Techies see jobs go overseas - Opposition to offshore outsourcing beginning to grow

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 06/02/2003 | Carrie Kirby

[NCjim]

Daniel Soong waited in line at the dingy, low-ceilinged Employment Development Department in Pleasant Hill, hoping to find some clerical work or any kind of work at all.

At 30, this is not where the thin, neatly dressed computer programmer expected to be. Nor did he expect, after seven years in the technology industry, to have to move back into his parents' Pleasanton house.

"I would like to meet a girl and start a family, but that's not really possible unless you have a good job," he said.

Unlike many people who have lost their jobs during the economic slump, Soong does not hold out much hope that his career will get back on track when the economy picks up. He belongs to a growing contingent of technology professionals who believe that prospects for their field have permanently dimmed because companies are sending work overseas.

Soong and others like him are forming the beginning of an anti- offshoring movement. In California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Washington, groups of computer professionals are searching for ways -- from legislation to tax incentives -- to somehow slow the flow of high-paying jobs overseas.

[harpseal]

India is also a company with currency controls that artificially lower the prices for their IT services sold abroad

[meadsjn]

To the super-capitalists in this group ...

More likely, they are government employees who are not affected by economic reality.

It is the anti-capitalists who "kill the goose that laid the golden egg", or "eats the seed corn".

[harpseal]

Thank you for your personal story.

I have been forced numerous times to state that there is a difference between H1b workers and immigrants or people who are descended from immigrants in many of my posts on this issue. My differatiation is between H1B visa holders from any country (or l1 visa holders from any nation) and American permanent residents. I note also you were not the first to correctly call henderson field on this point.

I also am really sick of being accused of being against immigrants when I am only against illegal immigrants and H1B and L1 visa workers who should not be in this nation taking jobs taht Americans can fill.

[Pukin Dog]

VF 143?

Yes, but retired. Also, VF-111, VF-45, etc.

[Pukin Dog]

I do nothing.

Those jobs do not belong to Americans; they belong to the people who create them, and pay for them.

[Pukin Dog]

What difference does it make?

While it makes no difference; some would like to use the answer to suggest that one has no right to comment unless they have "been there". Which of course, is silly.

It would be like saying those of us who have not been politicians have no right to comment on politics.

[Pukin Dog]

Thank you for your reply, Jim.

Opportunity is everywhere. Some would rather things never changed, so long as they can remain comfortable in a given setting.

Your attitude is such that you will not ever feel like a victim, regardless of circumstances.

Regards.

[dfwgator]

Here is where IT is headed. Companies will put out RFPs over the Internet. Individual programmers can submit bids offering their services for a price. The companies then evaluate the bids, the programmers reputation, then pick who gets the work. The programmer works from home, sends the deliverable, then gets money deposited in their Pay Pal account. Sort of like eBay.

[DrDavid]

3. Create enterprise zones where companies may voluntarily locate to produce goods our services free of corporate income tax for those operations...

Shouldn't that be the whole country? Corporate income tax is just passed on to the consumer. Without a corporate income tax, the US would start sucking up corporations from all over the world.

[Last Dakotan]

In reading through all these posts I wonder why the Republican
elite and policy makers don't get it yet on "free trade". It simply cannot bring the open markets for US goods it was sold on. I agree with other posts. If the Republicans really are intent on staying in power past 2004, they have to revisit this issue.

[MonroeDNA]

[Dr Warmoose]

what are we left with? just managers and accountants?

No, the accounting jobs are going overseas too. I think all that will be left is managers and politicians.

[SwordofTruth]

Those jobs do not belong to Americans; they belong to the people who create them, and pay for them.

The computer programmers who made those companies rich are not going to sit idly by and get screwed by these good for nothing CEO's. Look for some killer viruses that will make these companies BEG for it to stop.

[SwordofTruth]

Get use to it, we vote and we are not going anywhere.

[Dr Warmoose]

2. Remove the investment tax credit and guarantees of principle security given by teh US government for overseas investments.

You have nailed it on the head with that point. For years the John Birch Society and many other patriot organizations have screamed and yelled about OUR US government confiscating our hard earned dollars to guarentee loans made to India, China and Russia so that businesses would suffer no losses in any investment there. If you had investment capital and your choice was invest here in this country and risk losing it all, or take that same money and "risk" it in India, China or Russia, knowing full well that if you failed, the US FedGov would reach into the pockets of the people who lost their jobs to those you are now enriching, what would you do? Especially if you are a graduate from any one of today's State Universities that teach as an axiom that America is Evil and all other cultures are good.

[Dr Warmoose]

The programmer works from home, sends the deliverable, then gets money deposited in their Pay Pal account. Sort of like eBay.

Great, except the overhead for living in this country makes any bids here automatically over the top. See then a mass exodus of qualified people heading out to truly turd world countries.

I take it that is what educating the world's students was supposed to do, right?

[bvw]

That's a very important observation you have made. Has foreign business bribery come to America? Many years ago a company I worked for got in trouble for bribing foreign officials (Chinese) to get the business. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

[Pukin Dog]

Oh yeah.

The big, bad, mean old CEO; versus the pure-as-driven-snow computer programmer. Your comments are just like I would expect to hear from PETA or Act-Up.

I'm sure a prison sentence will do wonders for their employability. I'll be leaving now, this is going to be another silly screaming match, of which I have no desire to participate in.

[EverOnward]

Thanks for posting this article. Rush and the other conservative pundents have lost credibility with me as I rarely hear them talk about all the jobs going outside our country. If they do talk about the jobs leaving (and it's never really in that context), it's with a sneer towards those who find the situation alarming.

[oceanview]

Those CEOs are just the most honest people. Cooking the books, buying shower curtains made of gold with corporate money, general fraud, its all OK with you I guess.

Get some rest, you need it.