On the measurability of offshorability (25% of US jobs can be outsourced)

Vox Eu ^ | 10/09/09 | Alan S. Blinder

[WalterSobchak2012]

I think it comes out of a knee jerk reaction that requires that the management always be right and the workers always be analogous with UAW scum.

If I posted a list of half the stupid, short sighted and destructive things the private equity clowns who took over my former employer did I am sure I would be attacked mercilessly.

[WalterSobchak2012]

The recognition of its failure will only come after it is too late to do anything about it.

I made several trips to India as "our overseas team members" made their best effort to get our software booting on a third party reference design for which the only usable documentation was in Chinese and the original programers acrimoniously fired and unlikely to offer much assistance.

But the private equity guys were much more interested in negotiating bonuses based on having fired millions of dollars worth of salaries than the fact our new best friends in India and Taiwan had accomplished nothing and there wasn't even a working prototype let alone a commercial product.

If the India based developers were a disaster the technical support was even worse. We went from having local support in most regions to expecting our customers to call an illiterate peasant overseas who offered no assistance of value.

On my last day before retiring the company was making more revenue (not profits!) from renting empty office space than actually selling anything.