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There are so many levels to this outsourcing issue, it really is pointless to say we should always outsource or we should never ever outsource.

As anyone who has looked into this issue can tell you, there is not in most cases a one-to-one correlation between an American losing their job, and the job going offshore.

For instance, Microsoft is shutting down a major facility in the US. They are also hiring in India. Will the Microsoft jobs lost in the US be counted as jobs lost to outsourcing? Probably not. That is why the new buzz words are "global sourcing" and "insourcing".

Also, how many jobs are being lost to "American" companys like Cognizant, who do not hire permanant US residents or citizens to work for them, only people on H-1B visas? 30% of Cognizant's 9K headcount work in the US (per the June 7th issue of Newsweek), and according to the Dept of Labor's LCA database the company has 2719 immigrants here on H1-B visas (you do the math).

This issue is not simply them bad us good. American IT workers are getting shut out of the IT labor market, even in our own country. This is not good for anyone. We are wasting our own intellectual capital, which we should be sharing with other countries so IT can be used to bridge cultural and economic divides. People should not have to pretend to be from another country as part of their job requirement. People should not be brought here on temporary visas and be paid less and worked harder than the Americans that work in the next cubicle.

This black and white thinking about this issue is pitting the workers on both sides against each other. The only people who win in that situation are the big guys making millions and millions of dollars to come up with these schemes. We (all IT workers worldwide) created these technologies, and historically we have openly shared and taught everyone so that the technology would thrive. That cooperative spirit needs to come through when thinking about this issue.

www.displacedtechies.com

In the last four years, there have been 1,004,000 new and renewed H1B visas awarded, and approximately 602,000 of those were in the IT/CS industries.

Obviously the industry is growing, but industry leaders are using every trick in the book to manipulate labor costs.

Sure, there are thousands of new jobs being created in the US, but Americans are not even given a shot at filling many of these positions.

I agree, it's not as bad as one may think, it's actually alot worse!

www.displacedtechies.com

Harris Miller, ITAA's president, was paid by the electronic voting industry to lobby on behalf of that industry.

In a conference call with electronic voting industry officials, Harris says:

I just don't like to put it in writing because if this thing winds up in the press somewhere inadvertently, I don't want the story saying the e[lectronic] voting industry is in trouble and decided to hire a lobbying firm to take care of their problem for them,"

If it comes out in the press, then his organization will not be able to act like they are the only organization that can speak with authority on any issue that affects the IT space.

Instead, Miller falls back on the tried and true tactic of discrediting experts and critics of the companies that he is paid to represent. I would bet all I have that if you took the 1,000 people they used for this very scientific survey and let them know how insecure these electronic voting machines are, they may answer the survey questions very differently.

www.displacedtechies.com

The people in other countries will work for less...right now. But doesn't capitalism also teach that as workers become more specialized (trained) they will demand more in payment?

That's what is happening right now in India...people that are doing the software jobs that were sent over there to take advantage of the cheap labor are wanting raises, because their skill level is going up with experience. But, the companies have contracts based on the fact that they are paid less. So, should these people who are becoming more skilled have to stay at the same unskilled pay level? Should the companies send all the now skilled labor packing and start with a fresh crowd?

People in other countries do not need these outsourced jobs more than Americans, that is a logically flawed argument. When the US is at a point that there are no homeless, and no one on public assistance, maybe then we can make those sorts of arguments. displacedtechies.com

I disagree with alot of what you said:

• customers of call centres are sometimes zenophobic
  I don't want my bank data offshored. period. I like the protection US law affords me.
  Also, as a Southern woman with a Southern drawl, it annoys me to no end that my heritage and upbringing automatically makes me stupid or too cute to handle tough technical questions. I would imagine folks in India must feel this even more, how insulting to spend your nights pretending to be American! I hate talking like a yankee to avoid being teased...I can't imagine that being a job requirement.
  My point is this...is outsourcing is so great for the world, why shouldn't companies say, "Look, these guys in India are great and they are cheap and we are going to pass that savings on to you the customer"...instead of pretending the Asian call centers are in Arizona or Texas and pocketing the savings.
  
• It costs money to provide services to the poor who can't find jobs or the unemployed whose jobs are snatched away. It seems to me to be quite immoral to use cheap overseas labor to provide safety net services to people who are willing to work. We live in an economy that thinks paying minumum wage is too steep of a price of doing business, and should be scary to ALL.

My complaint is that the basis for outsourcing is chasing cheap compliant labor, not looking for the most productive labor. Linux works across borders because people are working towards a common goal, and everyone reaps the benefits. I don't think that companies are using outsourcing as a way to benefit everyone...themselves, the stockholders, the employees (wherever they may be), the customers and yes, even the community...and that is why outsourcing as it stands today is not a good thing.

www.displacedtechies.com

I read lots of posts fretting that keeping jobs from India is selfish, yet at the same time the tormented Western worker can't see how [s]he will get by on less.

Have you stopped to think what will happen to the poor in this country if the white collar wages decrease dramatically?

There are people in the US that don't have air conditioning, can't afford indoor plumbing or electricity. There are alot of people who cannot afford food. Don't even get me started about being able to afford to go the doctor or the dentist. If your wage gets cut by 2/3rds, does it follow that someone eeking out a living on minumum wage will also see a decrease in their wage?

It frustrates me to no end that as Americans we are so quick to feel pity and sorrow for people in some distant land when there is real suffering here in the US.

Many of these call center jobs that have been outsourced were located in the US in low income areas, some of the call centers that have since closed made the decision to open in these low income areas to take advantage of the tax breaks offered by local officials who wanted to provide some sort of economic boost to their cities and towns. When the call centers realized they could get workers overseas for much, much less than minimum wage earner in the US, the call centers closed. What became of these people?

It is very important to think globally, but we honestly need to clean our own house first before we start trying to clean up the neighborhood.

www.displacedtechies.com

One thing that is never addressed is that many of the jobs that are created in the US are filled with temporary immigrant labor (yes, I am talking about the much-abused H-1B and L-1 visas categories).

It would be one thing to share global knowledge about processes in order to lift the entire world's standard of living, but it is quite another to move jobs out of one country, and then fill the remaining jobs with temporary foreign labor.

I think many of us just want a chance to participate in the global market, and Americans are being denied that right even in our own country.

Workers from all countries need to work together, not against each other. That article talked about the obscene hours the people in India had to keep to work with their American counterparts. If this guy is truly following a "follow-the-sun" model, why is that necessary?

It is also interesting to note that Brian Behlendorf not only "stumps" in front of college kids in India, he seems to be a speaker for ITAA.

displacedtechies.com