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Giant Sucking Noise

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ross-perot-was-ahead-of-his-time dept.

bsharma writes "The next round of globalization is sending upscale jobs offshore. They include basic research, chip design, engineering--even financial analysis. Can America lose these jobs and still prosper? Who wins? Who loses?" News.com has a related story about outsourcing.

4 of 1,110 comments (clear)

  1. This scares the s*** out of me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    ...because I see it first hand. We are doing a Java GUI project with 1 person in US and 3 in India. I'm the 1 still in the US. And it works, and it saves money (50% to 60% reduction in sw development costs). The engineers in India are pretty good, and with a good internet connection there is very little holding us back from sending more work over there.

    As you might expect, this worries me a lot. I'm fairly secure (I think), because they need at least one person here that knows English and Java and can understand the customers and do the face-to-face, but in the long run more and more places are going to look at the savings and ship the work overseas.

    I've got two kids, 9 and 12, and I'm at a loss for what direction to steer them in career-wise. I used to think Engineering was the answer, since I've really enjoyed my, what, 20-odd years of slinging code. But by the time my kids are college-age, god knows what will be left in the US besides burger flippers, doctors, and lawyers.

    -- ac at work

  2. Re: Outsource Australia by WatertonMan · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Not only is fear of outsourcing naive, but it is rather selfish. I never quite understood how most antiglobalism movements simultaneously felt the west wasn't helping poorer nations. The only way to improve the standard of living in other nations is to offer them jobs. If we want other nations to move beyond just farming and manufacturing we *must* make sure that we share the way we make wealth with them.

    Is this somewhat painful? Yes. Does it help in the long term? Most definitely.

    Do you really think that the mid east would be in the situation it is today if there was a wide diverse economy over there?

  3. Re:Uh... by 680x0 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Actually, the shareholders are the ones who win when a company does well , and that means anyone with investments stands to benefit (and as I mentioned above, that's seventy percent of Americans these days, including anyone with a pension, 401k, or other invested retirement plan.
    So, my 401K gets bigger, let's say by 25%. I, frankly, would rather have a job, than a somewhat bigger 401K (at least for the next 30 years until I retire). More than once, I've had to break into my 401K to meet expenses while I was "between jobs".

    On the other hand, as long as I can make a living, I'm not going to begrudge someone in India, Russia, or other place their ability to make a living. What I object to is when the savings from outsourcing do more than keep a corporation afloat, but actually continue paying obscene salaries for CEOs. Perhaps we need to outsource board-level jobs to India and Singapore and Bulgaria. It's only fair. Don't you think?

  4. Welcome to the club... by Snake · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Disclaimer:I'm French, I work in France and my employer is outsourcing about a third of our workforce in India.

    Frankly, I have been expecting this for about a year or two: if you can/could telecommute, what prevented your employer to outsource your job?

    The developed countries have been outsourcing blue-collar jobs to developing (really low-wage) countries, thanks to the development of international transportation for moving the goods all over the world. Those jobs go now wherever the workforce is the cheapest

    Every single part of computer hardware you have in front of you, has been made in Anywhere But US/Europe/Japan(TM). I hope you enjoyed playing/working with your computer, because karma is a b*tch.

    Today, the internet allows the transportation of knowledge, voice and data all around the world. Of course, your job will go elsewhere.

    Heck, if you think about it, you can see that no one is really safe from this:

    • lawyers (you just need some meat in the court house, everything else, including C&D :), is outsourcable paperwork)
    • doctors (the remote chirurgy we dreamed about with Internet2)
    • teachers (online schooling anyone?)
    • people in the movie/entertainment industry: Bollywood could cripple Hollywood (Selling low-priced non-crippled CD and non-DRM DVD should be straigthforward for the Indian majors)
    Here is some food for thought:
    • On my desk, there is a book borrowed to a co-worker. Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows 2000 by Powell (ISBN: 0761529373)
    • This book is currently sold at Amazon for the low-low price of $49.99
    • The indian version, really a reprint for sale only in India, sold at prakashbooks.com is offered at Rs. 276.50 (about $5.78)

    My predictions are:

    • Salaries won't increase much in the developed countries in the near future
    • Due to rising unemployement and stagnation of buying power, the price of most goods will most likely be decreasing.
    • in short, US and Europe will experience what has been plaguing Japan for years: Deflation.
    • yet, the outsourced jobs will allow the developing countries to develop more and possibly enable them to buy us goods we have yet to invent.
    • furthermore, I guess there is a limit to the number of jobs they can import: those jobs require education AND generate other paying jobs. Sooner or later, the sucking noise will peter off.

    So, what does it mean for me?

    • I am not going to deny anyone the opportunity to get a better job, even if it is mine: his race, his/her gender, his religion, his nationality or his living place are not important.
    • I believe this is a Good-Thing for the humankind, as a whole. So, I will have to cope with this, to the best of my abilities
    • I am currently evaluating my options. They include:
      • Making myself more productive by working smarter (not harder!)
      • Moving to a place with a low-cost of life. I can telecommute globally as well as anyone :)
      • Steer my career path towards high value-added jobs (which one, I don't know yet :)
      • Or a combination of the above
      • Or recycle myself in other fields (maybe a doctor? There is a growing shortage of surgeons in Europe and remote chirurgy won't allievate this. I am pretty positive that middle-aged people will be allowed to go to med schools within the next 5 years)