Posted on 04/21/2005 7:36:41 AM PDT by A. Pole
Yep, and it would be kind of stupid for you to train and provide the required technology to your competitors. Time to send Corporate Headquarters a clear message in the form of import tariffs.
Let me clarify. For example, some clown comes into a company and spews the current zeitgeist about outsourcing. Its always about how cheap it is and how you don't have to pay healthcare. Not one word about quality. So what you end up with, Carly Fiorina, is a company like Hewlett-Patel where you talk to 4 people on the customer service line who barely speak engrish. Then time and money is wasted in fixing a simple printer problem.
"Waht is really happening is people are trying things withoug knowing ahead of time that they will work. Our employees need to stay ready for change."
And this is a major point. For every job I was ever recruited for, I was told I was "joining" an organization. I was never told that I was a resource to be used, and discarded at will. A company wants a culture of loyalty. The company wants to keep skilled workers, (at their discretion). But, if the company decides they want to try something that is dubious, that may or may not work, the employees are left to twist in the wind.
The employer - employee relationship should be give and take. When it's not... bad things happen. That's how unions got a foothold.
If a company HAS to move operations or shut down, that's one thing. If a company WANTS to move because a few of the top management thinks it would be interesting, and might work. That's a sickness.
This is a good way to look at it. I started out believing I was a loyal employee, but after being laid off twice I learned that the company has NO real loyality to me. This does not mean a union would be better, ask the people of GM about this. But when companies are looking for ideas to make more with less, some smart MBA suggests they move some manufacturing operation overseas. Then later, after a lot of displaced unhappiness and substandard hardware coming in from the overseas site and watch the company lay off the MBA and try to pick up the pieces.
More and more firms are gaining insight on how important their workforce is to them. It will occur to them eventually that outsourcing is a bad idea and the amount of outsourcing will be lowered in my estimation as a way to make money in the future.
Agreed 100%. I would add that the MBAs and Execs are so focused on the stock market's demand for short term profits that they are making very poor decisions.
I left a very capital intensive industry that is killing itself by a 1000 cuts.
Many of the needed equipment upgrades can generate a valid payback in 3 to 5 years. My previous company refused any project with less than an 18 month payback because the stock market demanded such returns. I don't know about you but 3 to 5 year payback on my money would make me a happy camper.
Well the lack of investment bit them in the butt. Other firms upgraded, reduced their costs and are winning contracts with new customers.
I am very anti-government in most areas of life but I would like to see a powerful long term gain tax incentive to get the investor to become an active participant in growing a company instead of sucking it dry by short term demands.
You cannot grow heavy manufacturing with 18 month payback requirements.
Well, maybe. But if there really is any truth in outsourced services being much more dismal than they were before outsourcing, why then, shouldn't it dictate the end of outsourcing as we know it? If it isn't, either there is something seriously wrong with the system, or the issue about quality is a pack of lies.
After all, the best part of capitalism is its way of getting around problems with extreme efficiency. Why is it 'failing' now?
Hey - HP doesn't even stock or sell replacement parts for any printer that costs less then $350!! Their authorized distributors say 'junk it and buy a new one with exetended warrentee - that way when the new one breaks in 18 months - you get a new one, cheap!'.
Quality in outsourced services is non-existent. Not just HP, but IBM, DELL, American Express Travel, ....I could go on and on...trying to get someone who understands American English AND can troubleshoot and resolve any kind of problem is nearly impossible. The problem is the American consumer has been trained to accept very poor service.
"This is a serious question: What kind of laws would these candidates pass if they were to become legislators, and how would these laws "fix" the problem?"
This is a very delicate area. Too much interference by the government is bad, I think most here would agree. Any legislation would have to be done sector by sector, there is no sweeping solution. No one law/tariff/tax that will fix it.
On the offshoring side you have, for example, the Chinese. The government will subsidize the move of a manufacturing plant to China. In China, there is no OSHAA, or EPA. Regulations are minimal. This is NOT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. Regardless of what others here would tell you.
So, one start is for government to ease up on domestic manufacturers. Safety is good, but extortion in the guise of safety is wrong. And that is what happens now.
Another approach is in sectors where it seems clear that items are produced overseas mainly to bypass pollution/worker safety issues, tariffs should be applied.
The answers are complex, and not easy. They will require creativity and cooperation, but isn't that what our legislators are supposed to do?! Be creative problem solvers, not extortionists and bribe takers.
In my rust belt city, a large insurance building stands with only a skeleton crew. All the jobs have been outsourced to India, destroying lives and careers of American citizens. Women who were employed with no over source of income were suddenly pushed out, so were the men.
The company hired a few back, at much lower wages and health care benefits.
Oh yes, outsourcing has really been a blessing for my rust belt city. Not!
What a bunch of liberal garbage. Nobody is entitled to a job. They tried that in the old Soviet Union. You don't own "your" job. Your employer owns your job. You don't have a right to work. You establish value in the free marketplace through experience and education, and then you sell your skills to the highest bidder.
The authors have twisted the meaning of the "American Dream" to suit their socialist agenda. Nobody can stop you from living the American Dream, as long as you have the desire and tenacity to go into business FOR YOURSELF. If you have a skill, a product, or a service that's in demand, then you don't need anybody to give you a job. Start your own company, and then you can decide if you want to outsource your own labor costs.
Of course the fact that one should even have to call anybody for a printer problem, is a sign that the product is not designed very well in the first place.
"A cynic might say that you are being delusional - that legislators will always devolve into extortionists and bribe takers."
Count me as a cynic! The core to the answer, where it all starts, is a concerned, educated, involved electorate. The electorate can continually weed the congressional garden. If the electorate isn't involved and diligent, then we get what we deserve.
I don't believe that most people will care about politics until they are hurting. By that time, it could be too late.
BTTT
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