Should We Be Training Those Unemployed By Offshoring?
from the yes,-yes,-and-yes dept
Offshoring is certainly a controversial topic, and we've discussed it to death here - but Salon's latest article raises an interesting point that I've not seen discussed elsewhere. While the US government provides support for things like job training for those who lose their manufacturing job to globalization, they don't provide the same support for programmers who lose their jobs, claiming that software is a "service", and they only provide support for workers involved in tangible products. This is a mistake. There's simply no reason not to provide training support to anyone who loses their job due to offshoring. While I've spoken about the reasons to support careful offshoring (not the willy-nilly offshoring that many companies are doing now, which many are already regretting), at the same time, it's important to continue to train those who lost their jobs so they can continue to contribute to society. The article also discusses things like "wage insurance" - which seems counter-productive, in that it supports people taking lower paying jobs, rather than improving their own job prospects through training for more advanced jobs. Though, there is quite a quote from someone saying that we shouldn't train or provide wage insurance, but rather "protect the jobs that are already here". If only it were that easy. The problem with that plan is that those companies will go out of business, since they can't compete, and then everyone will be worse off. Instead, we should focus on providing the education, training, and support that people need to continue to reinvent our economy.
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No Subject Given
So people should train for more advanced jobs if they lose their jobs to offshoring? What if those advanced jobs are off shored as well? The only way to deal with the problem is by making offshoring more expensive. I'm not usually a fan of taxation, but I think that taxing offshoring to make it comparably priced to american labor is the only way to go. With the studies incidicating that offshoring is already not as cheap as it looks, something like extra taxation would KILL it cold. Or maybe, we should take it up with the WTO, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
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Wait a minute
Really, are you sure they can't compete with other companies? Who are these other companies? Is the inability to compete really due to the cost of the employees?
It's odd, but I don't see any US company competing with a non-us company right now for major services.
Ok, I'll concede that can easily change, but there are two reasons why I'm skeptical that the trend in offshoring is not just increasing the rate of decline for the u.s. while doing nothing more than allowing a few people to retain their incredible salary for a little while longer.
1) If it's really to get costs in line does Carly need the $30 million jet? (Was that actually two jets at $60?). How much does she make each year with options? Does wall street reward long term strategy or short term profits? You can probably ask this of most of the CxOs supporting offshoring.
2) If the concern is that lower cost offshore suppliers will be able to provide the same or better services at a lower cost then what's to stop them from still doing it despite all the offshoring?
How does moving services offshor actually help?
Maybe it delays the inevitable, but for how long?
What happens when the indian or chinese companies doing work for IBM decide they should invest some of the profits into marketing directly to the customer? How will offshoring stop that? My guess is that the US company is still going to have *much* higher overhead due to the natural cost of doing business in the u.s. (e.g. see #1).
I guess this is the big wheel of karma doling out the payback for things spiraling out of whack so much in the 90s.
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Your vision is naive
Some companies involved in off shoring MAY be in financial trouble, but I seriously doubt that most are in trouble, let alone all of them. Off shoring is a quick way to improve the bottom line, and add extra stock options and other monetary bonuses to the already overblown compensation packages of the top 1% of these companyies.
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product or service?
Funny, California counts software as a "product" by charging sales tax on it.
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Re: No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
If you buy $29 DVD players from Wal-Mart you're sanctioning the offshoring of their manufacture, and that's where the job-shift is obvious. Just because the practice has been extended to white-collar functions doesn't make it any less valid, as long as it's well-executed.
The real driver of these trends is the shift of functions from specialty to commodity, and it's the acceleration of that shift that's become so unnerving. We can grow up and adapt to deliver marketable, non-commodity services to a global customer base, or we can legislate from denial and let ourselves become irrelevant.
If you want to see the latter in operation, it's called Europe (France and Germany, to be specific).
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loosers
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Free Market CRACK!
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Re: Free Market CRACK!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Off Shoring
Raymond Donald Pairan Jr.
Copyright (c) 2004 All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
This paper is just a further elaboration on some of the topics that I presented in my work entitled “The Economy” which I hope has inspired the moral, the passionate, and displaced future working slave class to start inquiring about their ultimate condition within the hands of the business/political elite. It is absolutely wonderful that certain members of the media have started to question the direction and motives of the business/political elite and have beat the bushes where they’ve been hiding thus exposing their true motives to the clear light of day. But make no mistake the business/political elite will stop at nothing to eliminate any opposition be it ethical government, the media, or any other encumbrance that inhibits them from achieving their goal of creating a subservient working class and a contrasting unencumbered business/political elite power base.
SILENCE/COMPLIANCE
At this point in time the media has the business/political elite (forgoing referred to as the controllers) on the defensive at least within the United States, which is in the mist of a presidential election year. Make no mistake the controllers would like to and will eventually silence all media dissent against their planned worldwide domination of all elements that can negatively effect their goal of sucking every last drop of revenue from the world into their realm. If this means devising a means of quelling dissent from those within the media that don’t wish to go quietly with the controllers view – so be it. Keep in mind that money and power are the driving force of the controllers and everything and anything that inhibits their eventual control over these elements in their eyes must be eliminated. This could mean the off shoring of media jobs to compliant outlets such as India where in the case of the English speaking world there exists a future working slave class that speaks English rather decently. The controllers could then eliminate media disseminated descent to their plans of complete global control over all the factors of production including the eventual working slave class. This means that no job is safe from the plans by the controllers to evolve all jobs into mere subservient, compliant, malleable factors of production. Time is limited for the controllers and others that support the free trade (code word – free) subjugation over all workingmen and women. The ideologue's within the future working slave class will blindly follow one another lock step onto the slave ship that will set sail for their future of no dissent, compliance, no morality, no freedom, no future but one of subservience. The time is very near at hand so those within the media that are the moral voice of dissent must take our case to a fever pace in order to expose and keep all rouses from becoming the new molded distorted facts that can be espoused by the controllers. For the controllers their religion is money and power because for them nothing else matters. If they can gain control over not only you the educated working, the hard factory working, the service sector working, then they will be free to build a truly worldwide free market economy where they are free to do what they wish when they wish it.
BEND THE TRUTH LIKE LIGHT THROUGH A PRISM
If you say something enough and if you change the dynamics and distort the facts to your liking then eventually it will be believed by enough people to become the truth. Basically, the controllers just prior to taking complete control over all media dissent will be hard pressed to dispute facts such as 3 million jobs lost in under 3 years, poverty within the United States at record high levels, whole town centers across rural America with a preponderance of vacant store fronts, a trillion dollar deficit, most states within budget crisis, a college education now getting further from the reach of most Americans, and the list goes on and on. Historically speaking when facts don’t convey what the power elite (in our case the controllers) wish than they just change the way those facts are presented so they convey a distorted picture favorable to those in control. This is nothing new and has been employed quite successfully by those in power many times in the past in the form of propaganda. We must maintain focus on the standard measures used within the past and not let the seeping of new measures (touted by the controllers) distort the facts.
THE TIME IS NOW
It is imperative that we work with the media while it is still free to convey the truth about the controller’s objectives and goals. Time is quickly running out for the average working citizen to maintain some semblance of influence over their respective governments. The controllers will and are gaining control over these governments covertly, directly, and through draining the government treasuries converting partially effective governments into impotent shells of past power. Once the controllers are finished with governments than even the political elite will be at jeopardy of becoming obsolete. So those within the political elite may be enjoying the fruits of soiled money conveyed to them by the business controllers but make no mistake once the business controllers have achieved their objectives they will dispose of even the political elite thus eliminating this drain on their coveted profits. There exists one goal of the controllers and that is to extract and drain as much wealth from the world as is possible. The controllers have no God, no religion, no morals, no scruples, and no conscience but only one overriding unquenchable desire – the complete control over all aspects of their bottom line. They will stop at nothing to satisfy their additive need to acquire more and more wealth at the expense of anything that gets in their way. Any worker that is currently employed by a firm that has global reach over its factors of production (and this doesn’t include many small to medium sized firm’s playing by the rules) are at risk of being eliminated. This includes every imaginable profession since there currently exists the technology and desire (by the controllers) to out source any profession – first and foremost the media (the thorn within the controllers side). It is imperative that in the next few weeks and months that all of us that count ourselves among the working class keep abreast of issues, meaningful relevant facts, and not be swayed by propaganda spewing from the controllers. We must make our voices heard through written, vocal, and peaceful dissent to the path that the controllers are leading us down. We must not and cannot follow the controllers blindly into a future of no government and working slave subservience. Remember the controllers will use key phrases such as “free market”, “household survey”, patriotism, and many others to sway global opinion towards their way of reasoning. Also, keep in mind there are many honest, decent, caring employers (mostly small, medium, and large sized businesses) that are playing by the rules and respect their workers, and communities. It is probably only a few but powerful firms making up the Fortune 500 that are the real controllers of a destiny of worker subservience. I will continue to write the unpopular truth be it what may come. You should continue to question, reason, and judge the facts and not be swayed by propaganda. Let the facts speak for themselves because they surely will if given the chance!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Off Shoring
Retraining workers for what positions? The NLS predits that 8 of the 10 fastest growing jobs will be menial low wage jobs.
Silence Or Compliance
Raymond Donald Pairan Jr.
Copyright (c) 2004 All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
This paper is just a further elaboration on some of the topics that I presented in my work entitled “The Economy” which I hope has inspired the moral, the passionate, and displaced future working slave class to start inquiring about their ultimate condition within the hands of the business/political elite. It is absolutely wonderful that certain members of the media have started to question the direction and motives of the business/political elite and have beat the bushes where they’ve been hiding thus exposing their true motives to the clear light of day. But make no mistake the business/political elite will stop at nothing to eliminate any opposition be it ethical government, the media, or any other encumbrance that inhibits them from achieving their goal of creating a subservient working class and a contrasting unencumbered business/political elite power base.
SILENCE/COMPLIANCE
At this point in time the media has the business/political elite (forgoing referred to as the controllers) on the defensive at least within the United States, which is in the mist of a presidential election year. Make no mistake the controllers would like to and will eventually silence all media dissent against their planned worldwide domination of all elements that can negatively effect their goal of sucking every last drop of revenue from the world into their realm. If this means devising a means of quelling dissent from those within the media that don’t wish to go quietly with the controllers view – so be it. Keep in mind that money and power are the driving force of the controllers and everything and anything that inhibits their eventual control over these elements in their eyes must be eliminated. This could mean the off shoring of media jobs to compliant outlets such as India where in the case of the English speaking world there exists a future working slave class that speaks English rather decently. The controllers could then eliminate media disseminated descent to their plans of complete global control over all the factors of production including the eventual working slave class. This means that no job is safe from the plans by the controllers to evolve all jobs into mere subservient, compliant, malleable factors of production. Time is limited for the controllers and others that support the free trade (code word – free) subjugation over all workingmen and women. The ideologue's within the future working slave class will blindly follow one another lock step onto the slave ship that will set sail for their future of no dissent, compliance, no morality, no freedom, no future but one of subservience. The time is very near at hand so those within the media that are the moral voice of dissent must take our case to a fever pace in order to expose and keep all rouses from becoming the new molded distorted facts that can be espoused by the controllers. For the controllers their religion is money and power because for them nothing else matters. If they can gain control over not only you the educated working, the hard factory working, the service sector working, then they will be free to build a truly worldwide free market economy where they are free to do what they wish when they wish it.
BEND THE TRUTH LIKE LIGHT THROUGH A PRISM
If you say something enough and if you change the dynamics and distort the facts to your liking then eventually it will be believed by enough people to become the truth. Basically, the controllers just prior to taking complete control over all media dissent will be hard pressed to dispute facts such as 3 million jobs lost in under 3 years, poverty within the United States at record high levels, whole town centers across rural America with a preponderance of vacant store fronts, a trillion dollar deficit, most states within budget crisis, a college education now getting further from the reach of most Americans, and the list goes on and on. Historically speaking when facts don’t convey what the power elite (in our case the controllers) wish than they just change the way those facts are presented so they convey a distorted picture favorable to those in control. This is nothing new and has been employed quite successfully by those in power many times in the past in the form of propaganda. We must maintain focus on the standard measures used within the past and not let the seeping of new measures (touted by the controllers) distort the facts.
THE TIME IS NOW
It is imperative that we work with the media while it is still free to convey the truth about the controller’s objectives and goals. Time is quickly running out for the average working citizen to maintain some semblance of influence over their respective governments. The controllers will and are gaining control over these governments covertly, directly, and through draining the government treasuries converting partially effective governments into impotent shells of past power. Once the controllers are finished with governments than even the political elite will be at jeopardy of becoming obsolete. So those within the political elite may be enjoying the fruits of soiled money conveyed to them by the business controllers but make no mistake once the business controllers have achieved their objectives they will dispose of even the political elite thus eliminating this drain on their coveted profits. There exists one goal of the controllers and that is to extract and drain as much wealth from the world as is possible. The controllers have no God, no religion, no morals, no scruples, and no conscience but only one overriding unquenchable desire – the complete control over all aspects of their bottom line. They will stop at nothing to satisfy their additive need to acquire more and more wealth at the expense of anything that gets in their way. Any worker that is currently employed by a firm that has global reach over its factors of production (and this doesn’t include many small to medium sized firm’s playing by the rules) are at risk of being eliminated. This includes every imaginable profession since there currently exists the technology and desire (by the controllers) to out source any profession – first and foremost the media (the thorn within the controllers side). It is imperative that in the next few weeks and months that all of us that count ourselves among the working class keep abreast of issues, meaningful relevant facts, and not be swayed by propaganda spewing from the controllers. We must make our voices heard through written, vocal, and peaceful dissent to the path that the controllers are leading us down. We must not and cannot follow the controllers blindly into a future of no government and working slave subservience. Remember the controllers will use key phrases such as “free market”, “household survey”, patriotism, and many others to sway global opinion towards their way of reasoning. Also, keep in mind there are many honest, decent, caring employers (mostly small, medium, and large sized businesses) that are playing by the rules and respect their workers, and communities. It is probably only a few but powerful firms making up the Fortune 500 that are the real controllers of a destiny of worker subservience. I will continue to write the unpopular truth be it what may come. You should continue to question, reason, and judge the facts and not be swayed by propaganda. Let the facts speak for themselves because they surely will if given the chance!
[ link to this | view in thread ]