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]

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