6 million US jobs to move to India

January 05, 2004 12:32 IST ^ | January 05, 2004 12:32 IST | rediff.com

[dirtydanusa]

What's surprising is how many people believe this...

Here some homework for you. Go to your favorite store (probably Walmart) and read the labels. Go to Sears, Target, K-mart, any one, and read the labels. Made in U.S.A. will not be very high on the list. All the proof I need is on the label.

I heard my insurance company is looking to "outsource". Will my rates go down now that their saving all this money on cheap labor. NO. As soon as I get bounced to India for service, this policy will be history.

[Poser]

Let's see. Six million good, qualified engineers for $6,000 a year... Hmm... I think the figures aren't very reliable.

[Luis Gonzalez]

So, your only reply to the facts listed in the article is to take a shot at me?

Loser.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

India refused to join us in Iraq. And among the Indian population here in the States, you won't find many who are in any branch of our military.
India has had a lot of problems with Islamofacists, and will continue. Look for one of our offshored corporations, say Intel, to have their building demolished by terrorists.
Unfortunately, OPIC is an American taxpayer funded form of foreign aid, that underwrites all the risks of doing business in India (and other countries). This is another way we are enabling offshoring. No commercial bank will take the risks that the American taxpayer is unknowingly taking. And OPIC funding is not just for any corporation, only those who 'qualify' (like Enron, do a google search on Enron and India). They built a electical plant in India and then the Indian government refused to buy any electricity. All funded by OPIC.

[CaptSkip]

"Yes, Dell has moved customer support to India."

Thanks. I asked one guy what time of day it was in his locale. "I'm at central time-zone"...Yea right.

Is it Dell's policy to pretend these folks are not in India?

Kind of silly if so.

[CurlyDave]

Does anyone know If Dell's moved their customer support to India?

YES

But then so have most computer manufacturers.

I think HP has moved their support for corporate customers back to the US, but home users still call India.

When you buy a low-priced computer, you get low-priced support.

My infrequent calls to Apple have mostly been answered by Americans, but people whine about Mac prices. My calls for support on HP machines have all gone to India.

[Dallas59]

How long before these workers in India demand higher wages from thier American employers?

[dirtydanusa]

Jaded facts by a wall street driven magazine. Investors love cheap labor and care nothing about the product. Being in manufacturing puts a whole different spin on the subject.In the end, it's the consumer who is the loser.

[Luis Gonzalez]

In other words, you have zero to refute the article with, other than the very Clintonian method of attacking the source.

All I needed to know.

[philetus]

You will not be able to start a business in India.

[dirtydanusa]

How long before these workers in India demand higher wages from their American employers?

When this happens, the corporations will look elsewhere, similar to the companies who located to Mexico in the beginning of NAFTA and have since moved to China where the workers have no rights.

[nopardons]

Your guess is as good as anyone's and a straw man is a straw man is a straw man.

The companies will just go find cheaper workers someplace else.

This isn't anything new. New immigrants, here, bumped born American workers out of jobs, in centuries pasts. Jobs have come and gone, displaced by technology and by what's " IN " ( egret feathers,whalebone corset stays, etc. ) and what's not.

I'm not advocating anything, except for people to stop whinging, constantly, about this .

[dirtydanusa]

You believe what you want to believe, I'll read the label and support America's workers. That is the bottom line.

[TejasRose]

I've seen this happening in my field, medical transcription, for several years. You all should feel comforted that your medical records are going to India. /sarcasm Guess you've heard of the HIPAA laws? As American medical transcriptionists, we have to jump through all kinds of hoops to try to comply...firewalls, encryption software, signed confidentiality statements, etc., etc. If I, as an American medical transcriptionist, fail to comply with HIPAA regulations, I could face fines up to $20,000 and/or jail time. You really think HIPAA laws can be enforced by the United States in India???

[I still care]

The thing is, usually you can't. And if you can, often the service is terrible. How many times have you called computer techs and not been able to understand a word they say?

I have been having really bad problems with DirectTV this year. I have been on the phone with them at LEAST 15 times with them the past two months. Nothing I ever say ever gets entered into the computer.

After 3 missed appointments ("We have no record of that appointment in the computer") I finally called up and just cut off my service last month, and guess what? I got a bill for this month.

Someone told me that DirectTV has outsourced their customer service to India. I don't know if that's true, but I would love to find out. It would explain a lot.

[BJClinton]

Is it Dell's policy to pretend these folks are not in India?

Yup. I'm an Austinite and former tech support geek for one of their business partners. When they (Dell, AT&T Wireless etc) first started outsourcing to India they would train the new phone reps to creat a whole life story. They would get an American-sounding name (I encouraged one to call himself Hank Williams), come up with a home town and learn some American sports (again, I encouraged the same trainee to talk about how the Spurs won the Super Bowl). This was f**king hilarious until I got laid off last April.

[CaptSkip]

"They would get an American-sounding name (I encouraged one to call himself Hank Williams), come up with a home town and learn some American sports (again, I encouraged the same trainee to talk about how the Spurs won the Super Bowl). This was f**king hilarious until I got laid off last April.

Sorry you got laid off [BTDT], but that had to be entertaining!

[Cronos]

I think we'll reach an equilibrium. Most of the R&D work will remain here in the US but lower end tech-realted jobs like call-centers (how the **** can ANYONE call a call-center job as a tech job?) can move out.

[Cronos]

It may be a good idea to do so now, Coffee chains are really really big there. While the European and American markets seem to have matured, the coffee cafe shops in India seem to be booming -- good money to be made -- Cafe day

[Cronos]

No, all citizens have a right to jobs for life, no matter how qualified they are (or aren't) and if they can't compete in that field, we should pass legislation to stop competition so they have jobs for life. Just like in Japan, oops wrong example Japan stopped competition and ti's had a recession for oh, about 12 years running.....