googaddict

Outsourcing jobs and material to other countries.
I am personally against it. I cannot see how it helps us. Seventy percent of the items sold in Walmart and Home Depot are made in China.
A lot of American companies have been outsourcing customer service and technical support jobs to India.
I cannot tell you how many times people have told me the problems they have had communicating with the folks in India. I myself had dissapointing encounters in the past with these people, ranging from bad accent/communication skills to just plain incompetence.
As far as manufacturing, if it is really necessary to outsource outside of the United States. Would it not be in our country's best interest to send more work to South and Central America instead of China. If anything this might help a little with the illegal immigration problem we are having with Mexico.
China is close to an equal superpower with the United States now and all I see us doing, is helping them build their arms to use against us someday.
You can count on it folks it will happen sometime in the not so distant future.
Another problem that is occurring with China taking on all this work is that the pollution they are generating is out of control. Even though it is in thier country it still affects the world as a whole.
As an individual I do what I can. I buy American whenever possible.
Well, I would like to here everyone else's take on this subject.

NotConvinced

Difficult problem, difficult solution, especially if you're trying to solve it solely by American means. Currently either manufacturing goes over seas, or these companies, many of which are based in the US, slowly go out of business. So either we lose jobs on one end, or lose jobs on the other. In the next few hundred years, I see an equalizing taking place, slowly sure, but in the end, it'll be a certain global environment, a democratic China for one, that'll make the difference in slowing/ending outsourcing. Most all politicians should know that much can't be done right now by our end, and ones like Kerry greatly annoy me by claiming they can change something they can't.

googaddict

Good point NC. Thank you.

Skepticologist

I think NC is pretty much on target. Once a country has signed on as a member of the global economy, it has to play by the rules in order to share in the benefits. And those rules are essentially the same that have applied to American capitalism for over 200 years, and the linchpin of that system has been, and continues to be, competition.

There's really not much choice. Countries who practice insularity and protectionism will suffer the same fate as companies who do so; the primary example being the former Soviet Union.

Competition is one of the key factors in this country's greatness, and competition on a global scale will be a key factor in the development of a greater world. From my perspective, that's not altogether a bad thing, although as in any competitive environment there will inevitably be losers. NC refers to "an equalizing", and that means some countries will gain and some will lose, at least in the short term. That doesn't bother me personally, because I'm the beneficiary of a comfortable retirement. It does, however, bother me when it comes to my children and grandchildren who will be hard pressed to achieve a lifestyle similar to mine since they're competing against people in other countries who will perform the same jobs for one-sixth or one-tenth of the salaries they currently expect.

Sure, China and India are going through the same kind of growing pains this country did, but the fact is that they're growing while our economy is shrinking. And from my perspective, they're already in the process of turning the competence corner. In the past few days, I've spent several hours on the phone with tech support reps in an effort to get my internet security software working right. Some of those reps were located in the U.S., and some were in India. Guess where I got the best support? It came from India because those reps were college graduates with IT degrees, and the American help desks couldn't possibly pay for that kind of expertise in this country and remain solvent.

It'll take several years, maybe even a couple of generations, before workers in developing countries like China and India can demand the same kinds of salaries that their American counterparts have enjoyed, but it will happen. Whether American workers can then once again be competitive depends to a great extent on whether our educational system can keep up, and it's not even close to doing so today.

The question isn't whether outsourcing is a good thing or a bad thing. It's a fact of life. The question is whether we'll pay attention to and invest in the institutions that made this country great so that we can stay in the game.

__________________
"I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of."

Clarence Darrow

googaddict

Good post, Skeptic. Both yourself and NC seem knowledgable on this subject.
I understand the need to be competitive. My question is, how much of outsourcing is due to corporate greed? It would take a lot of time and research
to really know the truth.

NotConvinced

What if you knew for certain the answer was, say, 32%. What would you do?
What would you do if you knew the answer was 69% ?

Would the "lot of time and research" be worth it?

googaddict

Promote a national boycott.

romansh

Corporate greed .... may be part of it? Customers being not happy to pay the going rate may be another? Who's complaining about the computers we are using that have been outsourced?

Are we in favour of the US or any other country for that matter providing foreign aid?
(Maximus ... you are not allowed to answer this question )
If the answer is yes; which would you rather provide money or work?

__________________
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

NotConvinced

Against every company that outsources...?

Skepticologist

"Corporate greed" is just another way of saying "profit motive". I personally don't want any company I invest in to pay 6-10 times more than it has to for the same labor. That may seem greedy but, if so, then capitalism is itself a greedy system by definition.

__________________
"I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of."

Clarence Darrow