Re: We're outsourcing our future

El Castor wrote:

Thumper <jaylsmith@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Sun, 09 Apr 2006 20:57:42 -0700, El Castor
<anyonethere@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Thumper <jaylsmith@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



On Sun, 09 Apr 2006 18:54:40 -0700, El Castor
<anyonethere@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



"Jim Higgins" <gordian238@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Sunday, April 9, 2006

We're outsourcing our future
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/040906/opinion_20060409052.shtml

By SILVIO LACETTI and JOSEPH MARQUES

Is offshore outsourcing destined to be the device that precipitates the next
historically inevitable shift of economic power? Unless America's leaders
take a step back and look at the bigger picture -- yes. As the line between
international and local business blurs, it's becoming increasingly important
to understand the various ways in which cultural differences affect business
practices.

In 1980, Geert Hofstede, a Swedish industrial organizational psychologist,
studied cross-cultural business practices. He identified two elements that
can now be related to the recent explosion of outsourcing. One element
concerns patterns of individualism versus collectivism in business thinking.

The other involves short-term versus long-term perspectives in decision
making.

According to Hofstede's findings, business practices in India and China can
be described as collectivist in thinking and long-term in perspective. That
is, they emphasize the community over the individual and are patient in
obtaining desired results.

The United States, on the other hand, exhibits a highly individualistic
business culture and is strongly oriented to short-term thinking.

Given the different nature of their business cultures from ours, India and
China are well bred to exploit the outsourcing explosion, much to our
detriment.

They could, for instance, choose to keep their currency low for years, to
capture more business from U.S. shores. Then, after a strict dependency is
created, they could simply raise the value of their currency. What would
this do? Outsourcing wouldn't be as viable anymore, but we would be left
with no easy way out -- the trap!

After so many years of impossible-to-match competition through outsourcing,
enrollment in American science and engineering programs is likely to fall:
either directly from the competition or indirectly from wage depressions
spurred by the competition.

In our highly individualistic society our leaders are being nearsighted.
They are looking for immediate gratification through short-term economic
gains. And they are applying faulty logic to the dilemma of outsourcing.

Bill Gates and George W. Bush have recently called for relaxed restrictions
on H1-B visas. These grant nonimmigrant employees one- to six-year stints in
the United States to work for sponsoring companies. After their visas expire
they are forced to leave for at least a year before returning -- a condition
that is little more than an invitation to invest the money earned here in
foreign economies. Worse yet, because they are temporary, these visas
encourage investment in the home country even during the workers stay here.

This doesn't fix the problem; it exacerbates it. Not only is work being
given to non-citizens, but the companies supporting this are paying American
wages to foreign nationals working here.

These "leaders" are not looking for long-term cures, they are settling for a
variety of short-term treatments -- treatments that only mask the symptoms,
and worsen the ailment. Do not forget: the business decisions of today could
be the potential privations of tomorrow.

As the outsourcing model continues to mature, American wealth will be
exported to other nations in larger and larger quantities. But anyone
studying globalism knows that a flattening is inevitable, and that currency
disparities tend to equalize with time. So outsourcing is already destined
to swallow its own economic benefit. Thus, now -- not later -- is the time
for this country to look for long-term solutions.

One might be for American industry leaders to devote more effort into our
nation's educational system. Business must assume some responsibility to
incite and support increased interest in the fields of science and
engineering.

Studies have shown that IQs decline in young people during the summer break.

If American corporations offered more internships for students, the positive
results would be multi-fold: affordable labor -- to rival our outsourced
counterparts and keep jobs here; early experience to take real-world
knowledge and map it back to theory learned in the classroom; thought
leadership because these companies would be giving these applicants early
access to the senior minds in industry. Since the students are now getting
education all year round, we as a nation start to narrow the gap between
education here and overseas.

If American companies want higher quality, more effective, or better
educated persons in the United States, then they should want to have a
larger role in the incubation of this country's knowledge workers now. The
worst possible thing they could do is run to the government and ask for
relaxed restrictions -- the short-term H1-B visa solution -- so they can
find a treatment elsewhere in the world.

However, no long-term solution to this problem will be easy. Reform, such as
the one proposed above, is difficult and requires effort, input, feedback,
and support from a variety of sources. But therein lies the key: It requires
thinking on the community level, which brings us right back around to what
largely caused the problem in the first place -- too much individualistic
thinking and not enough collectivist intentions.

The solution of the outsourcing trap needs to be found here, not offshore,
and certainly not with the H1-B visas.

Silvio Laccetti is a professor of humanities at Stevens Institute of
Technology in Hoboken, N.J. Joseph Marques is a software engineer.


Jim,

In the face of foreign competition we have been closing US factories
for fifty years and either opening new ones in foreign countries, or
watching while our competitors did it and ate our lunch. While that
has been going on we have become the strongest economy on the face of
the earth. Look in your closet. Can you find a shirt made in the USA?
How about your computer? Your TV? Your VCR or DVD player? Are you
somehow diminished by that? I think what you are suffering from is
fear of the unknown and things which you don't understand.

We are manufacturing more now than we ever have, but at the same time
we are making better use of labor. "From 1977 to 2002, productivity in
the U.S. economy overall rose 53 percent, while U.S. manufacturing
productivity rose 109 percent. Investments in information technology
are estimated to account for 60 percent of that increase in
manufacturing productivity."


It is starting to really hurt. What little manufacturing we have left
pays very little and service jobs are what is replacing these jobs.
Health care and pensions are going now and next will be the rest of
the jobs thmselves.The very first thing we should do is make sure that
corporations cannot deduct ANY expenses related to jobs that are
overseas. Fifty years ago the laws were much different and we didn't
have the foreign competition we have now. What really hurts though is
that it isn't so much foreign companies that are hurting us but
American companies that use cheap foreign labor.

By the way, increased productivity means that less people are working
harder than ever which is not something that is good for the worker.


Sigh. Increased productivity means that workers have been given the
means to work more efficiently, and produce more than ever with the
same amount of work. Increased productivity is one of the key factors
in producing a higher standard of living -- and higher wages.



Sigh all you want but the fact is that those of us still working have
seen our numbers fall by up to 80% and are working longer harder hours
with forced overtime in many cases to increase productivity.
Thumper



Simply not true. Productivity statistics measure output per hour of
labor -- period. US workers are increasingly productive because the
United States has the capital and ability to invest in new and better
machinery and more efficient means of production. If a job is
eliminated by a machine, it is a GOOD thing. The displaced worker is
freed up to make a useful contribution somewhere else in the economy.
Union contracts which have thousands of workers sitting around in
rubber rooms doing nothing, decrease productivity, and harm the
economy.

"Labor productivity measures output per hour of labor."
http://www.bls.gov/bls/productivity.htm



A shoemaker working by hand might be able to produce one pair of shoes
an hour, but give him a machine and he can produce 100 pairs an hour.
By your definition I suppose that the scheming employer is using that
machine to exploit his worker.



Thumper


http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:rZJ65MveoDIJ:www.mep.nist.gov/energy-nam.pdf+%22US+Manufacturing%22+greater+than&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6


You may as well have confidence in free enterprise, and in the ability
of the US entrepreneur and worker to cut the mustard in the global
economy, because God isn't going to intervene and stuff China and
India back in the bottle. Tariffs and quotas aren't going to save us
either -- only the same respect for free enterprise and initiative
that has worked for us since 1776. Do you really want us to be like
France? 10% unemployment and half the growth rate of the US? Where is
the model of regulation and barriers to free trade that you would like
us to emulate?

Jeff

"The moonbats bark thrice at midnight."


"The moonbats bark thrice at midnight."




"The moonbats bark thrice at midnight."


Someone should open the door and let thumper out.

<G>
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Were outsourcing our future
    ... Is offshore outsourcing destined to be the device that precipitates the next ... international and local business blurs, ... encourage investment in the home country even during the workers stay here. ... productivity rose 109 percent. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Were outsourcing our future
    ... Is offshore outsourcing destined to be the device that precipitates the next ... international and local business blurs, ... wages to foreign nationals working here. ... productivity rose 109 percent. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Please rain on my parade
    ... I fear that our country has forgotten this aspect of economic history and your greatest fear of socialism will be the result. ... where starting and operating a new business was easy as long as you were clean from an environmental point of view. ... Then outsourcing, first to other areas of the US and then abroad. ... We began by looking for land that we would eventually retire to and within 6 months had sold everything and moved. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Thanks to those who help me...
    ... save money by doing your own administration but you can't make money. ... are not in business to save money. ... As you have said you have been working with SBS misconfigured since January. ... I have been a firm believer in outsourcing ever since. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • BUSINESS: Luo+ng re? vo+i Global JobWare war
    ... BUSINESS: Luo+ng re? ... SPECIAL REPORT -- OUTSOURCING ... Other developing countries see ... plus advantages such as closer proximity to U.S. and European ...
    (soc.culture.vietnamese)
Loading