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Obama Says Offshoring Fears Are Unwarranted
alphadogg writes "The perception that Indian call centers and back office operations cost US jobs is an old stereotype that ignores today's reality that two-way trade between the US and India is helping create jobs and raise the standard of living in both countries, US President Barack Obama told a gathering of business executives in Mumbai on Saturday. President Obama's remarks come after some moves in the US that had Indian outsourcers worried that the US may get protectionist in the wake of job losses in the country. The state of Ohio, for example, banned earlier this year the expenditure of public funds for offshore purposes. US exports to India have quadrupled in recent years, and currently support tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the US, he said in a speech that was also streamed live. In addition, there are jobs supported by exports to India of agriculture products, travel and education services. President Obama, who is in India on a three-day visit, said that more than 20 deals worth about $10 billion were announced on the first day of his visit."
because no matter what anyone says, india is still rife with corruption and incompetence on a scale completely unheard of in the US. When you're there, immersed in it, you develop certain strategies to deal with it, but for a western company that is used to saying 'built to this spec/design, and at this time' and actually getting something close to it, either from china or other western companies, doing business in india is very frustrating. It's usually preferable to pay more, but actually get what you want, when you want it, and have some way to resolve contract disputes in a reasonable fashion.
they deserve jobs India can do for a cheaper price?
If I were IBM top brass, I'd do the same thing exactly.
Why hire and keep people in USA rather than anywhere in Asia, now in India, later in China, the in Mongolia, I don't care?
The USA has stupid income taxes, it has stupid payroll taxes, it has regulations that would force me to overpay the employees. The stupid regulations that would make me responsible for employees' healthcare! All the unions, etc.etc.
Of-course I'd get rid of as many people as possible in the shortest time frame and hire people all over the world where I wouldn't be faced with the same regulations and rules.
That's just pure common sense and pure liquidity.
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Now, of-course everybody is aware that large corporations have always enjoyed disproportionate access to gov't officials by buying politicians through campaign donations, fundraisers, lobbying, etc. IBM has gained plenty through all of this, so IBM is in a cushy place compared to any new start up that would aim at any part of IBM's business.
But now realize, that while IBM is a massive company, like most companies that are backed by gov't, protected by gov't from any new competition, and at the same time the same rules apply to small start ups, where they are in disproportionate disadvantage to the existing company because to an existing large compnay/monopoly, the rules and regulations are trivial cost of business, since they are established and have solid cash flow.
A start up does not have a cash flow. A start up would have to comply with rules and regulations that would make it impossible for a startup really to take off.
IBM is not even an interesting example of this, if you want to start your own hedge fund, you are screwed. You have to be a millionaire already to be able to pay all the compliance costs for all the new regulations that are constantly coming out.
Bills that force you to collect data about the customers, effectively turning you int an IRS and a CIA agent, an unpaid agent, an agent that has to pay out of his own pocket to set up all the system necessary to keep track of all transactions and report them to IRS and the rest of the gov't.
The Patriot act alone probably made start ups in hedge funding impossible.
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So honestly, USA is not a country that is conducive to new business and that's exactly what it needs - new business. But it's overloaded with bills and rules and laws and regulations and various expectations and lawsuits, it's just too much red tape.
Obviously it makes much more sense to start a business in Asia.
Today, ironically, China is a much more free place to start your own business and succeed than USA. People used to come to US to be more Free and to try and achieve something because the system was created to allow people to achieve success, now it's nowhere near anything like that. China now is more Free in an economic sense than the US.
Oh oh, and all this inflation, all this money printing, it's not helping at all. Inflation and eventual destruction of USD and US consumer, why start a business in US unless you are masochistic?
You can't handle the truth.
That was not clear. Here's a description. It's pretty despicable how corporations bend-over backwards to disqualify Americans, just so they hire cheaper imported workers:
"Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers. Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and thousands of other companies are running fake ads in Sunday newspapers across the country each week."
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
This is not quite true either. I have been in the Green Card process for almost 11 years now and have been steadily renewing my H1 every time it comes around. This is because they realized (to some extent) that they completely jumped the shark on the immigration process and allow us to keep renewing our H1 visa's while we are still in the Green Card process. For the first 9 years of that process I was stuck with a pig of an employer that made sure he abused me as much as he could because I was unable to switch jobs. So once I hit the Employment Authorization phase I was out of there like a shot.