Posted on 09/08/2004 3:36:00 PM PDT by Destro
Posted on Sun, Aug. 22, 2004
Business books: 'Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas'
"Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas," by Lou Dobbs (Warner Business Books, 208 pages, $19.95)
Look out, Silicon Valley! Bangalore, India, is gaining on you. Some folks in India even believe that their country's version of Silicon Valley has already surpassed its California counterpart as a center for high-tech employment.
In his new book, "Exporting America," CNN's Lou Dobbs shows how strongly that belief is held in India with a headline from the Jan. 6, 2004, issue of The Times of India: "Silicon Valley Falls to Bangalore."
The story under that headline, Dobbs writes, bragged that Bangalore has 150,000 information-technology engineers compared with 130,000 in Silicon Valley. Dobbs believes that that story can't be written off as merely nationalistic exaggeration.
"India is only one of the many countries benefiting from the exporting of American jobs. But it has also been one of the most aggressive in pursuing professional-level jobs, from medical technicians to software programs. American companies have been all too happy to answer India's siren call of educated English-speakers willing to work at some of the world's lowest wages," Dobbs writes.
General Electric's Capital International Services, Dobbs points out, was one of the pioneers of outsourcing domestic operations to India. The company, Dobbs writes, employs 1,300 at its four centers in India and says it saves about $400million annually by not having Americans do those jobs.
"The people there write software; they review invoices and insurance claims; they do market analysis. CIS also offers its services to other American companies looking for outsourced resources," Dobbs writes.
Although India lags behind other Asian countries in manufacturing, it has a leg up, according to Dobbs, in the service sector and is a magnet for some of America's highest-paying jobs.
"There are programmers all over the world, but the Indian Institutes of Technology (known as IITs) are turning out thousands of these programmers a year. They are men and women who are well-educated, speak impeccable English, and are thrilled to make $10,000 a year," Dobbs writes.
GE, as Dobbs makes clear in abundant detail, is only one of many companies outsourcing high-tech and professional jobs to India and other parts of the world where wage expectations are lower. Among the others spotlighted by Dobbs for outsourcing jobs to India, the Philippines, Romania, Ireland, Poland and other countries are IBM, SAS Institute, Intel, Microsoft, Perot Systems, Apple, Computer Associates, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.
Early in the book Dobbs delivers a broadside against the general trend of shipping jobs offshore. He says it is undermining the American middle class, putting Americans out of work, forcing Americans to work harder and longer for less pay, devastating some communities and depriving governments at all levels of the tax revenue for upgrading public education and providing other essential goods and services.
Dobbs, whose views on shipping jobs offshore have been under continual attack by advocacy groups and consultants for multinational corporations, takes the view that corporations who send jobs offshore are firing their own customers, because American workers will eventually find themselves unable to purchase the goods and services being exported back to America by American companies.
"India can provide our software; China can provide our toys; Sri Lanka can make our clothes; Japan make our cars. But at some point we have to ask, what will we export? At what will Americans work? And for what kind of wages? No one I've asked in government, business or academia has been able to answer those questions," Dobbs writes.
- Cecil Johnson,
Knight Ridder Tribune
I think it's the education system and also NAFTA. In my area, NW PA, labor and manufacturing jobs have left in droves since NAFTA was enacted, leaving unemployment and other local business closings and a population and brain drain in it's wake. Many people I know, both with and without higher education, now work 2 or 3 lower paying jobs, still earning less than before and no more benefits. NAFTA has made it just plain less expensive for some labor employers to ship work to places like Mexico and others.
And since the US market accounts for about HALF their sales--that's the smart thing to do, right?
Actually, most of the bargaining agreements I've seen in the last few years have involved MINIMAL pay increases--maybe 3-4% max.
The smart unions are negotiating job security. That's where the action is. Surprise, surprise!
In that case, compressing CEO pay from current 300x lowest-worker to say, 10x lowest worker would be a BIG help in "maximizing ROI."
But of course, ROI maximization is a short-term-thinking mandate--you knew that, right?
After all, as Mr Sloan said: "What's good for GM is good for the Country."
Who could argue with him--he must be smart because he's rich!! (and dead at this time.)
When and if you get over your case of terminal consumerism, call home. Your Dad will be unemployed and will be grateful for the chance to talk.
The slump in Big Two sales has been happening since June. Only the gas-efficient foreign nameplates are selling--and the high-end stuff like BMW Lexus, Benz
MANY of those IIT grads cheated like hell--just as MANY of the PRChina "engineering" degrees are Xerox copies with rather poor forging.
Keep up with the news.
It was Ron Reagan who forced the Japanese to build their cars here--e.g., Honda and Toyota.
No accident. Reagan understood the National Interest--which Carly Fiorina couldn't SPELL.
Odd. Harley's "overpriced crap" outsells their capacity every year--here AND overseas.
The outsourcing/offshoring mania was triggered by a bi-partisan agreement--Newtie and Clintoon.
Same bunch went from NAFTA to PNTR/Red China.
The fact that Clintoon was on Red China's payroll should raise suspicions--but it doesn't, even from FR posters who should know better.
Converts Board policy to strategy. Implements strategy through subordinates. Recommends strategic initiatives to Board for approval.
This says it all. It's so true. Housing around here isn't so high, but there is a glut of overpriced houses on the market with people desparate to sell because of relocation. That bubble is close to bursting. Thanks at least in part to the litigation issues bloated costs, cost of living increases are far outpacing any incomes and raises.
No, Eleni koritsi mou. You stated that the jobs are leaving because of America's anti-business quasi-socialist enviornment and my reply is that it does not seem to be a hinderance for these companies fleeing America to set up shop in the so called Socialist workers utopias of China and India.
It is also my sense is that the bubble is teetering. Anecdotally, I know a couple that have had a home on the market for 7 months, trying to get back what they paid so they can move up to another house.
However, the history of bubbles is that there are bobbles in the bubbles before the big burst -- John Law's Mississippi bubble, for instance, survived more crises than anyone reasonable person would have guessed.
Sorry bud, dad passed away a little over 2 years ago of cancer - he was 76. Let me save you the trouble - mom passed away as well, before dad. Thanks, though. Have a nice day.
Pump and dump? :>)
If the next four years are a bigger more comprehensive offshoring version of the last four, they may stay in power for generations anyway.
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