Post by TRIPWIRE on Mar 22, 2004 23:00:28 GMT -5
February 10, 2004
The Cost of Outsourcing
Written by David M. Hickerson.
Originally posted at tripwire.hickersonfamily.net/2004_0210.html
I don’t know about you, but if I were in any other I.T. (information technology) position anywhere in the country, I would be concerned about my job being outsourced. In case you don’t know what that is, outsourcing when a company in one place lays off people in one location and gives their jobs to people in another location.
In the I.T. field, this is generally bad because companies like Dell and HP like to outsource their tech support technician jobs to other countries like India. What does this do? This saves the company mass cash (I’d say between 20,000$ per year or more per employee) because the cost of living is much lower in most of the countries they outsource to. It also creates a situation where thousands of people in our country are jobless and unable to find new jobs in their chosen field simply because pretty much every company has as many tech support people as the feel they need.
I.T. people like myself are not in high demand really these days; it would seem that there really isn’t any demand for any type of work actually in the U.S. at this moment in time… so why in the world would the Bush administration approve of outsourcing these jobs if it hurts the economy?
I get the impression that they think that certain jobs are not necessary to keep our economy going… almost like they’re saying that people like me (bottom-of-the-totem pole I.T. workers) and manufacturing workers are what is slowing the economy down.
Just bear with me a moment… if you live in the U.S., you probably own a car (maybe several) and drive it to work daily. Many people drive Fords, Chevys, or Daimler Chrysler vehicles, and most of these were built here in the good ole’ U.S. Hell, even many Honda vehicles you see on the road were built in the U.S. (at the Marysville or East Liberty plants near where I live). If you drive a V6 Saturn Vue, your vehicle has a Honda engine, bet you didn’t know that. Just think about how much more expensive these vehicles would be if you had to buy them all as imports… or how low the quality would have to be to keep the price decent (like the early Korean vehicles).
Just think about how many flippin’ jobs those factories create. Just the Marysville Honda plant probably keeps over 6000 people in jobs… The plant itself keeps many of those jobs going, but all of the little businesses that keep it going are also important. Honda keeps all these other little factories (that manufacture glass, brakes, interior components, etc.) in business by purchasing from local suppliers. Just think about what would happen to my area’s local economy (about 13-15,000 jobs) if Honda decided to “outsource” it’s production to another area. Hmm…..
Also, just consider the fact that for every person who looses one of these jobs, you have a man, a woman, or probably even a family, that doesn’t have health insurance. People with no health insurance are an incredible burden on the economy because a very large amount of the bills that don’t get paid by an insurance company end up getting written off via government assistance programs of various forms to health care facilities. The health care industry (and health insurance industry, so-to-speak) already takes up fourteen percent of America’s GNP… I’d rather not feed them any more of my money if I don’t have to.
I think anyone who believes that outsourcing these “low-end” jobs is a good thing should be shot. I think that outsourcing work like that should be illegal, especially in times where we have such an incredibly high unemployment rate as we do today. There is no reason for such an incredibly wealthy country such as ours to have so many people without jobs, health insurance, or even simple hope of better things.
What is the benefit of outsourcing… and what are its costs? Any thoughts you’d like to share with me? Godbless!
Reference:
www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0210bush-economy10.html
198.234.34.242/LAUS/LAUS-CurrentLaborForceEstimates.htm
money.cnn.com/2003/10/08/pf/health_myths_1/
The Cost of Outsourcing
Written by David M. Hickerson.
Originally posted at tripwire.hickersonfamily.net/2004_0210.html
I don’t know about you, but if I were in any other I.T. (information technology) position anywhere in the country, I would be concerned about my job being outsourced. In case you don’t know what that is, outsourcing when a company in one place lays off people in one location and gives their jobs to people in another location.
In the I.T. field, this is generally bad because companies like Dell and HP like to outsource their tech support technician jobs to other countries like India. What does this do? This saves the company mass cash (I’d say between 20,000$ per year or more per employee) because the cost of living is much lower in most of the countries they outsource to. It also creates a situation where thousands of people in our country are jobless and unable to find new jobs in their chosen field simply because pretty much every company has as many tech support people as the feel they need.
I.T. people like myself are not in high demand really these days; it would seem that there really isn’t any demand for any type of work actually in the U.S. at this moment in time… so why in the world would the Bush administration approve of outsourcing these jobs if it hurts the economy?
I get the impression that they think that certain jobs are not necessary to keep our economy going… almost like they’re saying that people like me (bottom-of-the-totem pole I.T. workers) and manufacturing workers are what is slowing the economy down.
Just bear with me a moment… if you live in the U.S., you probably own a car (maybe several) and drive it to work daily. Many people drive Fords, Chevys, or Daimler Chrysler vehicles, and most of these were built here in the good ole’ U.S. Hell, even many Honda vehicles you see on the road were built in the U.S. (at the Marysville or East Liberty plants near where I live). If you drive a V6 Saturn Vue, your vehicle has a Honda engine, bet you didn’t know that. Just think about how much more expensive these vehicles would be if you had to buy them all as imports… or how low the quality would have to be to keep the price decent (like the early Korean vehicles).
Just think about how many flippin’ jobs those factories create. Just the Marysville Honda plant probably keeps over 6000 people in jobs… The plant itself keeps many of those jobs going, but all of the little businesses that keep it going are also important. Honda keeps all these other little factories (that manufacture glass, brakes, interior components, etc.) in business by purchasing from local suppliers. Just think about what would happen to my area’s local economy (about 13-15,000 jobs) if Honda decided to “outsource” it’s production to another area. Hmm…..
Also, just consider the fact that for every person who looses one of these jobs, you have a man, a woman, or probably even a family, that doesn’t have health insurance. People with no health insurance are an incredible burden on the economy because a very large amount of the bills that don’t get paid by an insurance company end up getting written off via government assistance programs of various forms to health care facilities. The health care industry (and health insurance industry, so-to-speak) already takes up fourteen percent of America’s GNP… I’d rather not feed them any more of my money if I don’t have to.
I think anyone who believes that outsourcing these “low-end” jobs is a good thing should be shot. I think that outsourcing work like that should be illegal, especially in times where we have such an incredibly high unemployment rate as we do today. There is no reason for such an incredibly wealthy country such as ours to have so many people without jobs, health insurance, or even simple hope of better things.
What is the benefit of outsourcing… and what are its costs? Any thoughts you’d like to share with me? Godbless!
Reference:
www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0210bush-economy10.html
198.234.34.242/LAUS/LAUS-CurrentLaborForceEstimates.htm
money.cnn.com/2003/10/08/pf/health_myths_1/