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."
March 21, 2001
"Mr. President, I rise today to reintroduce legislation I authored last year to enable the President to admit Chile into NAFTA. Nearly six years ago, a bipartisan majority of this body ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement. Since then the promises of new jobs, increased exports, lower tariffs and a cleaner environment have all been realized. In other words, Mr. President, NAFTA has succeeded despite the predictions of some that America could not compete in today's global economy
It is so funny watching you all get pandered to, and you all licking up like kitty at a bowl of milk.
I hope not. If there is a coherent thought in it, it has certainly escaped me.
Throw the down-and-outers here a scrap and name a couple.
Are you smoking something? This giggle fit of yours seems like great fun, but could you please clue those of us who are not toked up on what you are talking about.
LOL! I've come to the conclusion he's a negative attention vampire.
When you scan the product, the bar code also scans the weight of the product and then you put the product into the bag which is on a scale. If you put something that hasn't been scanned, the machine alerts the one attendant at the island and also very loudly alerts you and shuts the process down, until the product is scanned.
Yes. Especially to countries that don't guarantee individual liberties.
No set or subset of workers can compete with slave labor, as with what we are now competing with in China. One must draw the line somewhere.
However, India is a democracy. How can we compete with them? Is their IT industry gvernment-subsidized? If so, we have a clear case for tariffs on their services, just as we tax services here.
I am caughing and sputtering so much Mrs. Jackson is calling the ambulance for me. Agamemnon is right. You are a bitter and dried up old soul.
And the folks who hire him to do this do what for a living? Throw clay pots and sell them in the front lawn?
Nah having a giggle over Laz's giving a big kiss to his new hero Sen. Dodd(D-CT), in reply #426.
From the article, it looks like Democrats are getting ready to reject free trade in favor of fair trade. Dodd was whipping this rally into a fever.
And then posting Dodd's big kiss to free trade with reply #441 and watching Laz going ga-ga over being pandered to.
It's too funny.
I'll take a moment from my self-proclaimed attention denial of attention for you for a moment to note that: Dane, you like to make shit up out of whole cloth. Nothing you have written can even remotely characterize what I am trying to say. But like any high-school student, you will just misinterpret my comments because your reading comprehension is limited beyond belief. I don't blame you; I blame the schools.
But go ahead anyways. Most of the forum knows you by now.
Carry on. Good night.
Actually from what I've seen, the casheir at the island services the machine, takes hourly readings and such.
Also the person who normally services the regular cash registers also probably services the new machines.
The main point stands that effectively three casheir positions have been eliminated, since there is no need for a casheir since the machines do the work.
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