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To: nyconse
I do know that Mirant fired their accounting staff and hired Indian workers.

I have a question, please: would you feel better if they closed up the shop and moved it to India? You would not have to face the change, but would this be better?

Probably not.

And yet, this is precisely what American business was doing for almost as long as America exists. Were the workers of oil companies American? Mostly not: it was management that was American. IBM had divisions in Switzerland, Ireland, Israel and other countries for years. It's a myth that "outsourcing" is a new phenomenon.

Conversely, when BP comes to America and hires American workers, is it doing outsourcing? Of course it does. Should the British accuse the company of betraying the U.K.?

The sole explanation is that all of us must be worth our keep. When we progress individually and as a nation, our wages and standard of living rise. When we stagnate in our development, our wages drop. This is particularly pronounced in IT, where wages were high due to shortage of labor. But all this happened before: companies analyzed the cost of operations domestically and abroad, adjusted for risk, and chose the least costless route.

Socialists in our schools and the media taught you to think about management as if they were royalty that does what it wants ("voting" themselves raises, drinking expensive water, etc.). As any management course will tell you, they are hired hands just as you are, but more expensive. Just because you cannot see fully the benefits of their work, it does not mean that they are not worth every penny of their salaries.

Corporations are merely legal notions. In real economic life there are people --- owners, employees, customers of a corporation. It is the owners that pay your salary and that of your CEO. In the present-day America, unlike in XIX century, large corporations are owned by common folk, especially the retirees. These are teachers, nurses, plumbers --- and you, too, if you have a savings account or at least one share of a mutual fund. Why should these people pay you or me more that they already do? How is a programmer more deserved of income than they are?

188 posted on 07/08/2007 8:20:04 AM PDT by TopQuark
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To: TopQuark
In the present-day America, unlike in XIX century, large corporations are owned by common folk, especially the retirees.

Who owns a transnational corporation? For example, a corporation that operates in China?
191 posted on 07/08/2007 8:31:14 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer (I'm a billionaire! Thanks WTO and the "free trade" system!--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: TopQuark

I would feel better if the CEO hadn’t given herself a raise when all this was going on. I would feel better if the top brass didn’t give themselves every little perk available. If they are going to hire workers from overseas, then let them pack up and leave. America is a great country-very stable. Let them find out what it is like to do business in India. Why should we pay for infrastructure, medical etc for these companies-no welfare not even for corporations.


207 posted on 07/09/2007 11:37:32 AM PDT by nyconse
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