Offshoring the Economy

[unixronin]

A sobering article in Fast Company magazine says that as many as 14 million jobs in the US could be offshored.  It's not just IT any more.  It's accountants, customer service reps, medical transcriptionists.

"More than just outsourcing IT or anyone's job, we're outsourcing the American middle class," says Bronstein.

I find myself increasingly thinking it's time to abandon both this career and this country, and find some other way to make a living, somewhere else.  I just don't know what.  I still don't know if I could handle the schooling to become a pharmacist.  I'm seriously considering retail; I'm told Home Despot pays $16 an hour.  Our friends wolfspaw and stoda already abandoned IT to become massage therapists.  And frankly, I seriously think that the US economy is going to crash as a result of offshoring -- the ultimate manifestation of the shortsighted Wall Street quest for short-term profit.

A partial list of Fast Company's "at risk" jobs:

• Extreme risk:  Accountant, industrial engineer, production control specialist, quality assurance engineer, helpdesk specialist, telemarketer
• High or moderate risk:  Automotive engineer, computer systems analyst, database administrator, software developer, customer-service representative, CAD technician, paralegal/legal assistant, medical transcriptionist, copy editor, journalist, film editor, insurance agent, lab technician, human resources specialist
• Low risk:  Aircraft mechanic, artist, carpenter, civil engineer, headhunter, interior designer

We're not just offshoring jobs:  We're offshoring our economy.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

If the economy falls that much, workers here will become cheaper to hire.

If offshore workers really are not that efficient to hire, and noone here can buy the goods being produced, the situation will self correct.

What you say about experience is true.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If the economy falls that much, workers here will become cheaper to hire.

But enough to compete?

Well, time will tell, I guess.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Somebody has to buy the products. There has to be a middle class to support wealthy business owners. But the more the government intervenes, the longer things will take to self correct.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

yeah. Government, I have increasingly come to see over the past thirty years, is not even a poor solution; it's the problem. "That government is best which governs least," indeed. Or, as I saw stated once on a bumper sticker:
"If more government is the answer, it must have been a really stupid question."

[jilara.livejournal.com]

We techies are getting a lot cheaper. "Increased productivity" = longer hours, same pay. Our wages at my work have been frozen for 4 years, and if folks hire, it's at less, not more, money. My former boss from the early '90's has taken a $10K a year cut every time he's been rehired after being laid off. Since this has happened 4 times in as many years, he's making $40K a year less than before. My former officemate is making 2/3 of what he was making at his job in 2001, now as a contractor with no benefits. Believe me, it's sorting out.

A coworker lit into a striker outside Safeway (they're protesting having to pay for part of their health benefits) and said "Most of us not only have taken pay cuts to stay employed, we're paying for part of our health benefits, so what's with you? Wake up and smell the coffee!"

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

So stop doing it. It obviously bothers you, so get all of your people together and organize. Like unixronin said, you can't offshore experience, so if you were to unionize for better hours, or better pay (but probably not both) either you'd get it, or you'd lose your job. Which is more important you you? Work or Sanity?

Yeah, I had an interesting conversation with the strikers outside of a Ralph's one day after I ahd moved here. I asked what they were protesting, and they said they were striking for health benefits. I asked if they were striking to get them, and they said they were striking because they had been asked to pay for them. I pointed out that in New Mexico, noone at a grocery store had any hope of ever having health benefits, let alone being spoiled enough to complain about having to contribute to them. And that even as a programmer, I didn't have them. The guy looks sort of uncomfortable.

-Ogre