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Ya know, instead on blaming it on Obama, illegals, poor blacks who play xbox and smoke illegal drugs all day.
February 21, 2009
Statistics on outsourcing vary considerably because corporations that outsource are not required to keep statistics on the number of jobs they actually outsource. In March of 2004 congress commissioned a bi-partisan report to try to ascertain how many jobs America had lost since 2000. (Myers, L., 2004) The Bureau of Labor Statistics had accounted for only 4,633 jobs lost in the private sector. The private sector was defined as being companies that employ more than 50 employees. Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts were hired by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission to track, as best they could, the number of jobs lost to outsourcing across America. The number of jobs lost according to their tallies was far greater than those outlined by the bureau of Labor Statistics. Based on these starkly differing statistics can outsourcing be considered a contributing factor in our market´s decline?
Cornell and U Mass found that in 2001 there were over 201,000 jobs outsourced from America. (Myers, L., 2004) During that same time frame unionized jobs fell by 39% and other production type jobs fell 29%. Many of those were white collar service jobs or IT type jobs. The vast majority of those lost could be captured in India as their employment rate grew by nearly the same number as those lost in the USA. By 2004 the number of jobs outsourced was more than 406,000 and rising. Unionized jobs lost due to outsourcing at that time were over 69% with no abatement in sight. Do you see a disturbing trend here?
Forrester, an independent Boston firm, estimates that we are losing 12-15,000 jobs monthly to outsourcing. (Otterman, S., 2004) Furthermore, they conclude that there will be more than 3.3 million jobs lost in America by 2015 unless we do something to curtail this progression. Can America afford to continue this practice without becoming a third world country ourselves?
President Bush and Alan Greenspan lavished praise on this practice of outsourcing jobs saying it was good for trade. (Otterman, S., 2004) Reasoning behind this came from the belief that if companies could effectively and efficiently cut costs and maintain production it was a win-win situation and would ultimately help our economy here at home. Bush economists said that the jobs lost in America would be regained in other sectors, but that was a one sided argument. Shifting jobs to lower wage countries led to layoffs, greater numbers of persons on unemployment, and a dislocated workforce in America. America and Americans may be paying for those outsourcing mistakes made in the early Bush years in our current economic mudslide as more jobs are shed and more people join the ranks of the unemployed.
The U.S. Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) offers some relief for workers who have lost jobs that produce "a product". (Myers, L., 2004) Relief is supposed to come in the form of income support, relocation expenses, job school allowances, and healthcare tax credits. "Product" is expressly defined in their document and may not be as helpful to workers who have lost jobs as anticipated. What can be done now?
Senator Kerry (D-MA) along with Senators Thomas (R-WY), and Voinovich (R-OH) championed legislation targeted at creating incentives for American corporations to keep their business operations within our borders and not to outsource. (Otterman, S., 2004) They also pushed to close the gaps or loopholes that make outsourcing so attractive to businesses, as well as, limiting government outsourcing. Alan Greenspan put the skids to that legislation stating that increasing barriers to trade was not a good thing for America and that the jobs being lost to outsourcing would be replaced. That legislation apparently never made it off the table. Ok, Alan where are those jobs now?
It seems rather apparent to me, that in retrospect, if we had kept close tabulation on the number of jobs being outsourced and the number of persons becoming unemployed across America we may have been able to act sooner in this economic meltdown than we did. Statistically speaking, if we had a handle on those numbers we would not have been blindsided by the economic crisis last fall. Was this an oversight or rampant negligence on behalf of our leaders? Where were the analysts during this time period, asleep or apathetic? Would not a bit of thoughtful analysis have gone a long way toward curtailing this recession by precipitating more rapid action at an earlier time?
Trade is a good thing if it is balanced and not swayed toward those countries considered less developed than we, in America, are. Outsourcing, in and of itself, should not be stopped altogether, but instead limited and balanced with job creation in America. Tabulation of jobless and other employment statistics need be handled my competent organizations with no political stake in their outcome.
Bring back the comprehensive legislation proposed by Kerry-Thomas-Voinovich. Call or write your congressional representatives telling them that America can ill-afford to lose more jobs to outsourcing. The time to act is NOW!
We destroyed ourselves! The banks and wall street ruined America as well as running our government. The banks and WS benefited most by the bailouts. Why? They control the government. From the top to the bottom-all bought and paid for. Who benefited from deregulation? We sat on our collective butts for too long and now we are paying for it! JMO!
I agree with you, and it's good that you're not one of those that place the blame in other areas. The Government is responsible for this mess, not everyday working man.
I'm in IT..the offshoring of my field started in the mid-90's with call centers and support.
Now R&D, new development, Project management, design..it's all going. Just the CEO's will be left in the US when it's all said an done.
When the geeks and nerds spoke out about MS, HP, and the other big IT firms crying "they need more H1B's" due to lack of talent..no one listened. They didn't need more talent..they wanted cheaper talent.
So I've been watching this in my field for 15 years.
Low paying service jobs is all that is left. If they could offshore the Walmart cashier..they would in a heartbeat. If you can't touch it in your job..then watch out.
I agree with OP. We need to stop blaming President Obama. The President is determined to do something about companies not paying their fair share of taxes. Also, the tech companies are now lobbying to raise the HB-1 visa allotment so they can import more technical workers from India and China to replace American workers.
Clip:
The details are buried in the budget on page 161, Table S-8 under the heading "Reform the U.S. international tax system" (a word of warning: the link takes you to a sizeable PDF). If the proposed changes go through, the administration estimates it will bring in $122.2 billion in added tax revenue. *As far as the administration is concerned, the added money will not only help close the gaping deficit, but stop U.S. companies from ducking out of domestic taxes by shopping around for which country has the best tax rate. For instance Ireland, with a rate of 12.5%, has become a popular destination for manufacturing. In Obama's budget, it's techies vs. taxes - Fortune Tech
You can prevent the rats from abandoning a ship but that does nothing to resolve the reason they left. In this case, I would argue that it was both the government and the everyday working man who shot holes in the ship's hull.
No, it's never the business owners' faults. They leave because of the "socialists" that want to "tax them to death". You know, because the actual average of 12% that they end up paying is so communistic.
No, it's never the business owners' faults. They leave because of the "socialists" that want to "tax them to death". You know, because the actual average of 12% that they end up paying is so communistic.
It's more than 12% atizar.
From IT perspective (because I know the numbers).
US programmer costs a company $250K
India programmer costs a company $60K
China programmer costs a company $80K
That cost is salary + all the incidentals a company has to outlay to employ that person in their country.
The American view of the economy is afflicted with a severe case of tunnel vision. There have been a number of structural changes to the global economy over the last decade that have brought us to where we are.
If anyone is interested in reading a thoughtful non-partisan, non-finger pointing looks at what has occurred across the globe, please take time to read this short but informative piece.
US programmer costs a company $250K
India programmer costs a company $60K
China programmer costs a company $80K
That cost is salary + all the incidentals a company has to outlay to employ that person in their country.
Salaries <=> taxes.
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