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Outsourcing is Good for You

Posted by michael on from the suck-it-up dept.

gManZboy writes "Catherine Mann, from the Institute for International Economics, has a look at What Global Outsourcing Means for U.S. IT Workers up over at Queue. She's got an interesting argument: outsourcing means cheaper IT products, meaning businesses will buy more, meaning more products to make & manage = net gain of IT jobs in the US. Ummm, did you follow that?"

5 of 963 comments (clear)

  1. Something Similar by xeon4life · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been hearing more and more often about something similar. While not the same idea, it's the idea that America "recycles" (to be put in an Economists terms) jobs every year, something in the order of 50 million or so if I'm not mistaken, and that outsourcing somehow is just a natural process of this recycling...

    If you ask me, I think Economists have it tougher than Computer Scientists, but that's just my opinion. :-P

    -Devin Torres

    --
    Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. -- Larry Wall
  2. Hello Catharine. by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Meet my good friend, reality.

    --
    Hate me!
  3. Re:Outsourcing your own job. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It's not that funny. I did this and got two promotions! My old job became the jobs of 3 guys in Taiwan, and I was their boss. Then I gave my _new_ job to another couple guys in Taiwan; and got hired in a different company to help build a team overseas.

    Scary, but it works.

  4. Basic economics by gmhowell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's basic economics. What is described is how it works in theory. However, the theory requires perfect knowledge for all parties involved, zero costs for movement of capital (human and otherwise). I'm also unsure how comparative advantage (Google and David Ricardo are your friends) works in a market that is essentially saturated.

    Perhaps the thing that really needs to be looked at is that IT support is viewed as a commodity. Support offered in India or Russia is viewed as the same quality product as that offered in the US. If this is the case, quitcherbitchin. I doubt you are buy American in other walks of life. If there is a difference in quality, it's time to express that. Was it Dell who found that their business customers wanted US tech support instead of Indian tech support? (or HP?) The product wasn't a commodity, so it couldn't be switched.

    Rather than gripe about losing your job, explain why it's better that you have it than someone in another hemisphere.

    And if you made it this far, here's a link to a non unreadable article. Will Taco et al. ever admit they are wrong with this color choice?

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  5. Lou Dobbs Says No by mankey+wanker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    See:
    "Exporting America : Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas"
    by Lou Dobbs

    "The power of big business over our national life has never been greater. Never have there been fewer business leaders willing to commit to the national interest over the selfish interest, to the good of the company over that of the company's they head."

    See also:
    http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript334_fu ll.html

    DOBBS: I want to hear one of these candidates sharply and clearly say this country is about the people who live in it.

    ...

    DOBBS: You have a responsibility not only to your investors, you have a responsibility to the marketplace, you have a responsibility to your customers, to the community in which you work. You have a responsibility to the country that makes your business possible in the first place.

    MOYERS: Heresy. Are you a traitor to your class? The investor class.

    DOBBS: Well, I'm, you know, I think most of us are investors. And I hardly think I'm a traitor. I think it's traitorous and treasonous and absolutely ignorant for these people to be out ballyhooing double-digit returns on equities when first we have to get our house in order in this country. And bring back integrity, principle, leadership to our business enterprises, to our markets. And try to do a lot better for the people who count. That is the middle class.

    ...

    MOYERS: You begin with a stunning quote. I'll read it. Quote, "The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy."

    DOBBS: Absolutely. Corporate America has at this time controls the national media. It controls nearly every avenue of an American citizen's access to information about the way he or she lives, about those forces that are influencing our lives.

    And corporate America is protected in Washington by the dollars it spends. It is protected in the media by some virtue of ownership.