Posted on 10/24/2003 2:57:42 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Are American workers at risk of losing their jobs? Damn right they are. Particularly if they pursued what they thought were safe jobs in today's commerce. When American workers lost their blue-collar jobs they stepped up to the plate and educated themselves in the technologies that they were told would assure them security. Sadly, corporate America lied. Not only are American workers losing their coveted jobs, but in unprecedented moves they are being asked to train their replacements.
The consequences are mortifying.
By now, most of us have experienced calling an organization we have done business with before only to find the overtly sweet voice on the other end of the receiver has a thick, almost unintelligible foreign accent.
Well, folks, get used to it.
By the thousands jobs are being exported, or the new word, outsourced to India, Hong Kong, Peoples Republic of China, Panama, Manila, The Philippines; and many other countries where the local citizens speak English. Jobs are moving offshore to any country where the populace is accustomed to working for pennies a day. Any sum above a dollar in many cases, is the beginning to middle-class wealth and vast change of lifestyle.
Are you wondering how to safeguard yourself? It's not very promising, but here's the scoop. All manufacturing careers are going overseas. It's as simple and as appalling as that.
Since 1986, 15 million high-paying manufacturing jobs have left the US and American workers. Need a second to take absorb that? It's startling, I know. But the horrifying truth is, sooner than you think, not a single automobile, airplane, or ship will be assembled or manufactured in the land of free, home of the brave. It won't be long thereafter, that all manufacturers wanting to stay competitive will seek to bring their businesses to the millions of workers overseas. After all, they are willing to work for a pittance without the contrivance or interference of nasty unions, health benefits, 401K's, and the multitude of perks the American worker has worked hard to achieve.
Be on notice, American workers. If your job can be performed as well elsewhere, you are in grave danger of losing your jobs. If your job relies on computer skills, telephone skills, manufacturing.your days are numbered. Any job that can be performed in another location, preferably outside of the realm of American wages and American work-related laws, are going.
If you're a nurse or a physician, a medical technician, a physical therapist, even a nurse's aide, you're safe.at least for the time being. But if you're an x-ray technician, watch out. According to Irwin Kellner, a professor of economics at Hofstra University in New York, already many films are transmitted via the Internet and read abroad. Kellner also says, however, that ''We will manage not only to muddle through but to create jobs to add to our overall well-being,'' He also says he has. ''.faith in the system. Somehow or another, we'll create jobs that can't be exported overseas.''
Other experts in the field are not quite so idealistic. Diane Morello, research director and VP at Gartner, Inc., estimates that "based on her preliminary calculations, at least 500,000 jobs will be lost to offshore outsourcing by the end of 2004." Her company report also dimly states, "one out of 10 jobs in the US computer services and software sector could move overseas by the end of next year". Furthermore, the study indicates that "while professionals in the computer industry will be especially hard-hit, IT jobs in other sectors such as banking, health-care, and insurance will also feel the impact, with one in 20 being exported to emerging markets such as Russia, India, or other countries in Southeast Asia.
According to the Washington Post, 2.5 million factory jobs have disappeared since 2001.
If you're a draftsman, an architect, a computer programmer, a graphic designer, your days are numbered. If you're a plumber, electrician, construction worker, contractor, bricklayer, you're secure for now.
A young software executive states, "He's allowed to hire whomever he wants--as long as they live in India or Australia. Another American executive says, "We've got one company that's closing a support facility here to move it to Asia, and another that doesn't even try to fill jobs at home. There's something vaguely unpatriotic about all this. Especially when the jobs are answering the phone to talk to American customers or developing programs to be sold primarily to American companies."
Stuart Yasgur and Ernie Nounou wrote in Business Week that, "Common knowledge says that we are in the midst of a 'Jobless Recovery.' After all, while the United States economy recovered statistically from the 'mild' recession in 2001, unemployment has risen from 4% to 6%-- a whopping 50% increase. Urban centers like New York City, which had a January unemployment rate of 8.6%, have been particularly hard hit. What is not commonly known, however, is that jobs have been created during this recovery, just not in places like New York City, San Francisco, or even Flint, Michigan. Jobs have been created in places like India, Jamaica, the Philippines, and even Sri Lanka. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), an association of software and IT- enabled services companies, estimates that India's IT-enabled services industry grew by 70% during 2001-2002."
So, dear reader, if you find yourself maddened by the inarticulate, difficult to understand techie on the telephone, perhaps it's time we made our voices heard. If you pick up your telephone and dial an out-of-state number and the voice on the other end of the telephone is speaking in an almost unintelligible accent from India or some other foreign country, you can rest assured your phone call was re-directed outside of the United States.
Corporate America is sending our jobs and the jobs of our fellow Americans abroad to foreign countries so that the company that is multi-billions of dollars wealthy can save money by farming its work outside of America and far from American workers. I don't know about you, but I'm mad as hell and I don't want to take it anymore.
The very companies we made rich by buying their products, their computers, their software, their clothing, their kitchen gadgets, their televisions -- are thanking us by taking the jobs of our citizens and moving them, excuse me, outsourcing them, to countries and a workforce far from our shores. They're doing this for one reason and one reason only: The Almighty Dollar. It's despicable.
If we don't do something and do something quick, it's going to be too late. Our lifestyle and our wealth will cease to exist, as we know it. The wealthy few will be the corporate entities that outsourced their workforce.
After Shirley Turner, a Democratic state senator from New Jersey discovered that a program from her state, Families First, which provides welfare recipients with grocery debit cards had been outsourced to Mumbai, India, she proposed bill No. 1349. Her bill, which was approved unanimously by the New Jersey Senate in December 2002, would require all state contracts to be performed by either US citizens or foreign citizens who work legally in the United States.
Following her lead, Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, and Wisconsin all have similar bills under consideration. However, folks, this is a very small pebble making tiny ripples. It is time we stepped up to the plate.
We need to revolt. We need to get mad as hell and unwilling to take this anymore. Not just because corporate America is a lethal indignity; not just because truth in advertising is a lie; not just because American jobs are being shipped out of the country. We need to realize we are the power, we can make this a better world, a better place in which to raise the next generation. We can start here and now and tell Bill Gates' Microsoft, the McAfee's and Norton's, The Gateway's, the Dell's, our telephone companies, and insurance companies, and our Internet providers that if they want our business, they are going to have to earn it.and they're going to have to keep on earning it. It's time folks to become mad as hell and not take it anymore.
We need to boycott products that are outsourced. We need to write letters to our representatives and our local newspapers. We need to make our voices heard. We need to parade in front of corporate offices and hold banners high and shout out loud "We are mad as hell and we are not going to take this anymore!" We need to write to the CEO's and write them again and tell them how we feel. But first and foremost, we need to stop buying their products and their services.
Finally, we need to safeguard ourselves by becoming re-educated and prepared for the possibility that we may need to fit into a new workforce.
That socialist mindset that is inflicted on us by the media has gotten under your skin.
Corporations ARE the American people. There is no such thing as "corporate power" that is different from the power of the people. And there are no profits of corporations that do not benefit real people.
So, if you want to discuss patriotism --- fine. But deal with people, not the faceless "corporations," a boogeyman thrown at you by the media.
As for the problems -- I see them. The question is who is responsible and what to do about that. It is not the corporate managers --- they are hired labor just like the janitors (only more talented and therefore better paid). It is not the government: we are responsible for making ourselved marketable.
And, frankly, there is no big problem so far: our unemployment is at 6.1% considered close to minimal possible until recently.
The author of this article is either ignorant or he's being deliberately disingenuous. Believe it or not, the most serious economic problem faced by New York City -- despite its 8.6% unemployment rate -- is a labor shortage.
It never is.
All you do is stalk people and smear them with personal attacks.
Take a hike, troll.
I disagree. Small businesses, owned by private Americans are the people. Small businesses that rely on local people to work in their businesses. Large corporation, that move their entire corporations off shore, and lay off the real Americans down on the street, ARE NOT the American people.
Corporations ARE the American people sounds real good, nice sound bite even. But just try telling this to all those left behind in the towns that once prospered.....
They'd probably chase you out of town.....
No, corporations that rely on cheap third word labor are NOT the American people. They are however, turning a big profits by selling the Americans products produced by those in foreign lands. Like from Communist China......
There will come a time when the majority of Americans wont even be able to afford those products, as they will be lucky to have a job, that paid half of what they use to make...
It's happening before your eyes.....
JH: I disagree. I respect your opinion, but this is not a matter of opinion; it's a fact.
Small businesses, owned by private Americans are the people. That may be a natural misunderstanding, but a misunderstanding nonetheless. Most American corporation, especially the spooky big ones that you think about when talking about their "power" are owned by millions of Americans. This includes AT&T, GM, GE, etc.
In terms of your patriotism, it does not matter whether you own a big house or a small one, correct? The same is here: an American that owns a McDonald's franchise own a BIG chink of his bisiness, whereas a widow with 200 shares of IBM stock owns a SMALL chunk of that business. But it is the same ownership, and it is the same Americans.
Small businesses hire employees, and so do big ones, only more of them. A restaurant owner often hires a manager. So does IBM. There is no difference. Large corporation, that move their entire corporations off shore, and lay off the real Americans down on the street, ARE NOT the American people.
By your logic, any American that bought a foreing business is a traitor? You know full well that this is silly -- in fact unAmerican, because it's not my business to dictate to you where to invest your money.
YOu may not have thought about this from the following angle, but it may help. Suppose a corporation folds today: all assets are sold, and the money is returned to investors. You would not have a problem with that, right? There is nothing unAmerican about that: you simply feel that the risks are not worth it and close your business. A trip to the mall will reveal that this happens very often: stores go out of business, seldom through bancruptcy. About 500,000 businesses are formed each year, and almost as many go out of business --- again, not necessarily through bancruptcy.
So now the company is closed, and you got your money back. A year alter you find an investment opportunity in Singapore. Thre is nothing unAmerican if you put your money there, right? People do that all the time -- it's part of our freedoms, as American as the apple pie.
The only difference with off-shoring is that a year does not pass between the two events: they happen simultaneously. There is nothing unAmerican about either part of it, as you have seen.
You have jno obligation to pay my salary. You employ me for as long as I am worth my keep and let go when that is no longer true. Demanding otherwise is socialist and has nothing to do with partiotism, whether you realize it or not.
In general, you see what can be helpful: don't stop at abstract notions like "corporations," "patriotism," etc. --- get it down to real people: it is they who are the workers, the managers, the owners. See who benefits from what, who owes what to whom. You remarks suggest that you have jumpted to very strong conclusions without fully understanding these aspects.
He don't have to post anything on this corner of the internet to anger the people against the corportations moving off shore, taking the jobs with them, only to be given to those that work for near nothing...
Willie wont affect the anger against the institutions of capitalism by posting articles here. No, they are doing a damn good job of that all by themselves.....
Yeah and the landscape is littered with millions of those investors that lost their butts, they're retirements, etc....
Don't worry about Willie, there is enough anger to go around. Trust me.....
Well, that alone reveals you as a socialist. And your ignorance as well.
Arrogance of ignorance, as Dostoyevky referred to it.
I shall not reply to you on this thread any further. Enjoy your blissful anger.
LOL! Thanks for the humor. I've been called many things, but never a socialist. Hehehe
But hey, you keep supporting this epic, wholesale sell off of American jobs to places like Communist China. Free trade indeed.
You stating this is the American way is really humorous. I can only laugh as I still have my job.
Take care Quark.....
Speak English? well that may be what they call it but english... no. And their level of expertise $u(&s. They can not identify the most basic issues with a computer that are commonly mistaken for failed hardware componets... low system resources.
So, dear reader, if you find yourself maddened by the inarticulate, difficult to understand tech on the telephone, perhaps it's time we made our voices heard. If you pick up your telephone and dial an out-of-state number and the voice on the other end of the telephone is speaking in an almost unintelligible accent from India or some other foreign country, you can rest assured your phone call was re-directed outside of the United States.
The best tactic is if you get a mush-mouth (tech lingo for a punk in India) which you will if you call any of the major PC manufacturer OEM support... let them fumble and then demand a supervisor. Tell them you want someone that REALLY does know how to identify the issue with the computer and that you also want someone that REALLY does speak English, not engrish.
TLI
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.