The truth about job outsourcing
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The truth about job outsourcing
| 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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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.
BTW Dobbs is a registered Republican.
Lou Dobbs is running an excellent
"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.
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
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
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.
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.
"this outsourcing is good for our country. I don't buy that."
Me neither!
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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