I'm no advocate of Fortress America, but here's my question for any Free Trade fetishists lurking about...
If it's a good idea to have a diverse stock portfolio, why isn't it a good idea to have a diverse economy?
Posted on 08/07/2003 5:25:07 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
Hundreds of Sprint Corp. employees may lose their jobs as the Overland Park-based telecommunications giant moves forward with a plan to send certain technology jobs overseas.
Sprint chairman and chief executive Gary Forsee on Wednesday said competitive pressures had forced the company toward "offshoring" -- the growing trend of U.S. companies relying on lower-paid computer programmers as far away as India and China.
Sprint put out a request for proposals from outsourcing companies earlier this year and has since narrowed the list to two offshore vendors. Forsee said Sprint is conducting site surveys and is in "serious discussions" with the two companies.
"At the end of the day, it's several hundred jobs that could be impacted," Forsee said. "But we don't know what the ultimate result is."
A final decision on how to handle sending the jobs overseas is likely within 60 days.
Layoffs would not be immediate, Forsee said, because moving work to the outsourcing companies could take six to 12 months.
Forsee also said the company hopes to ease the impact of sending jobs overseas by moving some displaced workers to other information technology projects within Sprint and replacing existing contractors with Sprint employees.
Sprint already was considering moving jobs overseas when Forsee replaced William T. Esrey as the company's top executive earlier this year. But Forsee said he made the final decision to go ahead with the request for proposals.
Sprint already uses an offshore company for some customer service jobs. The company has outsourced information technology jobs to U.S. firms for years. But it has resisted sending information technology jobs overseas.
That has changed as Sprint, like other telecommunications companies, struggles with weak sales in what continues to be a difficult economy.
For almost two years, Sprint has been on a campaign to lower costs to compensate for soft sales. Since October 2001, more than 18,000 jobs have been eliminated. Hundreds of contractors also have lost work at Sprint.
Computer programmers and other skilled technology workers have been among the hardest hit, and there remains a severe shortage of available technology jobs in Kansas City and elsewhere.
Sprint's move toward sending jobs overseas will make a bad situation worse, said Rick Kumar, a former Sprint contractor who last year founded a support group for laid off information technology workers.
"The market is where it was a year and a half ago," Kumar said.
Many people still are out of work or have abandoned their information technology careers for other work, Kumar said. But unlike many of his information technology colleagues, Kumar said he does not blame Sprint and the many other companies that have turned to cheaper labor overseas.
"They have to follow the model or go out of business," Kumar said.
That is precisely how Sprint explains its move toward an offshore vendor. When competitors began cutting information technology costs by turning to offshore programmers, company officials said, Sprint was forced to look at following suit.
"We've got to stay on top of our competitive position," Forsee said. Offshoring "has become a significant trend that we hadn't participated in, so we looked at that as a strategy that was important...because of the competitive aspects."
IBM, Microsoft and HP are among the U.S. companies that are sending information technology jobs overseas or reportedly plan to start. Sprint must lower its cost to keep pace, Forsee said. But he knows careers are at stake.
"When you take actions like that, you're doing that hoping to keep the company as a whole strong," realizing that there are "people and careers and jobs at stake," Forsee said. "We try to do that part very carefully. It's not without significant consideration."
Shares of FON closed Wednesday at $14.05, up 1 cent. PCS closed at $5.41, down 36 cents.
You're right that we'll never need to outsource our lawyering, but even some insurance is being outsourced. Though, with the way we abuse our insurance, it's becoming both unaffordable or completely unavailable.
Suppose we suggest to our leaders that we outsource our soldiering? Bush could hire HB1 imports to take the bullets in Iraq, since an American soldier won't have a claim on an American job when he gets back from Baghdad...
Good question. Let's see... SuperCuts, or WalMart.
Select one.
Kentucky Fried Chicken!
Wrong. Anything where personal contact is not required is being "offshored". Radiology. You don't know who is reading your x-ray, nor where they are.
I'm no advocate of Fortress America, but here's my question for any Free Trade fetishists lurking about...
If it's a good idea to have a diverse stock portfolio, why isn't it a good idea to have a diverse economy?
Let me answer your question with a question. Do you trust the Federal government to determine how diverse the economy should be?
But in time the service jobs will dry up also. Without the disposable income there will no longer be a SuperCuts on every corner or a Subway. Those things will become luxuries.
I think of when I was a kid--we ate out once a week and I didn't get my first haircut at a salon type place until I was 10 or 11.
Aren't they doing that now? Don't all of the taxes and regulations help put American workers at an expensive disadvantage against foreign workers? Aren't these, in effect, restrictions of trade?
Scrap the income tax, and fund the legitimate functions of government with tariffs on foreign goods. Let that be the boulder around which trade otherwise flows freely.
1 cup navy beans
Water
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
Salt and pepper
Bay leaf
Ham bone (if available)
Soak beans in water, overnight, and drain. Add ham bone and water to cover. Heat to a boil. Cover and simmer for three hours. Add onions, celery, and bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another hour, covered. Remove bone and bay leaf before serving.
Serves 6
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.