Posted on 09/08/2004 3:36:00 PM PDT by Destro
Posted on Sun, Aug. 22, 2004
Business books: 'Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas'
"Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas," by Lou Dobbs (Warner Business Books, 208 pages, $19.95)
Look out, Silicon Valley! Bangalore, India, is gaining on you. Some folks in India even believe that their country's version of Silicon Valley has already surpassed its California counterpart as a center for high-tech employment.
In his new book, "Exporting America," CNN's Lou Dobbs shows how strongly that belief is held in India with a headline from the Jan. 6, 2004, issue of The Times of India: "Silicon Valley Falls to Bangalore."
The story under that headline, Dobbs writes, bragged that Bangalore has 150,000 information-technology engineers compared with 130,000 in Silicon Valley. Dobbs believes that that story can't be written off as merely nationalistic exaggeration.
"India is only one of the many countries benefiting from the exporting of American jobs. But it has also been one of the most aggressive in pursuing professional-level jobs, from medical technicians to software programs. American companies have been all too happy to answer India's siren call of educated English-speakers willing to work at some of the world's lowest wages," Dobbs writes.
General Electric's Capital International Services, Dobbs points out, was one of the pioneers of outsourcing domestic operations to India. The company, Dobbs writes, employs 1,300 at its four centers in India and says it saves about $400million annually by not having Americans do those jobs.
"The people there write software; they review invoices and insurance claims; they do market analysis. CIS also offers its services to other American companies looking for outsourced resources," Dobbs writes.
Although India lags behind other Asian countries in manufacturing, it has a leg up, according to Dobbs, in the service sector and is a magnet for some of America's highest-paying jobs.
"There are programmers all over the world, but the Indian Institutes of Technology (known as IITs) are turning out thousands of these programmers a year. They are men and women who are well-educated, speak impeccable English, and are thrilled to make $10,000 a year," Dobbs writes.
GE, as Dobbs makes clear in abundant detail, is only one of many companies outsourcing high-tech and professional jobs to India and other parts of the world where wage expectations are lower. Among the others spotlighted by Dobbs for outsourcing jobs to India, the Philippines, Romania, Ireland, Poland and other countries are IBM, SAS Institute, Intel, Microsoft, Perot Systems, Apple, Computer Associates, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.
Early in the book Dobbs delivers a broadside against the general trend of shipping jobs offshore. He says it is undermining the American middle class, putting Americans out of work, forcing Americans to work harder and longer for less pay, devastating some communities and depriving governments at all levels of the tax revenue for upgrading public education and providing other essential goods and services.
Dobbs, whose views on shipping jobs offshore have been under continual attack by advocacy groups and consultants for multinational corporations, takes the view that corporations who send jobs offshore are firing their own customers, because American workers will eventually find themselves unable to purchase the goods and services being exported back to America by American companies.
"India can provide our software; China can provide our toys; Sri Lanka can make our clothes; Japan make our cars. But at some point we have to ask, what will we export? At what will Americans work? And for what kind of wages? No one I've asked in government, business or academia has been able to answer those questions," Dobbs writes.
- Cecil Johnson,
Knight Ridder Tribune
good comment about the drug prices. some industries in the US are protected it seems.
Agoraki Destro - I am merely stating the obvious. Socialist nations leave the worker destitute and unprotected.
Corporations are not concerned about political ideologies as much as they are political stability. Not pretty but true. What hopefully occurs and there are many examples is that increased employment and burgeoning incomes leads to independent people who demand more rights and privileges.
I doubt it - people who abort their children, atheists and pederasts have much fewer children and keep dying out. Democrats must find more viable electoral base.
Could someone please refresh my memory please, in what Article of the Constitution is having a job a right found?
Thanks
How many HEINZ companies are moving jobs offshore?
Food companies like Heinz don't outsource. They construct overseas production facilities that serve the local markets.
Well, if we wish to insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, provide for a common defense, etc. then it should be pretty obvious that we need less fedgov interference in our affairs so we all can do what we do best.....creating businesses and jobs while providing for our families. Fedgov programs like AID which gives our tax $ to companies to help them move offshore, H-1B, NAFTA, GATT, etc. have all been very counter-productive for American workers.....fact is, if given a somewhat level playing field we'll kick a$$ but if our own fedgov continues to produce it's own brand of fascism we're in a race to the bottom.
We went through that in the Gas-crunch 70's... but in the end American's like larger cars. We could save a lot of fuel with better transportation systems in places like LA. Las Vegas is implementing a tram system from one end of the strip to the other (to cut traffic)... there's a lot that can be done... and I think our larger cars could still be made more efficient if they added some sort of semi-hybrid function for around-town driving.
The teachers here are whining they have 35 students in a clasroom and can't teach that many -- Bulletin!! We ALWAYS had 35 - 40 in our classes when I was growing up and we learned just fine -- why, because we paid attention and the teacher was in charge of the class, not the students.
Do not confuse people with facts! Cheap talk radio rehtoric never stands up for long when put up to the truth.
Anyways, Kerry based on his vioting record did vote for all the major free trade pacts, so he is no imporvment as far as working Americans are concerned. Gets depressing....................
I agree with you on that - Kerry speaks with forked tongue.
To my knowledge, most Indian students in the US are graduate students. They generally don't pay a dime for their graduate education; they either get fellowships (tuition paid plus a stipend); research assistantships (tuition paid plus a stipend for doing research) or teaching assistantships (tuition paid plus a stipend for teaching undergraduate classes or labs.)
Most protectionists ultimately fall back to the "promote the general welfare" precept. Ironic that the word "welfare" now means something entirely different.
Most graduate students in the U.S., period, have financial aid. Don't talk nonsense.
No, what's odd is that the minute HD outsources a single lock-nut it will become a "traitor" in your eyes, and I, in turn, will be obligated to defend it.
Oh, if only it were true. Students in the humanities & arts rarely get support. It's mostly in science & tech (follow the money all the way back to federal, military, and corporate grants for research.)
Anyway, the point wasn't whether or not graduate students got support. The point was that as engineering and/or science/tech students, Indian graduate students obtained support and didn't need to take out loans, rely on their governments, etc. Of course they are relying on *our* government (through the grant schemes mentioned above) and are relying on *our* state and federal tax dollars to subsidize their graduate educations.
Yes, and that will bring us to a showdown with the envirnomentalists. It's a conflict that has to happen, because our choices are stark: energy and economic independence, or eventual decline and invasion, as in "fall of Rome" style.
Actually, he claims to be a conservative!
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