How to deal with outsourcing, on ABC News

[question everything]

The report was about someone who started a new business and needed programmers. In the U.S., the report said, programmers are paid $80K, while overseas - $40K. So the businessman advertised for U.S. jobs at "Indian salaries" and he got 100 resumes and hired several who were unemployed before who admitted that they did not have any choice.

The report was presented as a win-win but I was wondering... if all of us will now be offered jobs at half our previous salaries and we will have to take them, who, then, will "fuel" the economy that 2/3 of it is based on consumption? Will all of us now shop at K-Mart and Wal-Mart? Will this "sustain" our economy?

If this was supposed to have been a positive report.. I don't know, I was not cheering.

What do you think?


http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/Business/outsourcing_alternatives_040309.html

[lastknowngood]

1. Driving us into a third world economy. welcome to the repug

fantasy labor market. Remember there not free market repugs there free labor repugs. We are no competing for .10c jobs an hour in China. That will be called a win win also. Wake up assholes we've been sold down the river.

[keopeli]

2. Exactly the correct question to ask.

Reality: Outsourcing will not win votes for anyone.
Reality: Businesses must appeal to the American consumer to be able to sell their products.

If Bush* doesn't change his mind on this issue soon, it will sink him.

Reagardless of Bush*'s choice, outsourcing will come to an end very quickly because it does not sustain the consumers that are the market of the product. It may return at a later time when the economy is thriving and, hopefully, when we are not ourselves 2/3 of the driving force of our own economy. When it does, we should be very careful about what happens.

If outsourcing ends because Americans take a big pay cut, prices will HAVE to drop. Period. That, my dear friends, is what they call Deflation, which is a prettier word than Depression.

Please, let this be wrong.

Keo

[girl gone mad]

3. Race to the bottom..

is what I thought when I saw the report.

I know many programmers who will not take the pay cut because they believe it would be a mistake to start driving salaries down.

If we could only outsource politicians.. maybe then we'd have a real solution.

[FloridaPat]

9. They won't take a pay cut, but I've been out of work 10 months and

I have friends out fo work up to 2 years. Any idea how good $40,000 looks right now?

[Deja Q]

4. Big business devaluing the industry...

"Win-win" my ass.

Big corporations have got to help take care of their fellow countrymen who engage in these grueling jobs to help them make money, or fucking burn in hell for all eternity. These CEOs should be damn grateful, not be a bunch of fucking cheapskate traitors.

[union_maid]

5. We did something like that

Not quite half, but close. My husband's $75K job was outsource ( for a lot less than $40K) and he got a new job in a different field, although he does some programming there, too. He gets 40K. I work, but I don't make that much and we live in a high cost of living area and for various reasons, moving is not an option. We feel lucky because most of the other people that he worked with haven't gotten jobs at all, but we don't spend nearly as much as we used to. We don't go out to eat. We don't do anything that we really don't have to. We also don't miss the extras that much. We have what we need, although there are some major purchases and home improvements that we really should make and can't and won't. We're not putting nearly as much into the economy as we were or as we would have if things were different, and we're not adding to retirement savings any more.

[BeatleBoot]

6. If we all accept salaries at half of our previous salary, then

all else follows..

The economy declines (as it is currently doing) and then....

Our home prices decline proportionately, which means we've lost equity/sunk capital (for those fortunate enough to have a mortgage)...

With less salary, one has less money to pay their mortgage (if you're lucky enough to have one) and other bills - let alone day-to-day living expenses...

If you have a mortgage and you haven't already re-mortgaged and "consolidated your debt" in order to "pay down those high interest credit cards", you can re-mortgage, but you'll need a decent paying job to be approved. And they'll be looking at your salary history for approval.

If you have a Home Equity loan, you better hope you don't have additional credit card debt, because your "new salary that's now cut in half" won't make the payments.

But George Bush gave you $300 in a "tax rebate" that you'll have to now pay for 24 months later in order to "create jobs and stimulate the economy"

But if you are about to retire - fear not - for the Bushies will cut your Social Security benefits in order to pay for the tax cuts given to the top 1.5% wage "earners".

[question everything]

12. Not to mention saving for retirement

After all, as Greenspun said: to reign on the deficit we will have to cut on social security benefits.

Oops, forget about retirement. We will have to work - if we are lucky to have a bagging jobs at the supermarket - until we die.

[DianeG5385]

7. It's not just "outsourcing" it's "insourcing."

We are losing two ways. For every job that goes offshore, there an H-1B visa issued for an immigrant to replace an otherwise high paying job formerly held by an American citizen. Silicon Valley has been particularly hard hit by this phenonemon. We are being whipsawed in so many ways. This has a direct effect on not only the federal, but also the state and local tax base. You see it in the desperate situation state and local governments find themselves.

Free trade was supposed to "lift" all boats. Instead, the tide has gone out, leaving some boats high and dry. It is a well coordinated effort by the Pubs to further depress the compensation of American workers. Outsourcing has also increased the number of "temporary" American workers who no longer qualify for benefits. The continued assault on unions, including the stupid reference to the NEA as terrorists is typical. We need to pull all the threads together to unravel the Pubs grand plan to destroy the middle class. Remember, as of now, we still have the power of the vote!

[DianeG5385]

8. We need to focus on the gut issues

Instead of preening over trivial minutae that could derail a win in November. We are so easy to get off track and not focus on the larger goal of defeating Bush!

[shivaji]

10. Can someone please explain how exactly we plan to....

stop outsourcing? I recently had guests from India.
Our loss of jobs is causing a boom in jobs in India.
The current estimate is 2.5 million jobs in India are
a direct result of outsourcing from US & Europe. Almost
all were created in last 3 years.

If something good is happening amongst all of the lost jobs
here in US, is that the Indians holding these jobs hold US
in high regard and definitely will not become recruits for
Al Qaeda. Actually, India has endured muslim terrorism for
13 centuries. So I see India as one of the very few democracies
in Asia as a beneficial commerce and political partner.

[DianeG5385]

11. So we can't feed our families

In exchange for not being bombed?

[leesa]

16. Is there some logic involved to this?

We should crash our economy so India likes us?

[Ksec]

13. They want to hit labor twofold

First they threaten outsourcing to cheap labor markets and now Bush wants to flood the job market with people willing to work cheaper than Americans have been getting paid. Simple economics when you have an excess of labor wages will drop.

What gets me is all theses right wingers who actually agree with ruining themselves and the middle class for the party. I just cant get that. It doesnt make any sense that a guy would support his own demise.

[DianeG5385]

14. I think this issue is huge

because it hits home. Other than Dobbs, it is not being covered. All corps want to dumb down and discount US employment. We all lose. Why would anyone in their right mind vote PUb? Why did Clinton support NAFTA?

[Ksec]

18. I dont know why Clinton pushed NAFTA other than

he believed the hype they were pushing or he was whoring for coporate powers. He was smart so he had to know what this would result in . Ane maybe he thought the human rights and environmental reponsibility would be addressed before allowing the country in on NAFTA.

[porkrind]

17. I think most rethuglicans think

they are either part of, or are on the way up into, the higher income class that might benefit from having an army of serfs to slave for them. The reality is that they will never be part of this class, and will be as screwed as the rest of us.

The other half are weak minded fools who can be manipulated by hatred issues such as racism or religion.

All the while the rich capitalists who really run corporations laugh while the middle class votes itself into slavery.

Pathetic.
:argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh:

[leftofthedial]

15. I'm already operating at half of my previous high tech salary

If I had to cut this in half, I'd lose my house.

The GOP's Murka.