bear in mind, there are only 144 million jobs in America.
I offer no easy plan for slowing the trend. But I'll darn well not celebrate it.
Last week, N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, stated that outsourcing American jobs was good for the country in the long run. A chorus of economists and financial pundits sang hymns to his wisdom.
A noble exception was Barron's columnist Alan Abelson. He noted that Mankiw's comment nearly coincided with a University of Michigan survey showing a sharp drop in consumer sentiment. Consumers see a growing threat to their jobs and may be thinking twice about spending more money. And Mankiw's sunny view of outsourcing only confirms their suspicions that the federal government will do little to ease the pains of globalization.
Abelson then speculates on how outsourcing might apply to the Council of Economic Advisers itself. First off, the three dozen economists who work there earn far more than the $10 an hour paid to their Asian counterparts. Secondly, the Americans don't do a great job. The council had predicted a net gain of 1.7 million jobs for 2003, when, in fact, the United States lost jobs. And the council's estimate of 2.6 million new jobs this year is "ludicrously" optimistic. Why not send the council's research work to Bangalore? After all, Abelson writes, "our putative Indian economists couldn't have done — or possibly do — any worse."
And what would the out-of-work economists do? They could "simply follow their chief's advice and find new jobs ostensibly immune to outsourcing," Abelson says. "Peddling real estate, perhaps, or waiting on tables."
Let me add that some Wall Street firms have already sent financial-analysis work to India. It can be easily done.
Thanks, Alan Abelson, for lampooning those cheerful predictions of an outsourced world. The peppy defenses of outsourcing were getting me down. The worst ones contend that it will free us from the scourge of dull work. Janet Yellen, who headed the council in the Clinton administration, says that outsourcing may hurt "the more standardized part of high tech" work, but Americans will keep the high-end tech jobs.
Daniel Pink, author of an article on outsourcing in Wired magazine, echoes her optimism. Pink was recently on C-Span blowing a lot of Silicon bubble talk about American "dynamism," "big-picture thinking" and "high concept" employment. He noted that only "routine, relatively standardized white-collar work is going overseas."
Well, that would describe about 99 percent of all white-collar jobs. Not to worry. Pink thinks Americans will be left with the fun work. They'll be "software experts who can manage international 24-7 work teams." Yep. We'll all be sitting right there at the controls overseeing global armies of programmers. How Americans get to be the managers goes unexplained.
The problem is, there is no limit to the jobs that can go elsewhere. We can no longer pretend that laid-off factory workers need only take some computer classes and they'll be economically secure. Their skills, it turns out, are shared by about 300 million Indians, Chinese and Russians.
My job at Reuters was crummy in many ways — stressful, deskbound, often boring. But it taught me things. I had arrived knowing nothing about business and left knowing something. "Standardized" white-collar jobs represent more than paychecks. They offer training, as well.
If outsourcing is the future, so be it. But let's not play American workers for the fool. Their future doesn't look good at all.
N'est-ce-parse
The grunts working in the credit service offices over there will be earning the same for it as what Americans are in similar offices here?
My stock broker likes to get on the radio financial shows and tout the “benefits of outsourcing.” As soon as I can find an Indian Brokerage Firm, I intend to outsource HIS job. We’ll see how he likes that!
The only people in favor of outsourcing are those who think their own jobs are immune.
Guys, Sorry, but that happened a few years ago when unregistered foreign agents were assigned the U. S. of A. trade representative jobs. Peace and love, George.
The only people in favor of outsourcing are those who think their own jobs are immune.
Your example of your stock broker is a perfect illustration of the benefits of trade, only on a micro level and at the domestic locale. Tell me, why is it that you use a broker? Think of every factor that goes into that decision that you've made. Next, take those same factors [if you're normal, this exercise should work as intended] and apply them to the issue of "outsourcing" of jobs to India.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.