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YOU SAID..."I believe outsourcing is a trend that will eventually fade away, especially in regards to customer service."

IMHO...foreign outsourcing (actually OFFSHORING) was invented for all intents and purposes by Jack Welch of GE, when he started moving large segments of GE's aircraft engine design and manufacturing over to China in the late 80's. The effects were traumatic...I once did consulting with a former senior engineer from GE Aircraft Engine who clued me in on it.

Like most tulip crazes however....it was picked up by the Harvard MBA crowd...who jumped on the bandwagon...as Welch is still revered in business circles and on the street.

Now...I'm not saying outsourcing itself cant be a winning proposition for a company..IF DONE WITHIN AMERICA, it can be a winning proposition...as in outsourcing accounting, legal, payroll, HR, or even engineering (as in consulting).

OFFSHORING on the other hand, IMHO is way way overused and its benefits overstated. We WILL see this over time, but not before suffering severe damage to our infrastructure...some of which will be irreversible in our lifetimes.

Outsourcing can even be a win if done to other countries where there really is rule of law, where cronyism and dirty dealing are not TOO excessive and where the Western way of thinking is if not the norm, at least accepted. The PRC - of course - meets none of these criteria.

So the monicker "Neutron Jack" applied to Welch (...the buildings are standing but nobody's inside anymore..) now applies in more ways than one, eh?

Whaddya expect from a guy who massaged GE's numbers every quarter for what, 10+ years? Nobody, but NOBODY, could possibly produce perfectly incremental sales growth the way his numbers did--and by gum, only AFTER that sniggering jackass retired did GE decide to get with the program imposed on them by the Feds SOX legislation.

Just remember the battle cry of those downsized by Neutron Jack:

"I used to have lifetime employment, now I have lifetime employability."

"Well, I thought I did."

"I haven't been outsourced...I've been JACK'ed off!"

Full Disclosure: Never worked there in the first place.

Second Disclosure: I bet he thought he gave his first wife "lifetime marriageability" when he dumped her for Suzy Wetlaufer.

What a slimebag.

No Cheers, unfortunately.