A resolution to stop outsourcing

Isn't the falling dollar already doing that in a few sectors? 

Lightningbolt wrote: Anyone have any ideas on curbing outsourcing product manufacturing to other countries?

Why would you want to do that?

Outsourcing manufacturing was one of the best things to happen to this country.  And the rest of the world as well, for that matter.

Lightningbolt wrote: Rambino wrote: Lightningbolt wrote: Anyone have any ideas on curbing outsourcing product manufacturing to other countries?  Why would you want to do that? Outsourcing manufacturing was one of the best things to happen to this country.  And the rest of the world as well, for that matter. I don't accept that as being anything good for the long-term.  Sure it's good for the profit magin for a CEO but how is it helping the 500 workers that lost their jobs?

True, but pushing to buy American made products to hurt outsourcing makes consumer prices skyrocket. No longer can we buy a t-shirt for $10, now we have to pay for the $50 American one.

Lightningbolt wrote: I don't accept that as being anything good for the long-term.

It's econ 101.  Actually, it's older than that - it's chapter 1 of Wealth of Nations.

Let's say you are a carriage maker.  To make carriages you need planks and nails and metal bands.  You are capable of making each of those yourself.

After breaking down how much time it takes you to perform each task, and figuring how much money you make for selling your finished carriages, you determine that you make $15/hour for time spent working on the parts and the carriages

You know a guy who can make nails for $5/hour.  Therefore, even though you are perfectly capable of making nails yourself, you hire this guy to make nails for you.

This frees up time for you to assemble more carriages, which raises your effective hourly income from $15/hour to maybe $17/hour. 

By outsourcing the low-end work (nail-making) you were able to leverage your skill at more complex tasks (carriage assembly), thereby increasing your wealth, and everybody else's.

Every task - EVERY task - should be done by the lowest-cost worker with sufficient skill.  Anything else is wasteful.  The outsourcing of low-end manufacturing from the US allowed the skilled US workers to engage in higher-profit activities, so everybody makes more money.

In the US you're paying some jerkwad $12/hour to do a crappy job while you're actually paying out a matching $12/hour to various government charities and welfare programs, facing constant OSHA money drives/inspections, property taxes, liability insurance, health insurance, 401k matching, various ISO compliance audits and certification scams, workers comp, paying for the rain because it fell on your parking lot and runs off into a ditch and GOD help you if you have a union.

Or you take your business to China and pay some jerkwad 2 chickens to do a crappy job and kill his family if he's ever late to work.


It's obvious that the only solution is more hope and government regulation.....dam CEO's and their good parking spots.

Edited by JohnnyHopper - 06 August 2008 at 12:23pm

Pariel wrote: Most of the outsourcing happening in this country is unskilled labor. It's jobs that we can not only afford to lose, but for short- and long-term economic success, make sense to cut. Those 500 workers may be out of a job, but the economic conditions here benefit from cheaper labor.

This is not true.

Low-skill manufacturing jobs were mostly outsourced during the 70s.  In the manufacturing sector today, we are actually seeing "in-sourcing," as high fuel costs and cheap dollars make it attractive to build factories near the American consumer - you will notice that many foreign car companies build cars in the US, and not just for the US market.

Anybody complaining about manufacturing outsourcing is 30 years behind schedule.  There is some of that going on still, but not much.

During the 90s and early 00s we saw outsourcing of low-end computer jobs.  Phone banks, help desks, coding, network management, etc.  This continues today.  Computer engineers with no special skills have a hard time finding good work in the US anymore.

These days we have moved into outsourcing information professionals.  This is just starting.  Accountants in particular face international competition.  Researchers of all kinds, radiologists and certain other physicians, lawyers to some extent - all the people whose job it is to collect and interpret information are facing competition from lower-cost providers across the globe.

Rambino, when will we outsource lawyers :)

/flippant

JohnnyHopper wrote: Rambino, when will we outsource lawyers :) /flippant

No need to be flippant - it's true.  Some types of lawyers (ambulance chasers) are difficult to outsource, but corporate types such as myself face very direct outsourcing challenges.  In fact, my primary competition personally comes to a large extent from outside the US.

And to combat that, many US law firms have taken to outsourcing their legal research to cheaper locales.

Legal outsourcing is very real and it is here now.  Not yet as pervasive as accounting outsourcing, but that may yet change.

Pariel wrote: They're facing competition in those fields, yes. But the average American industrial worker is facing no job in the next 10 years, whereas the average accountant (which the NY Times reported was one of the fastest growing outsourced jobs last year) is just facing somewhat smaller wages at this point.

See, that's the problem.  Why do we have "average industrial workers" at all?

Does "average industrial work" sound like a great job that we should protect at all cost, or even at any cost?

It's all about retooling and reeducating.  Nobody - NOBODY - should expect to do the same job for 40 years and then retire.  You will, guaranteed, face several major career shifts during your life, when you will be required to learn new skills to adapt to the changing environment.

If we have "average industrial workers" that can't find "average industrial work" then we need to change those workers into either not average, or not industrial.

A job is not something that comes to you - you go to the job.  if there are no jobs that match your skills, then you get new skills to match the jobs that are there.

JohnnyHopper wrote: Rambino wrote: Irrationally holding on a particular set of jobs is directly harmful to the national economy. That reminds me. I was supposed to warn everyone that the intergalactic luddites are attacking, very slowly....on horseback.

I lol'ed.

But you raise an important point.  People are all a-ga-ga over outsourcing - but outsourcing is exactly the same as technological advancement.

What does it matter if you lose your job to China or a machine?  You are still out of work with obsolete skills.  The people protesting outsourcing are Luddites, pure and simple.  You can't turn back the clock, nor should you want to.