Posted on 08/03/2003 7:42:08 AM PDT by RockyMtnMan
Michael Emmons thought he knew how to keep a job as a software programmer.
"You have to continue to keep yourself up to speed," he said. "If you don't, you'll get washed out."
Up to speed or not, Emmons wound up being "washed out" anyway. Last summer, he moved his family from California to Florida for the Siemens Co., makers of electronics and equipment for industries. Not long after, Emmons and 19 other programmers were replaced by cheaper foreign workers.
Adding insult to injury, Emmons and the others had to train their replacements.
"It was the most demoralizing thing I've ever been through," he told ABCNEWS. "After spending all this time in this industry and working to keep my skills up-to-date, I had to now teach foreign workers how to do my job so they could lay me off."
Just as millions of American manufacturing jobs were lost in the 1980s and 1990s, today white-collar American jobs are disappearing. Foreign nationals on special work visas are filling some positions but most jobs are simply contracted out overseas.
"The train has left the station, the cows have left the barn, the toothpaste is out of the tube," said John McCarthy, director of research at Forrester Research, who has studied the exodus of white-collar jobs overseas. "However you want to talk about it, you're not going to turn the tide on this in the same way we couldn't turn the tide on the manufacturing shift."
India Calling
Almost 500,000 white-collar American jobs have already found their way offshore, to the Philippines, Malaysia and China. Russia and Eastern Europe are expected to be next. But no country has captured more American jobs than India.
In Bangalore, India, reservation agents are booking flights for Delta; Indian accountants are preparing tax returns for Ernst & Young; and Indian software engineers are developing new products for Oracle.
They are all working at a fraction of the cost these companies would pay American workers.
For example, American computer programmers earn about $60,000, while their Indian counterparts only make $6,000.
"It's about cost savings," said Atul Vashistha, CEO of NeoIT, a California-based consulting company that advises American firms interested in "offshoring" jobs previously held by Americans. "They need to significantly reduce their cost of doing business and that's why they're coming to us right now."
Vivek Pal, an Indian contractor for technology consulting group Wipro, whose clients include Microsoft, GE, JP Morgan Chase, and Best Buy, is hiring 2,000 Indian workers quarterly to keep up with demand. Pal knows American workers resent the "offshoring" trend but says all Americans will benefit in the long run.
"Globalization — whether it's for products or services — may feel like it hurts, but at the end of the day, it creates economic value all around," said Pal.
At the end of the day, Emmons has a different view: "If you sit at a desk, beware," he said. "Your job is going overseas."
My point has been that if almost all the jobs are exported, exactly what market will there be to fill? The answer that I have been keeping to myself, but waiting for someone else to offer, is there will be none. If almost all the jobs are exported, no amount of retraining, self-assessment, or adjustment to one's approach will help.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
and Wilbur & Orville Wright are also strangely silent on Boeing's outsourcing to China.
I'm not sure why you consider yourself to be a conservative, Dane.
Your "mastery" of relevant commentary reminds me of Major Owens.
Weaker minds generally fail to understand the fact that when you work for yourself, you are the CEO.
The path to success you follow just gives you the brownest of lips and none of that precious job security you crave.
Might want to start thinking of job that pays you the kind of money you want to make without feeling like you have to have a boss above you that you can kiss up to just so and he can protect your job.
A pathetic career path to be sure. Maybe you could be an author of a best seller entitiled, "How brown was my nose!"
When did John Browning ever rail against guns being used in crimes, like Perot's creation(EDS, which Perot profited handsomely from)railing what his creation is doing now(outsourcing) and then used the money he got to make a Presidential campaign.
Whew talk about Perot hypocrisy.
JMO, but John Browning would be saying that although his creation(a firearm) can do harm, his creation does far more good, protecting innocent property and life.
While Ross Perot stands silent about his creation's(EDS) outsourcing jobs.
Your repeated mental imagery of 'ass kissing' in the corporate world shows me you didn't have what it took in your career path. I have been an employee for various small and large firms 17 years and I haven't needed to kiss ass once. I've let my work speak for itself.
SO sorry about your luck.
And you might be either the esteemed Mr. Smoot, Mr. Hawley, or possibly the late great president Hoover himself re-incarnated perhaps?
Laz the average blue collar worker was 50 years old or not bright enough to become an engineer or brain surgeon. In truth no one really cared what happened to them as long as they could get their goods cheaper.
Well Laz every thing has a price , the problem is everyone else thought the other guy would pay not them
Your sentences are devolving into increasingly tortured English. It is now to the point that you are completely incoherent. I am unable to parse and extract meaning from your comments.
Kids will get into the liquor cabinet, to be sure.
Well I can say empahtically that I am not an economic "Berlin waller" conservative that you seem to be, Willie, with your obvious insult of comparing me to a modern liberal democrat, Major Owens, nonwithstanding.
One of the things that had made American industry strong was specialization. Doing what a CEO does does not necessarily add a lot of value since CEOs generally invent nothing and make nothing themselves. Yes providing guidance and organization of efforts for a large number of people is a value-adding activity - but not when everyone is doing it for himself. Furthermore our economy will work best when our best engineers are spending their time on engineering leaving other business aspects to other people with other talents.
One of the things that had made American industry strong was specialization. Doing what a CEO does does not necessarily add a lot of value since CEOs generally invent nothing and make nothing themselves. Yes providing guidance and organization of efforts for a large number of people is a value-adding activity - but not when everyone is doing it for himself. Furthermore our economy will work best when our best engineers are spending their time on engineering leaving other business aspects to other people with other talents.
No, but he might be a reincarnation of:
Maybe he's one of those.
Didn't sting any less when it did though. How did we ever survive? Your point is slow it down? Who was that character in Greek mythology who in his conceit thought he could tame the sea?
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