Posted on 08/27/2003 6:09:54 PM PDT by Patriotways
U.S. college grads see jobs being taken abroad
"America's white-collar workers should not feel too smug. They can be replaced by cheaper foreign workers. That process is under way."
The future of American workers, if they are lucky enough to land a job, lies with multinational companies that rely heavily on foreign labor.
It's too late to worry about losing U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mexico's workers now are in a panic over losing their NAFTA-generated manufacturing jobs to China, the world's new global manufacturing center.
America's white-collar workers should not feel too smug. They can be replaced by cheaper foreign workers. That process is under way.
Foreign colleges, particularly in India and other Asian nations, are turning out graduates who have dedicated their lives to achieving the highest attainable levels of academic learning with the goal of landing a job either in the United States or with a U.S. company. Their efforts are paying off.
Only the healthiest Americans will have missed the growing number of foreign doctors now helping staff the nation's hospitals.
America's high-tech industries are hiring more and more foreign workers to write computer programs, design electronics and run research and development projects. And these are jobs in the United States that normally would go to skilled American workers with college degrees.
More and more technical support jobs for American companies now are located overseas.
A recent USA Today article by Michelle Kessler and Stephanie Armour reported that jobs done by accountants, financial analysts, home loan processors, claims adjusters, architectural drafters and many others now are being done by inexpensive workers in foreign countries.
"These include high-paying, highly sought-after jobs that often require advanced degrees and years of study to attain," said the Kessler-Armour article. "But instead of paying six-figure salaries to trained workers in America, more companies are shelling out $10,000 to $20,000 to get cheaper employees an ocean away."
As if to confirm that observation, a recent news story in the Houston Chronicle by Wendy Lee reported that Renata Escovar, a Rice University economics graduate, was turned down for a waitressing job and Chisom Uluh, a University of Houston graduate with a communication degree, now is selling mattresses.
"Such experiences have become commonplace among college graduates facing the most dismal job market in nearly a decade," Lee wrote. She said many new college graduates now are selling clothes, serving food or taking other similar jobs they thought they had left behind once they earned they college diplomas.
Many lower-level service and manual labor jobs in the United States are being scooped up by both legal and illegal immigrants. Employer sanctions for hiring illegal immigrants are rarely enforced since there are no nationwide worker-identity standards.
The logic that moved American manufacturing jobs in textiles, furniture, sporting goods, stoves, refrigerators and much more to Mexico and other countries now is being applied to white collar jobs. Foreign workers are paid less, which is necessary for many businesses that compete in the global economy. To survive, all businesses must remain competitive and profitable.
As American manufacturing jobs became established in Mexico, wages for Mexican workers rose along with the nation's standard of living.
Since China joined the World Trade Organization, however, many U.S. multinational companies now hire Chinese workers who do the same jobs for several hundred percent less than Mexican workers.
Americans workers may soon be faced with the if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them choice in the brave, new multinational, global marketplace.
Will a user at the NSA or the US Navy call Dell Tech Support in India for help when a server crashes?
Okay, name one politician or pundit, who "laud(s) the process of immigration and job losses abroad."
These doom and gloom scenarios have been passed around my entire adult life. I remember in 1987 hearing about how the Japanese were going to take over America. The Imperial Palace compound in Tokyo had a higher real estate value than the entire State of California. The Japanese owned downtown LA, they owned the RCA building.
If NAFTA is going to send all industrial jobs to Mexico, why weren't all industrial jobs in Arkansas to begin with, since they had the cheapest labor? At the rate of increase of gas prices of the past two weeks, a gallon of unleaded is going to cost a thousand dollars by Christmas. Is that going to happen? NO! Are all college jobs moving to India? NO! Get a grip folks.
Although there is a lot of truth in this article, it is not as bad as it seems. If you really have your mind made up to pursue a career, and are willing to work hard then you can eventually attain it. Fact is, a lot of young kids are lazy and not willing to work as hard as some of the foreigners. I've been in the position of going thru hundreds of resumes and many interviews to hire people, and some young applicants are demanding outrageous starting salaries. What, just because they have a degree they think they can start at the top rung of the ladder? My older daughter graduated from UC Berkeley and started at a low-level position at a firm and worked her way up to the position she desired. You can get there thru hard work.
On the other hand, it is getting more difficult to land desired positions due to the foreign competition and we should try to save U.S. jobs. One way to do that is to get back to the basics of protecting language, borders, and culture (what Savage preaches) and that's getting harder to accomplish.
As if to confirm that observation, a recent news story in the Houston Chronicle by Wendy Lee reported that Renata Escovar, a Rice University economics graduate, was turned down for a waitressing job and Chisom Uluh, a University of Houston graduate with a communication degree, now is selling mattresses.
I read up to this point before I called "B.S.". Since when have liberal arts graduates ever earned 6 figures, let alone right out of college? And how long has the french-frying liberal arts graduate stereotype been around? I run into a lot of lib arts graduates working behind cash registers but it doesn't cause me any concern.
The stock free trader response is this kind of smug triumphalism. Well, you may have prospered. Blue collar working people did not. Since deindustrialization hit in the mid 70's the non college educated bottom half of the American work force has massively lost ground. In 1960 a non college educated blue collar worker could buy a house, raise 4.2 baby boom kids, have health insurance, go away on vacation, save 10% of his income, and retire on a pension. And all on one paycheck working 9 to 5 with time and a half for overtime. How many college graduates have these things now ?
If NAFTA is going to send all industrial jobs to Mexico, why weren't all industrial jobs in Arkansas to begin with, since they had the cheapest labor?
Not a very intelligent question. In the age of the railroad industry could not be dispersed. The manager, the owner, the workers, the suppliers, the bankers all had to be living in the same general area. This meant huge concentrations in the Northeast because face to face was the only way to exercise command control. As communications and transportation improved we had the Sunbelt Shift. Now with the internet the industries that had moved to the South can now move even further away looking for still cheaper labor. Today we are seeing something totally different. It is not even necessary for managers and workers to be in the same country. Something can be designed in country a and coded in country b. That is completely different.
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