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Being an Indian, I feel really awkward when people often ask me my opinions about outsourcing. Most of the time, I don't understand if it's a trick question or not. Sometimes my coworkers openly talk about outsourcing in front of me and why they are against it. They make fun of the Indian accent and then talk about the low quality of work that they get. I do understand their frustration and dislike. I do sympathize with them, but that's all I can do because there are couple of things that they don't understand.
- American jobs have been moving overseas for quite a long time. For the longest time, though, those were all manufacturing jobs. Now, that it has started affecting the white collar jobs (such as software engineering), people in those industries are feeling threatened. But, fundamentally outsourcing is NOT a new phenomenon.
- India is not the only country that is everything is being outsourced to. In addition to India, lot of things are being outsourced to China, Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine, Brazil, Bulgaria, Australia, etc, etc .. and the list goes on. So, why single out India? If you say that India is the biggest culprit from that list, then a single Google search will tell you that the countries mentioned above are not far behind.
- The major reason why companies outsource jobs is - Cost Savings. I don't understand how we can expect companies to beat Wall Street estimates without them looking for ways to cut costs. If outsourcing is ever banned, employers and executives will look to control costs through other means anyway. If a company is not growing fast enough to exceed its costs, it will bleed people and go out of business. In any eventuality, people will lose jobs. Outsourcing is a good scapegoat, but it is only the symptom of a larger concern within the company.
- We want to buy everything cheap; look for BOGO offers and don't mind buying less expensive imports and then complain to Congress that outsourcing must be stopped. The critics of outsourcing will be seen driving a Japanese car, buying Wilson tennis balls made in Thailand, and wearing Chinese-made clothes. America makes world-class cars, Penn tennis balls, and a wide selection of inexpensive, high-quality clothing. Please don’t complain about your job being outsourced to India or China if you do not make the effort to buy American-made products. Frankly, the cost savings that businesses gain will eventually be passed on to consumers. We can't in the right frame of mind expect both the things to happen.
- Some people believe that all this outsourcing will make US into a third world country. In fact, history has proven that the opposite is true. Let’s take manufacturing for instance. Outsourcing has taken 90% of the manufacturing units to countries like China. Does that mean that US manufacturing been greatly affected? No! In fact, manufacturing production has risen about 40% over the past decade. Of course, I'd have to admit that the workforce in manufacturing has fallen steadily due to modernization and thereby increase in productivity, but this is a world-wide phenomenon. Between 1995 and 2002, China, Japan, Brazil and other countries lost more manufacturing jobs than did the US, according to an Alliance Capital Management study.
- Lastly, I've heard comments that people in India have accents. Duh!! Of course they are going to have accents. If you dig a little deep into history, you'll know that both Indians and Americans learnt English from the British. We just ended up pronouncing the words differently. In a way, we're both pronouncing words incorrectly with different accents.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that - Globalization is here to stay no matter whether we like it or not. It is not something we should fear, but something we should take as a challenge or opportunity. We just have to learn to cope up with the changes and find ways to live with or overcome the hurdles. If only GM, Chrysler and Ford had found ways to change and learned to build cars for changing needs, we wouldn't be seeing all this bankruptcy, people losing jobs and businesses closing down.
I also think your points are valid and I'm not against outsourcing...however....if it is an American company with Americans calling in, I think it's crucial that the people on the other end of the phone not only speak but understand the language WELL. I've spoken with a few that do, but the vast majority do not. They use wrong phrases and group words incorrectly and they don't understand complex points at times. It is very frustrating, especially if you're trying to get something major accomplished.
If only GM, Chrysler and Ford had found ways to change and learned to build cars for changing needs, we wouldn't be seeing all this bankruptcy, people losing jobs and businesses closing down.
Actually, GM was very profitable with many of the bigger vehicles. It's not the fact that they didn't make all roller skates with tiny engines, it's the heavy burden of the massive expenses incurred as a result of the unions. My father is retired GM and there is no way a company could stay in business by paying what they still pay him for not working in decades. The massive employee compensation and legacy costs are the MAIN source of the problem. Funny thing is, if the gubmit let them go bankrupt on their own, then the tax payers would not have lost all this money and the gubmit wouldn't have their claws dug in deep into private industry. If they went bankrupt on their own, they would be out from under the heavy costs and could right the ship. I guess everything went according to plan.
Disclaimer - I am responding directly to the OP's post. I am staying on the topic the OP was talking about.
Don't forget outsourcing to Egypt that I have recently seen.
There are some companies that might be bringing jobs back to the US soon (mostly IT) that is local as well.
I agree that outsourcing is here to stay, it is something we just have to get used to. However in the realm of IT, I hear many mangers complain about the quality of work that comes out of there outsourced production (not to say that they don't have dead weight on local teams as well)
I will never cope with outsourcing. First of all, 8 percent of manufacturing is left in USA. So, if manufacturing has increased, it still has a ways to go before it reaches 100 percent. It has only been since the mid 80's that the cheap products started flooding the market place here in the USA. IMHO, I started seeing allot of outsourcing in the mid 80's when the CEO's were starting to make lavish salaries.
I think outsourcing has started to injure and cripple this country and it will be the down fall of our nation. . I will do all I can to put a stop to it. I am so sick of talking to foreigner customer service people, in a company that started here in the United States, made their fortune here, got tax incentatives or $$ from our gvt, and they turn around and hire foreigners and eliminate jobs here in the USA. Try to find products made in the USA anymore? Almost impossible. Now our food sources are being tampered with. Why do you suppose farmer markets are becoming mainstream all across America?
I seldom purchase anymore what I want, only buy what i need. Just like before all this outsoucing began. We saved up for a costly colored television or microwave. On our street, every other house people park their cars in the driveway, their garages are cluttered with Chinese junk.
I will not support American Companies who do not support the American worker.
- American jobs have been moving overseas for quite a long time. For the longest time, though, those were all manufacturing jobs. Now, that it has started affecting the white collar jobs (such as software engineering), people in those industries are feeling threatened. But, fundamentally outsourcing is NOT a new phenomenon.
- India is not the only country that is everything is being outsourced to. In addition to India, lot of things are being outsourced to China, Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine, Brazil, Bulgaria, Australia, etc, etc .. and the list goes on. So, why single out India? If you say that India is the biggest culprit from that list, then a single Google search will tell you that the countries mentioned above are not far behind.
- The major reason why companies outsource jobs is - Cost Savings. I don't understand how we can expect companies to beat Wall Street estimates without them looking for ways to cut costs. If outsourcing is ever banned, employers and executives will look to control costs through other means anyway. If a company is not growing fast enough to exceed its costs, it will bleed people and go out of business. In any eventuality, people will lose jobs. Outsourcing is a good scapegoat, but it is only the symptom of a larger concern within the company.
- We want to buy everything cheap; look for BOGO offers and don't mind buying less expensive imports and then complain to Congress that outsourcing must be stopped. The critics of outsourcing will be seen driving a Japanese car, buying Wilson tennis balls made in Thailand, and wearing Chinese-made clothes. America makes world-class cars, Penn tennis balls, and a wide selection of inexpensive, high-quality clothing. Please don’t complain about your job being outsourced to India or China if you do not make the effort to buy American-made products. Frankly, the cost savings that businesses gain will eventually be passed on to consumers. We can't in the right frame of mind expect both the things to happen.
- Some people believe that all this outsourcing will make US into a third world country. In fact, history has proven that the opposite is true. Let’s take manufacturing for instance. Outsourcing has taken 90% of the manufacturing units to countries like China. Does that mean that US manufacturing been greatly affected? No! In fact, manufacturing production has risen about 40% over the past decade. Of course, I'd have to admit that the workforce in manufacturing has fallen steadily due to modernization and thereby increase in productivity, but this is a world-wide phenomenon. Between 1995 and 2002, China, Japan, Brazil and other countries lost more manufacturing jobs than did the US, according to an Alliance Capital Management study.
- Lastly, I've heard comments that people in India have accents. Duh!! Of course they are going to have accents. If you dig a little deep into history, you'll know that both Indians and Americans learnt English from the British. We just ended up pronouncing the words differently. In a way, we're both pronouncing words incorrectly with different accents.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that - Globalization is here to stay no matter whether we like it or not. It is not something we should fear, but something we should take as a challenge or opportunity. We just have to learn to cope up with the changes and find ways to live with or overcome the hurdles. If only GM, Chrysler and Ford had found ways to change and learned to build cars for changing needs, we wouldn't be seeing all this bankruptcy, people losing jobs and businesses closing down.
1) A lot of people complained but they were told that America was going to become a service economy. Many of them retrained in areas such as IT. So while outsourcing is not new there were other opportunities to pursue and usually it was for more money and a cushy desk job. Now its lose the IT job and work at Walmart.
2) I think its the association with IT and India, When people tech support they usually speak with someone in India these days.
3) This is short sighted stupidity from the scumbags on wall street and CEO's. Unrealistic expectations has destroyed this country. Stock prices fall if a company makes 20 billion instead of 26 billion? This is disgusting.
4) This is a fallacy, most imported products are not cheaper. I use Nike and Levi as examples. Many Japanese cars are made in the US and I personally dont think well be driven to slave wages due to competition with Japan. Its the countries who pay 3rd world wages that Im worried about, again my opinion,
5) Only thing I have to say to this is look around. The country is on the verge of collapse. This is the same lame excuse all the free trader morons use. If free trade is so great why are we in this economic mess?
6) People complain because there is a language barrier. I used to do tech support until it was outsourced and I couldnt understand the Indian techs calling for assistance.
Globalization will not be a problem if the cost of living falls in line with 3rd world wages. The free traders are too stupid to realize that if youre making $10 a hour youre not going to be able to afford as much as when you were making $25 a hour.
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