TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
This, of course, assumes that you still have a job to fund
your purchases. The problem with "offshoring" of existing
jobs is that it also offshores customers, and workers paid
lower foreign wages won't be placing orders for higher
cost US-made products anytime soon. Moving growth
offshore can be a good thing, particularly if done to
localize production of products intended for sale where
they're being made, but when companies export their
existing jobs, they're also exporting each others' customers.
The employees laid off by Intel and IBM when jobs moved
overseas were the customers of Ford and Amana, who were
in turn the customers of Intel and IBM and, well, you can
see where this is heading. Ultimately, "offshoring" will
self-limit, because the decline in domestic economy results
in the elimination of jobs everywhere, and unlike the buggy
whip example, where the jobs disappeared because the old
technology was superceded by a new one that produced new
jobs for workers to reinvent themselves for, moving jobs
overseas does not, it merely produces a maddening scramble
among the displaced workers for whatever's left that reduces
manufacturer's costs domestically and reduces the need for
"offshoring." What to do? Well, if you've recently put off the
purchase of a car, house or other large-ticket item because you
were worried about your prospects for continued employment,
you've already done it.
>
> Well, as long as moving production to India lowers the
> price of what I buy, and as long as I have the same
> access to global markets as such companies do, then
> all seems fine.
>
> I'd worry about companies circumventing pollution
> laws, abusing labor, etc.
>
> As tech jobs move to India, including some tech
> writing jobs, there are going to be more engineers and
> programmers looking to slide into technical writing
> roles.
>
> And, while the exodus of such jobs from the U.S.
> clearly affects technical writers and is important to
> us, I have yet to see productive discussion on-list
> that did not degenerate--productive meaning new
> thoughts and insights being added that we technical
> writers can use to improve ourselves or our positions.
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.512 / Virus Database: 309 - Release Date: 8/19/2003
