The Mean Economy: IBM workers suffer culture change as jobs go global (NAFTA, salary)

[nicet4]

The Mean Economy: IBM workers suffer culture change as jobs go global - Washington Times

Depressing.

I am getting ready to retire anywhere between 2 and 6 years down the road and I can say the way it sits right now, this instant, we will be fine with the way we have things set up but what happens when future workers can not earn the money to pay the taxes needed to fund my social security?

Yeah, yeah... I hear you we should have planned not to have social security but for most people having enough to fund $2,000 to $3,000/month for the rest of your life, perhaps 25 or 30 years, with automatic increases for inflation just isn't in the cards. You might get half that but that's poverty.

Make no mistake, the first one to get shafted would be me and I don't blame generation x or y in the least. In no uncertain terms if anyone is getting the shaft today it is the under 40 group.

Answers? I don't have any that would be popular in the short term.

[mufc1878]

Like any massive multi-national, this depends on the business unit you work at for IBM.

IBM consulting or GBS as the division is called has really crappy work-life balance and they work you to the bone.

However, IBM Research is much more relaxed and employees have much more freedom. IBM is one of the few tech companies that still pours millions into 'pure research' that is not driven by short-medium term ROI horizons.

Mind you, the research arm employs a fraction of the overall business and it is extremely difficult to land a research position.

[HappyTexan]

IBM, known for years inside the industry as "India Business Machines".
Worked in tech for 20+years. Bangalore is the place for R&D for these tech companies.

Apple is pretty much the lone tech company where much of their design/development is still on US shores in CA.

[mufc1878]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

IBM, known for years inside the industry as "India Business Machines".
Worked in tech for 20+years. Bangalore is the place for R&D for these tech companies.

Apple is pretty much the lone tech company where much of their design/development is still on US shores in CA.

MSFT, Google, IBM, Intel all run multiple R&D labs in US that employ quite a number of people (more than in bangalore). I believe right now Microsoft runs 5 labs just in the US to compare

Apple in terms of overall pure research is a small player compared to Microsoft, IBM, and intel. Microsoft spends about 8-10x on research compared to apple. Of course apple does most of its design and dev in the US as they don't really have the same R&D focus, budget, and desire that the others i mentioned do so they require less labs and researchers.

Bangalore is a R&D location but one of many for these tech companies.

Where wage/work-life issues are magnified in tech are not in pure research arms of the companies but on the IT consulting, services, and go-to-market hardware side.

[unicane]

Whaaaaaa!!!!!

As a career machinist my job was sent to Canada many years ago. I had to train the man to make the parts i was making in order to hang on for a few more months. He is now eating my lunch. I then re-trained in computer networking on a NAFTA grant only to watch those jobs become low paying dead ends because of out soucing and HB1 visas. I sucked it up and landed on my feet finding a job that pays better with better benefits than anything Ive ever done. Globalization is here and im sick of the whiners

[Khsoj]

Don't count on it lasting unicane.

[unicane]

I will count on my perserverance lasting

Thank you

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by unicane

Whaaaaaa!!!!!

As a career machinist my job was sent to Canada many years ago. I had to train the man to make the parts i was making in order to hang on for a few more months. He is now eating my lunch. I then re-trained in computer networking on a NAFTA grant only to watch those jobs become low paying dead ends because of out soucing and HB1 visas. I sucked it up and landed on my feet finding a job that pays better with better benefits than anything Ive ever done. Globalization is here and im sick of the whiners

Yup..I adapted, retrained and moved on myself. Software engineering was fun while it lasted but looking over my shoulder every quarter in fear of the pink slip was just not worth it anymore.

[Khsoj]

I started to work for a very well-known company in 1982. At that time they had outstanding benefits and a reputation similar to IBM as the place to be. In the late 90s that began to change. By the time I left (2003) the work atmosphere was a back-stabbing cutthroat viper pit. Fortunately, I had more than 20 years of vested service in the pension plan as well as eligibility for retiree healthcare. So I left and took both. And was glad to get them.

The company pension plan was frozen in 2005 (no future retirement accumulations and no new employees allowed into it) and the retiree health insurance was essentially eliminated 3 years ago.

Personally, I can't complain. But it is obvious that the kind of company that I once worked for no longer exists. Most people today no longer have the opportunities that existed 30 years ago and which were pretty much taken for granted back then. As best I can tell the fed gov't has maintained much of that same structure for their employees today. And are also attacked every day for doing so.

I read some article a couple of years ago, someone in it stated that companies could no longer afford luxury benefits such as vacations and health insurance. But (unstated) they could hire people and treat them like slaves. Sad world we live in today.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by nicet4

Depressing.

I am getting ready to retire anywhere between 2 and 6 years down the road and I can say the way it sits right now, this instant, we will be fine with the way we have things set up but what happens when future workers can not earn the money to pay the taxes needed to fund my social security?

You don't have to worry about that, because that situation exists right now this minute.

You don't have enough people working (and never will) and they aren't making enough money to fund Social Security. The DI (Disability Insurance) Trust Fund will collapse in 2015, according to SSA, but my figures show early 2014, possibly late 2013. The OASI (Social Security) Trust Fund will pick up the slack, so no direct impact there.

The HI (Medicare) Trust Fund is estimated to go bankrupt in 2024, but reality says the 3rd or 4th Quarter of 2018 (for the same reasons the DI and OASI Trust Funds will collapse).

SSA claims your combined OASI/DI Trust Fund will collapse in 2033, but note that under the High Cost Assumption Model the date given is 2027.

My calculations show 2023-2025.

For those who might be interested, I'm trying to get some charts together to throw up, uh, put up in the blog-thing here. That will (in part) explain how I derive my conclusions (I use different economic models than Social Security/Medicare/CBO/Obama's "you-Harvard" White House Staff idiots and the moron Kruger, uh, Krugman -- same difference).

I'm thinking the easiest thing to show people (so that they can grasp the issue quickly without all the complicate math stuff) is GDP comparisons.

For Medicare/Social Security, their forecasts are valid if and only if the US economy grows at an annual rate of 5.0% (Medicare projection) and 4.8% (SSA projection) each and every year from now to 2021.

I think if I put that up and show it against the average US GDP growth rate of 2.89%, the bad-news will be bad and then against my projections (which show an average GDP growth rate of 1.4% between now and 2021), the bad-news will be nauseating, but that's beside the point.

Originally Posted by nicet4

Make no mistake, the first one to get shafted would be me and I don't blame generation x or y in the least. In no uncertain terms if anyone is getting the shaft today it is the under 40 group.

Answers? I don't have any that would be popular in the short term.

History.

What did the Silent Generation do to make sure Social Security would be there for them?

The Silent Generation accepted a 520% FICA tax increase.

What did the Boomers do to make sure Social Security would be there for them?

The Boomers accepted a 71% FICA tax increase.

What are Generation X-Box and Generation Y-Work doing to make sure Social Security will be there for them?

Uh, they are whining and crying and throwing a temper tantrum that they should not be taxed and instead the Silent Generation and Boomers should have to give up their contributions.

There are no short-term solutions. There are long-term solutions, but they will be very costly to you as a society. If you raise the FICA tax rate to 9.2% immediately, and you also eliminate the wage/salary cap, and you means-test, and then you incrementally raise the FICA tax rate to 12%-16.4% between 2015 and 2030-2040, you can probably cover Generation X-Box.

There's no hope for Generation Y-Work. They will have to be transitioned to some other system (or none at all -- there might not even be a US 75 years from now -- or it might be like an Eastern US and a Western US).

Forecasting....

Mircea