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'Outsourcing' Is Good for America
Wall St Journal ^ | January 28, 2004 | DOUGLAS A. IRWIN

Posted on 01/28/2004 5:55:09 AM PST by SJackson

Edited on 04/22/2004 11:50:58 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

"The United States will be a Third World country in 20 years." So intoned Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan administration Treasury official and supply-side economist, at a Brookings Institution briefing earlier this month. Mr. Roberts makes this prediction because of white-collar job losses due to the outsourcing of service sector employment to India and China. As a result, whole classes of high-wage service sector employees -- from software programmers to radiologists -- now find themselves in competition with highly skilled workers abroad who earn a fraction of their U.S. counterparts.


(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: outsourcing; trade
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1 posted on 01/28/2004 5:55:09 AM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson
The report says "old fashioned protectionism" like it's a bad thing.
2 posted on 01/28/2004 6:01:35 AM PST by BipolarBob (Which one of my personalities were you talking to?)
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To: SJackson
it appears that policymakers have few direct options to halt this process of technological change.

Just pass a law repealing economics.

3 posted on 01/28/2004 6:02:56 AM PST by Taliesan
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To: SJackson
Good find. I agree! The sky is not falling.

CG
4 posted on 01/28/2004 6:09:23 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (This tagline was produced by cheap outsourced labor in India.)
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To: Conspiracy Guy
What is the worth of an IT Techs job now? When will they outsource managment?
5 posted on 01/28/2004 6:26:56 AM PST by Dallas59
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To: SJackson
I think this assault is different. We are under seige from millions of aliens who are milking our system dry, and sending what money they have left over back home.

No one can do anything or they are branded racists.

These elitist pundits have no idea what is happening to middle America. Our corporations are being milked dry by greedy executives, who are dumping honorable jobs to put hundreds of millions of dollars in their own pockets.
6 posted on 01/28/2004 6:27:40 AM PST by tkathy (The islamofascists and the democrats are trying to destroy this country)
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To: SJackson
Ever notice how all these articles seem to be written by people who's jobs are not being outsourced? ( At least not yet, that is)
7 posted on 01/28/2004 6:31:16 AM PST by SolutionsOnly
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To: SJackson
To some extent, the author dodges the real issue. The real threat posed by globalization is not to the top tier of workers -- radiologists and corporate lawyers will always do fine -- but to the NEXT tier of workers, those whose jobs don't require doctoral levels of education or a highly sophisticated familiarity with American culture and the English language. For example, there is almost nothing that we can do to preserve the relative premium formerly accruing to Americans with B.S. and M.S.-level engineering jobs, when the IIT campuses churn out thousands of engineers with Cal Tech - Stanford - Berkeley - MIT skill levels every year, and the Chinese universities and second-tier Indian universities turn out TENS of thousands of engineers with solid (say, Michigan State, Georgia Tech) skill sets.
8 posted on 01/28/2004 6:35:12 AM PST by only1percent
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To: Howlin; Ed_NYC; MonroeDNA; widgysoft; Springman; Timesink; dubyaismypresident; Grani; coug97; ...
Rather than penalizing firms, outsourcing reinforces the importance of public policies that allow workers to manage their best in a period of rapid economic change.

I suppose I should say f--- it and get out of IT alltogether, huh? After all, they've outsourced the hell out of it so that any of us who were making a reasonable living have been forced out.

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

9 posted on 01/28/2004 6:35:26 AM PST by mhking
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To: Dallas59
It is a cycle. I don't like it but it's going to happen. It is not going to end life as we know it. I remember when Steel left Birmingham people knew it was the end. 5 years later the only noticeable difference was the lack of the foul smell.

CG
10 posted on 01/28/2004 6:36:51 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (Ban conversation! Rumors are destroying our morale. Mum's the word.)
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To: SJackson
bump
11 posted on 01/28/2004 6:36:57 AM PST by jonno (We are NOT a democracy - though we are democratic. We ARE a constitutional republic.)
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To: SJackson
bookmark for later reading
12 posted on 01/28/2004 6:38:27 AM PST by samtheman
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To: SolutionsOnly
Just found out yesterday that my office is being shut down. We're a software development company in Virginia that also has offices in DC, London, and ... India. I've had this job 5 years, and there it goes. I guess I've felt it would happen to me eventually.

FWIW, the "tool" that we developed here in Chesapeake is now being developed in India. The last 4 releases of this "tool" are "broken," and we have to use an older one to develop our projects with. So much for Indian software development skills. They've ruined what at one time was ingenious....
13 posted on 01/28/2004 6:39:32 AM PST by Theo
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To: SolutionsOnly
Ever notice how all these articles seem to be written by people who's jobs are not being outsourced?

Ever notice that diet books seem to be written by people who were never fat? What's your point?

14 posted on 01/28/2004 6:41:24 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Theo
Sorry to hear about your job.
15 posted on 01/28/2004 6:42:50 AM PST by Bikers4Bush (Constitution party here I come. Write in Tancredo in 04'!)
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To: Conspiracy Guy
I'm not so sure. I've never been on board the anti-free trade bandwagon. I'm still not.

However I read daily how jobs are being outsourced to low cost countries. Many large companies are now defocusing on North America and now are focusing on Eastern Europe, Latin and South America and the Far East.

Newt Gingrich was on Meet the Press over the holidays and sad something that made me shudder. Unfortunately, Russert didn't offer a follow up question and Newt didn't elaborate. What he did say was for the next 20-25 years, we will be faced with a period of deflation as low cost countries continue to be developed. Think about that for a minute. Most people in America have mortgages and other debt that they banked on annual raises to soften the cushion. Even if you are maintained by your company, they may instead offering a cost of living increase give you a cost of living decrease so they can keep their doors open. Now you've got a smaller check to pay a stabile mortgage payment. Over time you may make 10-15% less than today, yet some of your fixed costs will stay the same. Think of how that will ripple through the economy.

Gingrich's comments (sorry I can't find them to cite specifically) deeply troubled me. The last time we had true deflation was during the depression. And he's talking a 20-25 year period.

16 posted on 01/28/2004 6:44:04 AM PST by joesbucks
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To: SJackson
Professor of Economics at Dartmouth, eh? Probably tenured. No worries about that job being outsourced. That makes it a hell of a lot easier to write things like this. Losing your job to outsourcing? Tough. Get another job. Career gone up in smoke? Quit whining and grab a mop! People losing their homes and familes? Screw 'em. Let them start their own businesses like I did. Oh. Sorry. I'm a tenured prof at an Ivy League school. No need to start a business. Nevermind...
17 posted on 01/28/2004 6:50:39 AM PST by chimera
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To: Theo
The last 4 releases of this "tool" are "broken," and we have to use an older one to develop our projects with. So much for Indian software development skills. They've ruined what at one time was ingenious....

Quick, before you lose the talent, organize with your colleagues and draw up a business plan to provide support and "fixes" for the broken releases. Form a pact/company and plead, cojole, bribe the best talent to leave en masse with you, before the company for whom you are presently working saps your knowhow for a couple of months to train your indian replacements and dumps you anyway, but with no leverage to win contracts from present/future clients.

Do it now, while you have access to your customer's phone numbers. Copy that info and use it now. Move on it, now.

Act.

18 posted on 01/28/2004 6:53:13 AM PST by Jim Cane (Vote Tancredo in '04)
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To: joesbucks
I like Newt but he is wrong as much or more than he is right. The Lord helped me get this far and he'll help me get through the rest. I'll focus on what I can change and let Him handle the rest. I don't think this is the crisis that so many want it to be.

CG
19 posted on 01/28/2004 6:53:19 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (Ban conversation! Rumors are destroying our morale. Mum's the word.)
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To: only1percent
radiologists and corporate lawyers will always do fine

(Chuckle) Sorry, but I must disagree. Digital images of x-rays are already being sent to India and analyzed by lower cost radiologists there. As for lawyers...there are stirrings afoot that legal work, too, is about to start being outsourced.

20 posted on 01/28/2004 6:53:59 AM PST by neutrino (Oderint dum metuant: Let them hate us, so long as they fear us.)
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