Group warns of outsourcing backlash

TalkBack 45 of 72:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Some disturbing notions

There's an article on Yahoo discussing some even more eyebrow-raising comments by some very high-profile people. Below are quotes taken from that article (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040107/ap_on_bi_ge/technology_jobs_5).

"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," Carly Fiorina, chief executive for Hewlett-Packard Co., said Wednesday. "We have to compete for jobs."

It disturbs me that a head of HP would assume this is about "God-given" perceptions. It's about a company justifying laying-off thousands of highly-educated American workers by saying they can get the work cheaper elsewhere. Of course you can! But I can also buy printers and servers from a 3rd world nation rather than HP. The concept of "Buy American" is foreign to these companies (no pun intended) until you start to realize that every American you put out of work is one less American to keep the economy going. Ironically it's the techno-geek consumers that buy their products that they are so easy to put out of work.

I think the following sums it up the best:
"The problem is not a lack of highly educated workers," said Scott Kirwin, founder of the Information Technology Professionals Association of America. "The problem is a lack of highly educated workers willing to work for the minimum wage or lower in the U.S. Costs are driving outsourcing, not the quality of American schools."

There are a few facts that really drive home this point. I hope these statistics are accurate (as taken from http://www.neoncarrot.co.uk/h_aboutindia/india_statistics_1.html):
- Population: About 1 billion
- Indian families who own a TV set: 32 %
- people living with HIV / AIDS in India: 4.58 million
- people who suffer from TB (tuberculosis) in India: 4.5 million
- number of mobile phones in use in India: about 25 million (October 2003)
- literacy rate: 2001: 65.4 %
- official minimum wage in Jammu & Kashmir state: 1,800 Rupees per month (current exchange rates put this at $39.53 per month).

So, allowing for a little fudging, 1/3 of the people have TVs and 1/3 are illiterate. For every 3 people with a cell phone, there is another person with HIV or TB. And finally, based on the minimum wage, you could afford roughly (10) McDonald's value meals a month. And nothing else.

While I will admit as a corporation you could probably save a truckload of money by hiring Indians rather than Americans to do the job. Their standards of living aren't even in the same ballpark with the United States. They can try to justify it all they want, but really it's hurting the American economy more than they will ever acknowledge, all based on a need to appease the share holders.

Posted by: SpideyWriter   Posted on: 01/07/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
• Reducing Server Total Cost of Ownership with VMware Virtualization Software VMware VMware virtualization enables customers to reduce their server TCO and ... Download Now
• Key Strategies for Federal Agencies - Safe and Cost Effective Migration for Legacy Hardware GovConnection The federal government has mandated that federal agencies reduce energy ... Download Now