Posted on 05/04/2015 4:49:59 AM PDT by SatinDoll
Folks, there is exactly one way you're going to put a stop to this sort of nonsense:
At the end of October, IT employees at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts were called, one-by-one, into conference rooms to receive notice of their layoffs. Multiple conference rooms had been set aside for this purpose, and in each room an executive read from a script informing the worker that their last day would be Jan. 30, 2015.
Some workers left the rooms crying; others appeared shocked. This went on all day. As each employee received a call to go to a conference room, others in the office looked up sometimes with pained expressions. One IT worker recalls a co-worker mouthing "no" as he walked by on the way to a conference room.
Disney, like so many other firms, apparently has been moving many of their high-paying IT jobs effectively offshore -- in many cases demanding that current employees train replacements that then come in and take over. Those replacements are H1b immigrants, frequently from India, where they obtain subsidized schooling and, of course, come from a land where the cost of living is a tiny fraction of what it is here.
These moves are often disguised as "outsourcing" to consultant outfits and similar that do the actual hiring, or as is often the case with call centers and similar the entire operation is moved offshore. In either event the result is the same: Good paying American jobs are lost to foreigners.
This has been going on now for well over a decade; I saw the start of it back before I stood up MCSNet, but the trend has accelerated greatly. Effectively, if it can be offshored it will be in some fashion, exploiting the wage disparity between nations.
You can argue all you want about lifting the living conditions in these other lands but doing so comes at our expense. Even so-called "American" companies like General Motors and Ford have effectively offshored huge percentages of their car manufacturing through their supply chains and where the pieces that go into the cars come from.
We, the people, have permitted this. We in fact fund it every time we buy products and services made by companies that do this. While today there are no alternatives left in many industries that do none of it we can stop buying goods and services from the worst offenders and by doing so pressure firms to bring home their manufacturing -- and jobs.
As an example Apple both sources virtually everything that goes into its iPhone and iPad products from Asia and assembles there too. If you care about American jobs you cannot buy Apple products -- period. Likewise, Disney is not a "need", it's a want, and if you care about high-paying American IT jobs don't go to Disney parks.
There is only one way to stop this crap and that's when you, the American consumer, refuse to buy from the worst of these firms and press the advantage when someone pops up to assemble products and employ workers here in America. As soon as that pressure is applied someone will step up and seize market share.
It starts with you folks; you either care about the future of this country and both your job and the job that your kids will (or won't!) have, or you don't. You either put a stop to this through the pressure of the market or you not only ratify you accelerate this trend by buying an iPhone, iWatch or iPad and going to a Disney park.
Economic suicide is a choice.
Choose wisely.
But it does have to do with offshoring of activities. When the FDA spends 20 weeks at a US med device facility for an inspection and only 5 days each at facilities in China or India - then there is an overdue burden being placed on US facilities. THAT drives decisions.
A little fact that our “leaders” in D.C. don’t want you to know:
Average annual salary of each job lost in the 2007-09 recession (which is still continuing in much of the country): $70,000
Average annual salary of each “new job” created since the recession: $30,000
Thousands of good jobs were swept away when the market tanked, and (predictably) many of them were moved overseas. Reduction of labor costs is one reason that a lot of companies have done very well since the recession. Much leaner workforce, and if you can save major bucks on high-cost functions like IT (by shipping it overseas, or importing lower-cost labor), the bottom line will look that much better.
Fair enough, but not relevant to the article.
The answer is simple: Do not allow low cost labor into the coutnry. When you bring your goods or service back into the country after offshoring, it will cost you (that’s how we used to fund much of the governemnt in the past).
Post 1.
Globalization cannot be stopped. The question is how do we live with it?
Pandora’s box includes Demographics along with Technology.
Right you are! So many of these articles focus on the companies, and ignore the corrosive effects of government interference.
And let's not forget the irrational demands of unions, who think it's quite appropriate to demand that entry-level janitors make $20 an hour plus benefits.
To fix this, we'll have to get companies, the government, and the unions all on the same page. That ain't gonna happen, ever, IMHO.
As we all know, Obama is negotiating a new trade deal with Asia, called the TPP. It's all being done in secret. But some details are being leaked out. One thing I've read is that, under the deal, products will no longer need to be labeled with their country of origin.
I don't know how true that is, but I've read it in a number of places. If such a provision makes it to the final TPP draft, then we might as well be an economic colony of China.
One wonders... when all the good jobs are moved overseas and Americans are reduced to povety subsistence... who can afford to visit the Disney parks, buy cars and other stuff? Will foreigners then have to be imported to be customers? Are these companies for short term profit “eating their seed corn”? Just wunderin???
I’ll refer you to post 20.
We can fight back, if our government decides the People it represents (ha ha) are more important than corporations (even bigger ha ha).
Does a bear excrete in the woods?
It's a truism but government will always decide in favor of more government. America is not going to change (for the better, anyway) until its vast, lawless federal government is rolled back.
At this stage I guess that only Cruz, Walker or the inevitable loss of reserve currency status are going to do the job.
Where I worked, we used to have a joke posted on the walls about this.
The last statement in the joke was, “If you are near death,it is your responsibility to train your replacement before you ‘kick off’”.
That's nice, but at some point they start to get it right. Then what?
Years ago when the major garment mills sent manufacturing offshore (NAFTA) there was apparent disregard for QC, with a high rate of defectives. Not anymore.
The best source for academic research on H1B’s is CIS.org (Center for Immigration Studies).
The annual H1B quota numbers are deliberately deceptive. Almost all H1B’s are automatically renewed for 6 years.
In addition, there are NO quotas for H1B’s who work for universities, non-profit laboratories, or government agencies, and their visas can be renewed for up to 10 years.
Foreign STEM graduates (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) from USA universities have multiple options for evading the H1B quotas.
For instance, about 80% of STEM Ph.D's from China, India, Russia, Iran, and Eastern Europe are still living in the USA 6 years after graduation. Essentially all of them are using some kind of completely legal strategy to obtain a Green Card. Unfortunately, almost all these individuals are completely “average” Ph.D's who graduate from second tier USA universities. Almost all of them will accept any job at any pay level.
Elite foreign STEM Ph.D's from elite USA universities almost all come from Western Europe, Japan, the oil rich Middle East, and Canada-Aus-NZ. Less than 20% of them remain in the USA after graduation. Why? In part because the pay scale and standard of living in their home country is equal to or better than the USA. Most importantly, many of them do not seek a Green Card because they would be forced to compete for many years against the badly paid and badly treated Ph.D's from Third World countries.
Foreign STEM graduates with just a Bachelor's degree also have non-H1B options to remain in the USA for up to 3 years.
They can do that by using special types of “Student” visas and “Internship” visas. Obviously, these foreign “students” compete directly against home grown Americans who are recent graduates.
Because of these insane STEM visa policies that encourage American employers to hire foreign workers, I would strongly advise “average” Americans not to major in a STEM subject.
If you are a young American with elite STEM skills, by all means, go for it, you will be rewarded with excellent pay and excellent job offers.
If you are “average,” you will be competing against every “average” STEM graduate in the world.
That's been my argument to the CEOs, politicians and newspapers since NAFTA was being promoted. The companies lay off each others' customers and then wonder why sales are dropping. They can improve the next quarters bottom line only so far with this tactic before Reality starts to bite.
In the mean time(forever) the H1B visa program NEEDS TO GO AWAY.
As a side insult, I work in IT and ALL the H1B’s and Indian green carders that I know personally voted for Obastard, twice.
Oh yes it can, easily. They are called tariffs and they are QUITE effective.
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