That's what an effective labor organization would be working on. Unions have become complacent, and in some cases, corrupt, but that doesn't disprove the potential utility of organized labor. They should just stop organizing against specific businesses and organize around broader issues.
In other words, they artificially restrict supply (it's not like you can outsource surgery to china)
Actually...
There have been reports of insurance companies offering to pay the standard amounts for surgery in the states, or offering to pay for a patient's trip to India, their stay in a hotel there, their surgery, and their trip back, with the patient paying nothing. It's apparently cheaper than just having the surgery in the US.
See, the selling point of the free market is that it improves society by making everyone strive to be the best that they can through competition. People work harder, companies produce better products and sell them for less, etc.
They never mention that there are two ways to improve your value in the free market - raise yourself up, or bring your competition down (ie, sabotage).
This second option does not benefit society, or anyone except the person who is sabotaging his neighbor. And if his neighbor sabotages him in turn, you get a very messy situation where everyone is destroying instead of building, and so many resources and lives are wasted on this conflict.
BTW, this situation is called "the jungle" or "anarchy".
So, the first societies basically evolved with the rule that no one could do the very obvious things to sabotage their neighbors (murder, theft, etc) without retribution from the leader. Some did anyway, but you can't stop every crime.
But people got more clever. They exploited the rules so that they were technically within the law, but they were still causing harm to the system in general. So laws were passed to prevent these acts as well.
Eventually, we get to where we are now - people are manipulating the system, stock markets, taxes, etc. to the detriment of everyone else and enrichment of themselves, and they have their defenders say that it's right in itself to allow these things to happen, regardless of the harm they do.
How about your wife files for divorce, gets a good lawyer and takes you for every penny?
Prenup covers that.
Prenups are ALWAYS challenged, and quite often overturned. And if you had kids, the prenup will not prevent you from paying child support (unless your wife is in jail or doesn't want custody for some reason, she gets the kids). And if you lose your job or otherwise start making less money, you still pay the same amount in child support (while if you get a raise, your payments also go up).
Also, it's not really news. People are saying, "omg! this guy made fun of the preznit, who was standing right in front of him!" But this happens every year.
But they DID mention the Bush impersonator, who did the same thing, except less harshly.
Unless you were trying to make a dig at the US for not being a first-world country (which by any of the common definitions it is), then you're quite wrong.
More to the point, if they are just following a script then why do they even need to be humans? A series of web forms that walked through the script would be enough.
Because people would want to talk to a real human, and would fill out the forms in such a way that would get them to that L2 operator as fast as possible. Hell, somebody might even put up a website somewhere showing how to bypass most companies' web forms.
Then the L2 would come on saying something like, "Tell me a little more about your modem problem", and the customer would say something like, "Oh, that's just what I put in the form to get to a real person."
It sucks if you're a US pizza delivery person. It's great it you're a university graduate in India. It's also great if you are a customer and you get support from a university graduate instead of somebody with two weeks of training.
It sucks if you're a customer whose job was also offshored, and now you can't even afford the service for which you would be getting support in the first place.
I have read in a few places that the H-1B visa laws are so riddled with loopholes that the companies that are ignoring the spirit of the law are in full compliance with it.
Your position is easy to understand though. You can get worked up and mouthy on other countries problems- things you can't effect- and feel like you're doing something worthwhile.
Hmmm... I can't help but think there's some sort of response this should generate. Something about a pot and a kettle...
It's better still to find something that few people are doing, so being the best, or at least very good, is far easier.
And it's especially difficult to "be the best" when you're right out of school and most companies won't even look at your resume unless you've got 3-5 years experience in the exact position they're looking to fill.
Same here. I live in Dallas, and using public transport would more than triple my commute time (currently about 30 minutes). And that's with buses going right up to the front of both places I work.
On the other hand new technology, which hasn't percolated down to Mom and Pop level yet but soon will will allow all the viewers to skip the ads, not just the tech savy ones. The advertisers will say, with good reason, why waste money on TV advertising when no-one watches the ads. The TV stations will lose advertising revenue and have less money for programming and we'll all end up with some sort of pay per view or endless reruns of the I Love Lucy show.
So you're saying television as a popular medium will die.
Wal-Mart does everything it can to keep workers from unionizing, up to and including shutting down divisions and entire stores where the workers unionize. They got in trouble in Canada for some of their antics.
But I can tell you from personal expiriance talking to my female friends at school (I'm a guy) that they get hit on. A lot. By geeks. And nerds. And losers. And nice guys.
Women that are even marginally attractive have to deal with getting hit on by guys they don't like. That's the downside of being the gender that never has to make the inital approach.
Slashdot Mirror
There have been reports of insurance companies offering to pay the standard amounts for surgery in the states, or offering to pay for a patient's trip to India, their stay in a hotel there, their surgery, and their trip back, with the patient paying nothing. It's apparently cheaper than just having the surgery in the US.
So it seems you CAN offshore surgery.
This is the inherent weakness in the free market.
See, the selling point of the free market is that it improves society by making everyone strive to be the best that they can through competition. People work harder, companies produce better products and sell them for less, etc.
They never mention that there are two ways to improve your value in the free market - raise yourself up, or bring your competition down (ie, sabotage).
This second option does not benefit society, or anyone except the person who is sabotaging his neighbor. And if his neighbor sabotages him in turn, you get a very messy situation where everyone is destroying instead of building, and so many resources and lives are wasted on this conflict.
BTW, this situation is called "the jungle" or "anarchy".
So, the first societies basically evolved with the rule that no one could do the very obvious things to sabotage their neighbors (murder, theft, etc) without retribution from the leader. Some did anyway, but you can't stop every crime.
But people got more clever. They exploited the rules so that they were technically within the law, but they were still causing harm to the system in general. So laws were passed to prevent these acts as well.
Eventually, we get to where we are now - people are manipulating the system, stock markets, taxes, etc. to the detriment of everyone else and enrichment of themselves, and they have their defenders say that it's right in itself to allow these things to happen, regardless of the harm they do.
Yes, you'd be one of those defenders.
I've got over two years pay saved up. A nasty illness would wipe it all out and put me in debt.
Might as well spend like crazy. The creditors can't get money you don't have.
And of course the opposing counsel should have then asked for clarification. But they dropped the ball.
Unless you were trying to make a dig at the US for not being a first-world country (which by any of the common definitions it is), then you're quite wrong.
Then the L2 would come on saying something like, "Tell me a little more about your modem problem", and the customer would say something like, "Oh, that's just what I put in the form to get to a real person."
Then things would get ugly fairly quickly.
Technically not a prequel, though it has flashbacks to Don Corleone's youth and ascension to power.
I have read in a few places that the H-1B visa laws are so riddled with loopholes that the companies that are ignoring the spirit of the law are in full compliance with it.
Because we'll eventually starve to death and the upper class will make more money. Keep up, will ya?
It's better still to find something that few people are doing, so being the best, or at least very good, is far easier.
And it's especially difficult to "be the best" when you're right out of school and most companies won't even look at your resume unless you've got 3-5 years experience in the exact position they're looking to fill.
Assuming that you can somehow "be the best" just because you love something is downright foolhardy.
Same here. I live in Dallas, and using public transport would more than triple my commute time (currently about 30 minutes). And that's with buses going right up to the front of both places I work.
Yeah, because obviously EVERYONE can be the best at whatever they do, especially when they have hundreds of thousands of asians competing with them.
So what's the downside?
Of course, you fully complied with the terms of this contract by giving them the money, so you have no further obligation to them.
Wal-Mart does everything it can to keep workers from unionizing, up to and including shutting down divisions and entire stores where the workers unionize. They got in trouble in Canada for some of their antics.