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I may reiterate in this message some things I posted
on this subject earlier.
>
> They weren't fallback options. They were
> alternatives.
>
Call them whatever pleases you - applying a different
label does not change the situation. Years ago when
people in manufacturing lost their jobs to offshoring,
they were advised to retrain for exactly the types of
jobs that are now being offshored. That remains fact.
It also remains fact that both the number of jobs and
the number of *types* of jobs being offshored are
increasing, involving positions that were kept in this
country previously. It remains fact that the number of
Americans who are at risk of losing their livelihoods
- not just their jobs, their ability to support
themselves without public assistance - is steadily
increasing every year.
>
> There's a bit of xenophobia and class bigotry
> involved in these
> discussions. Xenophobia because the discussion is
> always vehemently
> focussed on jobs going to foreign overseas locations
> like India or China
> while ignoring outsourcing/contracting to Europe or
> North America, or for
> that matter internally to other regions.
>
This I absolutely deny. Perhaps other people have
feelings of racism or xenophobia or other things
involved in their thoughts about offshoring. In my
case I could not possibly care less about the race,
religion, etc., of offshore workers who are getting
the jobs. My thoughts on the subject are based on
concern for the welfare of this country and fellow
Americans. And I could not possibly care less about
the race, religion, etc. of Americans who lose their
jobs to offshoring. I feel for them regardless of such
matters.
As for things like outsourcing or moving jobs to
different regions of the country, those are different
subjects and if you wish I will argue those matters on
a different thread. Let's stick to the subject at
hand.
>
> When you purchase product, do you make sure that
> what you're buying keeps
> everyone in the industry local and fully employed?
>
Yes. I try to as far as possible. For example, as I
posted months ago, I knowingly buy nothing made in
China, and I do check the labels. I do make a
conscious effort to spend my money where it benefits
my countrymen. Do you?
>
> Even on the personal level it works in exactly the
> same manner. The reason
> each and every employed techwriter has a job is that
> they provided better
> quality, speed, and/or cost to their employer than
> their competition.
>
Would that it were true. But it is not. Personnel
decisions are not always made on a logical
businesslike basis. I am utterly certain that you, as
I, have seen one person let go while another, less
competent worker is kept, because the latter is a
friend of the boss. Or a good worker is dispensed with
for budget reasons or hierarchical reasons that have
nothing to do with quality of work. If worker quality
were the only factor in determining retention, there
would be no bad workers past the first 90-day
evaluation.
>
> The only alternative presented to date was Communism
> with single state-run
> or sanctioned suppliers with 5-yr production plans
> using workers forced to
> work in state-appointed positions. And that wasn't
> exactly a resounding
> success.
>
Really? So according to you, the situation in Europe
is not an alternative? There are alternatives. Or at
least there could be alternatives, if people were
willing to think about them. But all we hear from the
side that supports offshoring is all-or-nothing
statements. I can think of alternatives. Why can't
you?
We've heard from lots of people who make the claim
that putting Americans out of work by offshoring
somehow benefits them, but you have managed to take
this argument to a new level. You present the argument
that there is no alternative to the current situation
but Communism, of all things. So no one has ever come
up with any alternative to dog-eat-dog competition
other than Communism? You are dead wrong. When people
in this country needed help with employment in the
30's, FDR was able to find alternatives that didn't
involve Communism. During the recession of the 50's,
Eisenhower found ways to help Americans get back to
work without making this a Communist country. The
existence of the anti-trust laws, of overtime pay
laws, of *any* labor laws, of OSHA and the EPA, are
proof of the fact that there are and should be
sensible limits on how companies do business, even in
a capitalist system.
There can be other ways to think about and deal with
offshoring other than counting every American as
expendable. There are ways of companies reducing their
costs without pauperizing Americans.
>
> That's been the mantra/worry for decades/eons. Ever
> since people stopped
> hunting/gathering for their own subsistence the
> economy has evolved and
> changed. Yet for some reason, the economy continues
> to grow and prosper.
>
We have an all-time record trade deficit. We have an
all-time record Federal budget deficit. We have the
worst hiring slump since the end of WWII. The
"economy" can be seen as growing and propsering only
if you define the economy as the amount of money in
corporate bank accounts. If you include in your
definition of the economy the real buying power of the
average American, or the number of people who are
unemployed, or other human factors, then the "economy"
needs a lot of help.
I cannot and will not agree with these Olympian views
of the "economy" that involve nothing but numbers and
leave out humans. My concern is the welfare of
Americans, not the price of IBM stock.
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