Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Note to Mr.s Romney and Obama
I have a suggestion, fellas'. How 'bout instead of drooling all over yourselves and constantly trying to portray the other as some sort of evil-genius outsourcing madman, you actually take a few minutes to educate the voters on what exactly outsourcing is and that it isn't even remotely some purely evil thing?...Like, I don't know, maybe point out out the fact that, while, yes, certain assembly jobs may in fact be lost, the end-point will ultimately be a strengthening the company and this results in other jobs (not to mention, cheaper products); tech, design, sales, marketing, advertising, shipping and receiving, transportation, administration, finance, repair, etc.. To just play into this oversimplified narrative, ad nauseum, and pander to our baser, nativistic impulses is just not something that a JFK, a Truman, or an Ike would have ever done - in my opinion....And I thank you for your time.
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Sorry Will: I was a victim of Outsourcing when I lost my job after 29 years...there is some theoretical truth to what you say however I must point out that far too much outsourcing is driven by internal politics of the company doing the outsourcing. In other words someone makes a name for themselves by outsourcing NOT for the reasons you state but to collect a big raise...
I remember Michael Moore ranting about the evils of outsourcing in his "Downsize This" book. When I read it, I went and looked at his website. I checked the 'whois' on it, and found that Mr. Moore had outsourced his web site to be run out of Canada.
Marcus,sorry for your situation with you former employer,but I take exception that companys outsourcing are doing it to fatten executive paychecks.
Companies outsource to reduce the cost of doing business,plain and simple.For example:doing business in Ca. a company pays benefit cost equal to the hourly rate.....plus the state and federal regulations and business taxes make it difficult to even operate there.We idled two operations in SOCAL for those very reason's.If your profit margins are 10% or lower you cant survive in that atmosphere.
Marcus, Manesha Goel, an economist at UNC Chapel Hill, did a study in which she examined outsourcing from the mid-'70s to the mid '00s and found that there was actually a net increase in employment. The issue here, I think, is that people see the immediate effects of outsourcing (people getting displaced) but not the positive effects down the road of cheaper products, healthier 401Ks, and other employment possibilities. AND, being that it's extremely hard to explain to people, fast and pandering politicians like Obama and Romney don't even try to.
Companies outsource to remain competitive. There are many economic realities that drive outsourcing Marcus, I have yet to run across a company that does so for "internal politics" or so "somebody" can make a name for themselves.
As understandable as the feelings may be they just are not realistic and they definitely, if not checked will have negative consequences for the ones holding onto them.
In fairness to Marcus, his overall point that there are a fair number of Machiavellian businessmen out there who seemingly do not care about the side-effects of their actions is probably true. My simple point is that if you look at the policy of outsourcing from a macro perspective the subject matter is considerably more complicated than these sound-bite candidates make it out to be.
Gentleman: I wanted an additional 24 hours to offer a measured response. The problem I have here is I feel I can not offer specifics in my particular case on an internet site...Legal reasons if you will. If we were somewhere having a casual conversation over some beers "off the record" I could offer up a bit more...What I can say is that I do understand how business works. My father was a small businessman all his life. There are times you need to make difficult decisions to ensure your survival. What I also based my comments on is information shared with me by others in my vocation as to the goings on in other companies...Maybe more on this later
Can we all agree that Vad Lee should be starting this weekend against Clemson?
I could care less who starts....just as long as the spread gets covered.
If Vad starts, Clemson doesn't cover. You heard it here first, me-buck.
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