Newsweek column on outsourcing

Newsweek ^ | 8-07-2003 | Michael Rogers

[samuel_adams_us]

Aug. 7, 2003 / 5:32 PM ET Readers on outsourcing: I’ve been corresponding with readers this week about two Newsweek pieces, one on the “jobless recovery” phenomenon and the other on offshore outsourcing. It’s a major hot-button topic, particularly among IT workers, but the mail for the most part has been quite reasoned, if somewhat sorrowful and resigned. A few readers asked some pointed questions:

Name: Marc Hansen Hometown: Seattle When all the Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM software production has been outsourced offshore, and when all Intel factories are completely automated, and when all Home Depot stores have self-check-out lines. ... my question is: Who, in America, will be able to afford the food that the McDonald’s robots cook?

Name: EV Hometown: Annapolis, Md. Where do all of these upper level managers think they will be when everyone has been outsourced? Guess they better learn Hindi or one of the other 18 dialects. You are only a manager if there is someone left to manage.

Name: Daniel E. Platt Hometown: Putnam Valley, N.Y. Sixteenth century Spain was quite rich on gold from America. While they funded the industrial revolution in the rest of Europe, they were largely left behind in the end. Are we doomed to the same fate? Or should we purchase a future at the cost of lower profit margins now?

Rogers replies: All good questions. Here are some personal tales from the trenches:

Name: Toni Klinger Hometown: Massillon, Ohio I am so angry. My husband is 59 and lost his job to Canada four months ago. Yesterday, my sister-in-law was notified that her skip-tracing job was going to India. Hey, no problem, she’s only been with the company for 21 years! I have never been so frustrated in my life. People in their 50s just can’t start over. I hate life!

Name: G. Popsworth Hometown: Dallas, Texas I am struggling with what to suggest to my children for a course of study at college. It is becoming more and more difficult for college grads to find employment. Now with outsourcing rampant, they need something stable for their career opportunities. A small town dentist, doctor or lawyer might be appropriate.

Name: Thela Jinseet Hometown: Clinton, N.J. Here’s my story: I am a journalist for an online publication, and I’m bracing for impact. My employer’s entire technical staff is from India, making up nearly 50% of the employees here. The owners of the company are also Indian and they outsource to a team in India. Our Indian employees are a real bargain because they work ungodly hours: 10- to 12-hour days every day and on the weekends. They are also extremely bright. And it’s for low pay. But there’s more. My husband lost his electrical engineering job four days after 9-11 from a major Japanese company that closed its plant and moved its operations to France. Despite graduating with honors from a top university, it took more than a year for him to find work. And just in time: We had two weeks of unemployment benefits left, which was barely enough to pay for our mortgage. This time, he saw a substantial cut in pay. I am truly frightened after our experience. I am scared to buy another house. (We had to sell ours for his new job.) I am scared to have a baby. We can’t afford to save for retirement. Pensions are a thing of the past. My company doesn’t even have a 401(k) plan or even direct deposit for paychecks. I fear we will be poverty-stricken when we retire at 75. Why isn’t Congress listening?

Rogers replies: There were also some suggestions about what to do:

Name: Bill Hometown: Roswell, Ga. Outsourcing customer service jobs overseas is a double-edged sword. One side slashes the number of jobs that are available to U.S. employees and the other side slashes the income taxes that the federal government can collect. Uncle Sam ends up funding unemployment benefits for U.S. citizens who are denied jobs that have been sent overseas. One solution may be to penalize these outsourcing companies in the form of a negative subsidy so that they can help pay benefits for the unemployed.

Name: Mike K. Hometown: Aurora, Ill. Outsourcing makes for some really profitable companies, but fewer consumers have the money to buy that company’s products. That profit won’t last for long. Remember the big “Buy American” kick back in the 80s? I think we’re on the way to the “Hire American” craze. Find out who outsources and who doesn’t and support those who support America by hiring Americans.

[harpseal]

I have called you a traitor based on your past posts

[VadeRetro]

Hello Mr. President, we are paying your salary, are you listening?

He's listening, yes. To India. He's assured them his administration plans to do nothing.

[DugwayDuke]

"Our forefathers were for tariffs in the right situation, and so am I, they founded this country, not you, nor I. Remember that."

Our fore fathers also wrote a constitution that protected slavery. Protective tarriffs are a form of slavery too. You want to take money from from some to subsidize others. That too, is a form of slavery.

[ChemistCat]

ping

[samuel_adams_us]

Soon he will be listening on the phone as the guy says, Hello Mr. Bush, this is atlas van lines, when can we come get your stuff?

[StolarStorm]

I agree that in the short term, tariff or other trade barriers do indeed raise costs and subsidize an industry or profession. However, in the long run, allowing the destruction of an industry in your home country makes you dependent on others and will in the end cause costs to increase. When Walmart moves in to an area, their prices are incredible... once the local firms are out of business, the prices start to increase. Same thing will happen here.

Granted, that also means that our products will become competitive again... at least until we can ramp up.... and then the dumping will occur once more.

[samuel_adams_us]

Move, if you don't believe in our constitution, find somewhere else to live, you could be called a traitor.

[Admin Moderator]

knock it off.

[Dirk McQuickly]

I am assuming you declined health care and retirement subsidization from your place of employment as a matter of principle?

[DugwayDuke]

"Isn't all commerce wealth transfer from one segment to another?"

Very good point! Excellent in fact. But commerce is voluntary, an expression of freedom. Placing protective tarriffs on imported goods is designed to reduce the freedom of the consumer to buy a product at a lower price. That is not freedom, is it?

[harpseal]

I have dealt with LS on a number of threads and I stand by my statements. he knowingly posted a false staement in order to try and influence opinion to harm the USA. It is not the first time and it will not be the last.

[StolarStorm]

Freedom is also the ability to gather enough support so that you can get a bill passed placing tariffs on goods and services so that you can save the country you love.

[StolarStorm]

Wouldn't it be great to have members IPs posted so we know what country they are posting from?

[hchutch]

You know, the more I see your incessant whining and complaining, the less inclined I am to take a favorable view of your position.

You are acting no differently than Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. I have contempt for them when they have their hand out, shouting "gimme gimme" - and threaten to call me names. Now, do you have a good reason why I should feel any less contempt for YOU when you do the same thing, albeit you use "traitor" as opposed to "racist"?

[harpseal]

Placing protective tarriffs on imported goods is designed to reduce the freedom of the consumer to buy a product at a lower price. That is not freedom, is it?

actually under our Constitution it is liberty becuase no one has an absolute right to import tings without paying duties levied by Congress. Please see article 1 of the US Constitution.

[Dane]

BTW, I heard this same BS back in the 70s and 80s when Japan was going to "own America".

It's back to the future for some of the doom and gloomers.

[hchutch]

Only now, they use the same tactics as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton: The hand is out, they shout "gimme gimme" - and if you don't comply, they will call you names. Only these folks use "traitor" instead of "racist" when they call names.

They are, IMHO, just as disgusting.

[DugwayDuke]

"Granted, that also means that our products will become competitive again... at least until we can ramp up.... and then the dumping will occur once more."

But until then, protective tarriffs are subsidies paid for by consumers to enhance the life style of other consumers. My objective here is too point out that those who advocate protective tarriffs are really no different from those who advocate a "living wage" or any of the other forms of welfare advocated by the socialistic left. The arguments and the logic employed are the same.

[CyberSpartacus]

You do not have a right to a job. I am in the same IT boat you are. But if an Indian can do a better job for less than he deserves it, period. If we are to regain these jobs the answer is to remove the costs imposed on my potential employers. Namely all the regulations which make my wages only half the cost of my employment. I can beat an Indian who only costs half as much as I do, but not when I cost 5 times as much as he does. Instead of begging big mommy to help us we should be telling her to get the H@LL out of the way.

[thackney]

BTTT