Newsweek column on outsourcing

Newsweek ^ | 8-07-2003 | Michael Rogers

[samuel_adams_us]

Aug. 7, 2003 / 5:32 PM ET Readers on outsourcing: I’ve been corresponding with readers this week about two Newsweek pieces, one on the “jobless recovery” phenomenon and the other on offshore outsourcing. It’s a major hot-button topic, particularly among IT workers, but the mail for the most part has been quite reasoned, if somewhat sorrowful and resigned. A few readers asked some pointed questions:

Name: Marc Hansen Hometown: Seattle When all the Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM software production has been outsourced offshore, and when all Intel factories are completely automated, and when all Home Depot stores have self-check-out lines. ... my question is: Who, in America, will be able to afford the food that the McDonald’s robots cook?

Name: EV Hometown: Annapolis, Md. Where do all of these upper level managers think they will be when everyone has been outsourced? Guess they better learn Hindi or one of the other 18 dialects. You are only a manager if there is someone left to manage.

Name: Daniel E. Platt Hometown: Putnam Valley, N.Y. Sixteenth century Spain was quite rich on gold from America. While they funded the industrial revolution in the rest of Europe, they were largely left behind in the end. Are we doomed to the same fate? Or should we purchase a future at the cost of lower profit margins now?

Rogers replies: All good questions. Here are some personal tales from the trenches:

Name: Toni Klinger Hometown: Massillon, Ohio I am so angry. My husband is 59 and lost his job to Canada four months ago. Yesterday, my sister-in-law was notified that her skip-tracing job was going to India. Hey, no problem, she’s only been with the company for 21 years! I have never been so frustrated in my life. People in their 50s just can’t start over. I hate life!

Name: G. Popsworth Hometown: Dallas, Texas I am struggling with what to suggest to my children for a course of study at college. It is becoming more and more difficult for college grads to find employment. Now with outsourcing rampant, they need something stable for their career opportunities. A small town dentist, doctor or lawyer might be appropriate.

Name: Thela Jinseet Hometown: Clinton, N.J. Here’s my story: I am a journalist for an online publication, and I’m bracing for impact. My employer’s entire technical staff is from India, making up nearly 50% of the employees here. The owners of the company are also Indian and they outsource to a team in India. Our Indian employees are a real bargain because they work ungodly hours: 10- to 12-hour days every day and on the weekends. They are also extremely bright. And it’s for low pay. But there’s more. My husband lost his electrical engineering job four days after 9-11 from a major Japanese company that closed its plant and moved its operations to France. Despite graduating with honors from a top university, it took more than a year for him to find work. And just in time: We had two weeks of unemployment benefits left, which was barely enough to pay for our mortgage. This time, he saw a substantial cut in pay. I am truly frightened after our experience. I am scared to buy another house. (We had to sell ours for his new job.) I am scared to have a baby. We can’t afford to save for retirement. Pensions are a thing of the past. My company doesn’t even have a 401(k) plan or even direct deposit for paychecks. I fear we will be poverty-stricken when we retire at 75. Why isn’t Congress listening?

Rogers replies: There were also some suggestions about what to do:

Name: Bill Hometown: Roswell, Ga. Outsourcing customer service jobs overseas is a double-edged sword. One side slashes the number of jobs that are available to U.S. employees and the other side slashes the income taxes that the federal government can collect. Uncle Sam ends up funding unemployment benefits for U.S. citizens who are denied jobs that have been sent overseas. One solution may be to penalize these outsourcing companies in the form of a negative subsidy so that they can help pay benefits for the unemployed.

Name: Mike K. Hometown: Aurora, Ill. Outsourcing makes for some really profitable companies, but fewer consumers have the money to buy that company’s products. That profit won’t last for long. Remember the big “Buy American” kick back in the 80s? I think we’re on the way to the “Hire American” craze. Find out who outsources and who doesn’t and support those who support America by hiring Americans.

[mvpel]

Very well put!

[samuel_adams_us]

Competing for a job when the other guy makes less than minimum wage and I have paid for his education with my tax dollars and he isn't paying income tax here in the United States isn't fair either. Remember we are our own soverign nation, this isn't the United States of India, make the playing field level and Americans can kick the s... out of any one else on any playing field, even when the field is not level we still can for the most part.

[scottlang]

nd=notice

[RaceBannon]

Tell me where this is happening. I want to apply.

[DugwayDuke]

If a job is not a right, then why should the federal govenment use it's powers to ensure that someone has a job?

BTW, I heard this same BS back in the 70s and 80s when Japan was going to "own America".

[RogueIsland]

When you call for tarriffs to protect your job, you are calling for increased prices for some so you can enjoy an increased life style at their expense.

I take it you would prefer the job loss of your neighbor so you can enjoy an increased life style at his expense?

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

You're just standing up for foreigners, for whom Americans have already sacrificed quite enough.

I'm standing up for my fellow Americans and I'm standing on the solid ground of the first 200 years of American history, as well as many previous Republican Party platforms, when I claim that Protective Tariffs make a strong America and build a strong middle-class.

[murdoog]

I do hope he wins, but if thing do not get better it will hurt his reelection next year.

Amen. For 20 years now corporate America has had the advantage of a business-friendly electorate. This was because of the assumption that, even though there was pain at times, when businesses were making more money they would expand and create jobs for Americans. This is no longer the case.

[RaceBannon]

"But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade." ~ Karl Marx, On the Question of Free Trade, January 9, 1848
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/01/09ft.htm#marx


"Communists and socialists feel sure that setting up international “free” trade systems which impose regulations chuck full of intrigues, redistribution plans, arbitrary law, and interdependence schemes, will win out against the conservative interests of every free nation. What could be better than to use “free” trade to reverse the advantage of the relatively free, moral, prosperous, and strong nations of the Earth, so that the tyrannical, amoral, poor, and weak nations of the socialist bloc might get the upper hand? What could be a more cunning approach than to market the idea that those who oppose “free” trade are enemies of freedom?"
http://www.newsmax.com/commentarchive.shtml?a=2000/6/27/105655

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[DugwayDuke]

Nor, is it fair to increase the cost of goods and services for some to subsidize the income of others. That's welfare.

[DugwayDuke]

"I take it you would prefer the job loss of your neighbor so you can enjoy an increased life style at his expense?"

Do you prefer that the federal government use it's powers to take my money to give to my neighbor so he can enjoy the lifestyle he would prefer? Exactly how does this differ from a welfare program?

[Dialup Llama]

>The government will have just about as much luck stopping offshoring as the RIAA has with stopping the downloading of music.

The govt should at least cease subsidizing the job exodus by ELIMINATING the L1 and H1B visa programs. They are subsidies for companies who want to flood the market with cheap labor.

[mhking]

Don't let anyone fool you. This is going to be the key issue of the 2004 election. Not race, not gay marriage, not illegal immigration, and barring a new attack, not even the war.

Now that America is being outsourced into oblivion, the clamor will increase, calling on the Administration to find a way to stop the hemmoraging of jobs to offshore.

And while those jobs continue to move to Bangalore or Mumbai or Delhi, the Democratic candidates (read Hillary) will promise to insulate Americans from the pain like an opiate.

Just damn.

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

[samuel_adams_us]

Increase the cost of goods? What, companies charge what the need to in order to make a profit, that's business, with the savings from shipping the jobs overseas they are not lowering their prices, they are putting the profits in their pocket. I think you need to buy a clue.

[DugwayDuke]

"I'm standing up for my fellow Americans and I'm standing on the solid ground of the first 200 years of American history, as well as many previous Republican Party platforms, when I claim that Protective Tariffs make a strong America and build a strong middle-class."

While you're at it, why don't you admit you want a welfare program that subsidizes the income of certain American workers?

[dfwgator]

Fine, get rid of the H1-Bs, I agree. But H1-Bs are a drop in the bucket, compared to the threat of offshoring. If anything, dropping the H1-Bs, will only accelerate offshoring. But hey, if it makes you feel better, fine.

[DugwayDuke]

"Increase the cost of goods? What, companies charge what the need to in order to make a profit, that's business, with the savings from shipping the jobs overseas they are not lowering their prices, they are putting the profits in their pocket. I think you need to buy a clue."

So, not only do you want a welfare subsidy, you also want the federal government to limit the ability of a corporation to make a profit?

[Zack Nguyen]

I may not agree with LS either but no need to use names.

[Wolfie]

Feh...its almost as if there is no point of having formed a nation in the first place. But then, I guess that's the Globalist point of view anyway.

[Strider]

The govt should at least cease subsidizing the job exodus by ELIMINATING the L1 and H1B visa programs. They are subsidies for companies who want to flood the market with cheap labor.

I agree. I'll compete with cheap overseas labor, but please don't bring them here to compete with me.