Where the Good Jobs Are Going

Time Canada ^ | August 4, 2003 | Jyoti Thottam

[Redcloak]

Technology in Africa is nowhere near what it is in India. Any attempt to move technical jobs there won't take place for decades. (And perhaps by then the union thugs will have nipped it in the bud by getting an early start organizing there. Maybe there will be a "Congan Brotherhood of IT Workers" in place before the first IT job appears in Congo!)

[dfwgator]

It's like Peter Drucker said, the majority of people now have to manage themselves, and society is totally unprepared for it.

[dfwgator]

I bet that's what they said about India in 1985.

[Question_Assumptions]

For half a household? Sure. The article doesn't mention the missus. If she can pull down 23K they will be right where they were. Or, if she already works, then times aren't as desparate as the article suggests. I wonder how many cars they own, what models, what size TV, what sort of cable/dish subscription, and other niceties they still maintain.

If the missus takes a job, then the kids may need daycare, they may need to pay higher auto insurance costs, etc. And it really isn't that easy to find basic low-skilled jobs anymore. I'm sure they can cut back to save money. It sounds like they are trying to cut their utility costs. But it often costs money to cancel things like a cell-phone contract, dish service, or car lease, so that's not always a great option.

Having been laid off in the economy that lost George, Sr. his job (twice, actually) and having been laid off once in this economy (my wife wais laid off in both, too), I can definitely say that it is much harder to find a job this time around. There are so many resumes that it is difficult even to get a recruiter to call you back and a temp agency laughed at the minimum amount that my wife wanted (her unemployment would pay more below that rate), which was not a laughable figure in the early 1990s. Things are worse than they were.

But my point is simply this: His employer isn't responsible for his finances. It's his mortgage and his bills. Live within your means and quit WHINING.

Whining is human nature. I'd stop reading human interest pieces like this if you don't want to hear it.

[sauropod]

One can only hope that McGreasy will be run out of town!

[Huck]

It's like Peter Drucker said, the majority of people now have to manage themselves

Was that in a book?

[sauropod]

Um hmmmm.... You take a 1/3 cut in pay and you try it.

[clamper1797]

Yeah ... ain't it wonderful. Not all progress is good.

Oh and BTW ... dealing with or trying to compete with countries that utilize slave labor or 50 cent an hour labor and/or uses government substities has NOTHING to do with fair trade

[Question_Assumptions]

Then move. Or, he could just keep whining about it.

Moving also costs money. If they switch to renting, they lose their tax write-off for the mortgate and wind up with (effectively) another income drop (not that renting is a bargain in New Jersey, either). If they need to buy another house, they need to raise the down payment and closing costs, and need to find a buyer for their current house (which takes time). If they move out of the area, there is no guarantee that they will find a job in any other location (and if he is a tech worker, the odds are good that he'll have a harder time finding a job, as an ex-coworker that did more to a cheaper area has found out the hard way). Yes, people can find a way to make it. I've been there and done that. But it isn't easy. And when you add H1B and L1 visas to the mix, I think people do have something to whine about.

[Huck]

Um hmmmm.... You take a 1/3 cut in pay and you try it.

I'd prefer not to, but my financial planning, my debts and obligations, my savings, and my lifestyle are all consciously designed to withstand it easily.

[clamper1797]

NOTHING to do with fair trade .... or free trade either

[Question_Assumptions]

The thing that concerns me is that we have a service-based and consumption-based economy. If you cut wages and jobs broadly enough, people will stop using services and stop consuming and then we'll be where Japan is. And there is no end in site to where Japan is and deflation is starting to kick in. I think our biggest hope lies in the Bush administration letting the dollar weaken. That will simultaneously make imports and overseas outsourcing less attractive and exports more attractive while preserving asset values within the US.

[Huck]

So there are challenges. What a pity. Golly, Question_Assumptions, no one said life was easy. I am not saying making adjustments is easy, especially if, like the guy in the story, you are not prepared for them. But he is there now, and he ought to get on with it.

I don't relate to this "I am a tech worker" mentality. You are a tech worker if someone is paying you to do tech work. If they ain't paying you to do it any more, guess what? You ain't a tech worker. You're an ex- tech worker. Maybe you'll do tech work again. Maybe you won't. I believe folks have a real hard time grasping that. It's a marketplace. If you can't sell your skills at a certain price, and you need that price, something has to give. Either get by on less, or find something else to sell.

[Last Visible Dog]

Now all our code is written and tested in house by folks who care about the quality of their work and have a stake in the success of our company.

That used to be the driving force in American business - until greed took over as the driving force.

[Huck]

The thing that concerns me is that we have a service-based and consumption-based economy. If you cut wages and jobs broadly enough, people will stop using services and stop consuming and then we'll be where Japan is. And there is no end in site to where Japan is and deflation is starting to kick in.

Japan is service based? I thought they made lots of stuff?

[sauropod]

Oh please. And when they put you in the socialist gulag by dictating what you can earn because of the regulations and taxes you have to pay, you think you can "huck and chuck" your way out of it?

I pay close to 1/2 my income in child support. I am in the process of trying to get a second job just so I can live.

I know all about "living within my means" so don't even go there.

You still don't get my point do you? All I want is to live free and pursue happiness ("life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness").

What a maroon.

[Nowhere Man]

Didn't Microsoft or somebody recently say that in the next decade they will shift 3 MILLION jobs overseas? Maybe we should arm Pakistan a little more so India will be in no shape to receive them?? *wink*

Heh, like your line of thinking. B-) I'll drink to that! >B-)

[Huck]

Oh please. And when they put you in the socialist gulag by dictating what you can earn because of the regulations and taxes you have to pay, you think you can "huck and chuck" your way out of it?

You sound a little paranoid. And hostile. No one is going to put me in a gulag. As far as regulations and taxes go, they are for the most part outside of my control. I can't write tax or regulatory policy, but I must live under it. Therefore, hell yes, I will huck and chuck and survive. I'll never starve. And a lot of the time my cup runs over. But maybe that's all in how you look at it.

I pay close to 1/2 my income in child support. I am in the process of trying to get a second job just so I can live.

Well, that might explain your hostility, but I didn't attack you, so you needn't be hostile to me. I am sorry your family didn't work out and I wish you the best of luck.

[Last Visible Dog]

This guy shutting off lights in the house isn't going to make me shed any tears. It's called capitalism and the free market. If you can't stand the heat, become a socialist.

Yep. Capitalism and the free market gave us slavery. That is something to be proud of.

Sending a wake-up call to pig-headed quasi-conservatives is not whining. If you tell somebody it is bad to eat their seed corn, do you consider that whining.

I have no respect for people like you - you are in the "I got mine who gives a damn about the future of our country” crowd

HINT: it is not “conservative” to say “to hell with the future of my country”

[Question_Assumptions]

You'll notice that you simply cannot do a lot of what people did during the Depression to get by. You can't send your kids out to work 8-hour days and confiscate their wages to pay the family's bills. You can't pull them out of school after the 8th grade and send them into a factory. You can't get a job bathing one day a week and not having a telephone. And the infrastructure simply is not there to do without electricity (no coal stoves to heat the water pipes, no ice men selling ice out on the street). And salaries, rents, and land prices were not as unbalanced as they are today.

I could equally argue that American's should just be able to go off into the woods, cut down some trees, and start to farm like some of their ancestors did, too. But the truth is that America today is not the same America it was 200, 100, or even 50 years ago.