The truth about job outsourcing

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
The truth about job outsourcing
15
Tue, 09-14-2004 - 11:57am
I thought this was a good article outlining facts about job outsourcing that a lot of people don't know. Too many politicians and doomsayers are trying to scare our country with misguided information.

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501faessay83301-p0/daniel-w-drezner/the-outsourcing-bogeyman.html

What do you all think?

 

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2003
Tue, 09-14-2004 - 3:19pm
I think it's too bad that Assistant Professor's jobs can't be outsourced. Then maybe he would have an entirely different point of view. Outsourcing to countries with cheap labor is a BIG problem where I'm from. And guess what? None of the products that come back here to be sold are any cheaper than the few that are still made here. Wonder why?

Hasn't anyone else noticed the language problem in instructions? Hasn't anyone else noticed that a good deal of the things made overseas are junk that break just by trying to open the package? How about ingredients on some food items, say, candy for instance. If you want to know what the ingredients are, there is a phone number to call to ask. Doesn't our Food and Drug Administration have some rules about listing ingredients? Why can't these things be made here? Why can't American flags be made here? Protectionist? You bet I am. My stance is....If you want to make it overseas, that's just fine. But, when you bring it back here to sell it, the tariff will be higher than if it was made in the USA by employees with a PhD. It should be about loyalty and honor, but it's really all about money. To help economies in such places as Viet Nam and China grow while ours shrinks is really sad. Former enemies where thousands of Americans were killed, and now we're supposed to believe that it's a good thing that they get our jobs. Professors don't live in the real world.



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 09-14-2004 - 5:34pm

BTW Dobbs is a registered Republican.


Lou Dobbs is running an excellent

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 09-14-2004 - 5:38pm

"too bad that Assistant Professor's jobs can't be outsourced. Then maybe he would have an entirely different point of view."


ITA. How about some CEO jobs?


"things made overseas are junk"


Agreed the quality isn't the same in many items. Although I love the Winter clothes made in Canada.

cl-Libraone~

 


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Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 09-14-2004 - 5:51pm
My main gripe with outsourcing jobs overseas is that these are job that could be handled with little advanced education. I mean not everyone can earn a degree. These jobs can be done for less than $15.00 an hour, a pretty good salery for a 2 income household and it is not to much for some of these CO who CEO's are making millions. I saw a news story about income tax prep companies sending US citzens tax returns to India??? boy am I glad I do my own. We are losing our middle class and this is why.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Wed, 09-15-2004 - 12:30pm
I have struggled with the problem of out-sourcing for over a year. I have concluded this is a sympton of a much more troubling problem, i.e., the merger between our government and corporations. While there is many steps that can be taken, none will truly remedy the situation until we reclaim America's power for the people. This may to too broad a stroke to contemplate at first, but until you identify the source of the illness, any remedy will only treat the symptoms. Our country was not founded so that powerful corporations could rule our government. We have signed away our birthright over the last 50 years, and we have a choice either turn the trend around or stay the course.

This is the concluding paragraph from an article that tells how this all happened.

"Let's heed Tom Paine's approach and transform our myriad single-issue protests into rebellion that tears down the inherently anti-democratic structures of corporate rule and builds genuine representative democracy. It's no small task to change the rules, but

sensible people don't continue playing a rigged game."

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/paine_protest_rebellion.html


Edited 9/15/2004 12:37 pm ET ET by hayashig

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Wed, 09-15-2004 - 9:54pm


Careful! Isn't Hayashig a professor? I think she lives in the real world! (Not that I agree with much she says, but I respect her opinions!)

I just think that outsourcing really will help our economy eventually. I work in the automotive industry as a supplier to the Big Three. GM, Chrysler and Ford are losing more and more market share every month to companies like Toyota, Hyundai, etc. Unless we reduce the costs to manufacture vehicles, we won't be able to reduce the selling prices of vehicles to compete. So it is better to ship the $12-$20 an hour jobs overseas where the parts can be made by $2 an hour employees, then ship them back and keep the assembly jobs and the higher paying jobs. If we lose more market share, we won't sell any vehicles. And there go not only the manufacturing jobs, but all the white collar jobs that go along with it. The ones that create the rest. (Design, sales, engineering, etc.) THAT'S a real problem.

And it's unavoidable if we don't remain globally competitive.

Sure, a few people will pay more for an American car just because it is American. But most won't.

I admit, this is just the perspective in one industry. But it's probably pretty representative.

Carrie

 

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Thu, 09-16-2004 - 10:41am
<>

I don't quite know how I got involved in this situation, but no I am not a professor but I do live in the real world--I think. I am also happy that you respect my opinions, and in this particular case we may not agree but we are in the same neighborhood. I see no easy solution to out-sourcing, and it is hurting people. I do not like to see people suffer because of a situation over which they have no control.

My previous post was an attempt to expand the discussion to what is really ailing this country. IMO we need to take a hard look at how we got to our present condition. Globalization has been a coming event for at least twenty years, but our government never took steps to protect its citizens, if indeed that is the role of the government.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2003
Thu, 09-16-2004 - 10:56am
I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. I guess I get a little too passionate about this particular subject. I'm glad I haven't heard from any professors, so far.

I, too, work for a Tier 1 automotive supplier, (for over 20 years). The auto companies are constantly asking for parts price cuts, (quality be damned), and the mind set appears to be that many suppliers will be purchasing parts from Taiwan, thereby eliminating even more jobs.

My biggest gripe, however, is: Take an exact model of a car. One will be assembled in Mexico, and one will be assembled in, say, Indiana. The car assembled in Mexico is absolutely no cheaper than the one assembled in Indiana. Why not? The company saved an enormous amount of money in wages. Why isn't it passed on? Greed, maybe? Exactly how does that help our economy? The thing that makes me break out in a rash, though, is trying to tell me that all this outsourcing is good for our country. I don't buy that.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 09-16-2004 - 1:15pm

"this outsourcing is good for our country. I don't buy that."


Me neither!

cl-Libraone~

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Thu, 09-16-2004 - 1:30pm
I agree: it's bothersome that the savings don't get passed on to the end consumers. But it is because, even with those savings, the OEM's are underwater. (Of course, I question the waste within their walls...they expect all of us suppliers to be lean, mean cost cutting machines: but what about them?)

In any case, that's why I am concerned that if we DON'T outsource and at least get those savings, the whole industry is in greater jeopardy than it already is. Then more jobs go.

This has been a good thread: I appreciate everyone's perspectives.

 

 

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