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Tech Firms Defend Moving Jobs Overseas
Posted by
michael
on Thu Jan 08, 2004 01:15 PM
from the for-minimum-wage-or-lower dept.
from the for-minimum-wage-or-lower dept.
bobcows writes "Yahoo is reporting about leading technology companies urging Congress and the Bush administration Wednesday not to impose new trade restrictions aimed at keeping U.S. jobs from moving overseas, where labor costs are lower. 'There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore,' Carly Fiorina, chief executive for Hewlett-Packard Co., said Wednesday. 'The problem is not a lack of highly educated workers,' said Scott Kirwin, founder of the Information Technology Professionals Association of America. 'The problem is a lack of highly educated workers willing to work for the minimum wage or lower in the U.S. Costs are driving outsourcing, not the quality of American schools.'"
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Pay foreigners US minumum wage! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Pay foreigners US minumum wage! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not Funny! (Score:5, Insightful)
Executive compensation is way out of whack, and it's because the executive club takes care of itself. Boards of one company are filled with executives of other companies, and vice versa. It's a circle of people writing each other checks out of corporate accounts.
There's always the line of defense which is, "but we're critically important, and we're doing very difficult jobs." The same could be true of the IT personnel who have been outsourced. So therefore, the executives should be outsourced as well.
Imagine the millions each company could save if their executives were paid an Indian's King's Ransom, instead of an American's King's Ransom?
If the American execs want to keep their jobs, well heck, they can take a pay cut to be on par with their Indian counterparts, right?
The whole executive compensation issue wouldn't be so aggravating if all execs did a good job. But many suck. Many run their companies into the ground, resign when things get bad, get a parting gift of a few million, and then go become CxO at another company. Rinse repeat. Once an exec, always an exec, unless of course you're tied up in a federal country club.
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Re:Pay foreigners US minumum wage! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Pay foreigners US minumum wage! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Translation (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
'consumer' and 'capitalist' are just the slightly nicer terms we use for ourselves.
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Re:Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
So why should business be forced to pay a higher price for the same commodity item - labor?
You want cheap goods, but do not want to lose your high paying job. You can't have it both ways.
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Re:Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
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I hear that the Bahamas are nice this time of year (Score:5, Funny)
Problems (Score:5, Insightful)
You've had the bad luck (Score:5, Insightful)
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Job search suggestions (Score:5, Informative)
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Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
This is interesting, because it seems to be in stark contrast to the comments in the story about U.S. workers being unwilling to work for less money. That suggests to me that there are still the same number of jobs in this country, only now they pay smaller salaries, and after some period of time the executives decided that U.S. workers were unwilling to accept those smaller salaries.
The thing is, as you pointed out, this is not what's happening. There are in fact fewer jobs available, and the salaries are the same (ie, not lower).
Perhaps a good summary of the article might be: "Well, we're doing the usual blind executive thing, making lots of decisions that we can't really justify to the public because our reasoning is shaky and unfounded. So please just leave us alone and give us the freedom to wreck the U.S. high-tech job market as we see fit. Thank you."
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Re:Problems (Score:5, Insightful)
It's just as tough for the experienced people too - many think graduates are getting their jobs as graduates are cheaper and willing to whore themselves working stupid hours, and be keen about it!
Think yourself lucky that your financial commitments are lower now than they will be. I have a friend looking for a job right now. He's senior and well paid. He's got a car, a mortgage, a wife, and a baby on the way. Oh, and he doesn't want to work stupid hours, but wants enjoy life a little. Taking a paycut for him is much harder - you don't have the same expectations, commitments, nor are do you have a lifestyle that will get worse. After being a student, virtually amy job will improve your quality of life, even if it's very poorly paid compared with a few years ago.
Many graduates seem to have the attitude of live to work, although maybe it's because their lives are simpler and that they're younger and they can still party and work without burning out. Wait a couple of years. Trust me: working to live is a much better outlook, unfortunately it brings the stress of knowing that foolish managers will look often look you for somebody with a different attitude. I have the same attitude: I worked stupid hours in the dot com boom but I won't do it now. Why should I break my back, make my life worse, and all to make somebody else rich? Next time I work like that it'll be for my own business... when I finally come up with an idea that sells.
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you want your global economy, here it is... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not american, so I can't comment on what the loss of jobs in my field their is going to do to me, but I think this kind of thing should be expected if anybody wants the global economy thing to really happen.
This could still be beneficial to the american economy, it just means that many of these out of work programmers should look into some of their own ideas and start companies around them, hiring out to the cheap labour overseas. That would probably benefit more people anyways.
Re:you want your global economy, here it is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, this is the thing I don't understand....and maybe someone can explain it to me. Why would I want a global economy?? From what I can see, it is beneficial to everyone EXCEPT the US. It seems to do nothing but deplete our jobs...standard of living, etc. What possible good can it do for us? It seemed to be better when we led production and innovation in most areas....
I mean, life is a competition...we use to seem to win, and now we aren't, and it is our own fault for 'giving in' and this global economy our corporations are supporting with these actions is going to cause our spiral and downfall. Keep this up, and we'll lower our whole society's standard of living....
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Outsource the CEO as well (Score:5, Funny)
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Outsource expenses - CEOs (Score:5, Interesting)
If you reduce her salary to $500,000 (ten times what a sacrificing $50K engineer might make), you can save 2290 well paying (50K) jobs.
For the life of me, can you imagine any CEO contributing as much to a company as 2290 rank and file workers? Unless they can literally print money, I have trouble imaging how an executive can make that kind of contribution compared to the employees they lead.
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Outsource your CEO (Score:5, Funny)
okay... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, isn't that kind of a fundamentally flawed problem? As a person pursuing a degree in higher education (dropping $100,000+ on said education) I don't feel like it would be worth it to work for minimum wage or less. I mean, isn't that really one of the points of college, so you don't have to work minimum wage?
HP CEO fails to understand basic economics (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:HP CEO fails to understand basic economics (Score:5, Insightful)
I always liken it to the whole Napster/Kazaa thing. People realised that they could get the same music [software], lose a few unimportant bits (like the cover art [local employees]) and save a ton of cash by downloading [outsourcing]. Now the RIAA [tech workers] are worried that their market is vanishing so they try to get the government to pass laws making it illegal for people to save money. Sounds very similar to me.
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And so globalisation goes (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice Quote (Score:5, Insightful)
There were never any jobs that were America's God-given right, but the sentiment does make a nice dodge from the real issue at hand.
What these corporations seem to have forgot is that privelege goes hand in hand with responsiblity. They fight hard to continue to be treated by the government (and thus the nation, by extension) as a citizen with all the rights thereof. However, they forget that those rights come with responsiblity. They move jobs overseas, they keep their funds in offshore tax havens so they don't have to pay taxes, and then they want they want to be treated like legitimate tax-payers. Globalisation is a nice idea, but not when it only serves as a tool to cheat.
the rest of Carly's quote (Score:5, Insightful)
. .
. . .
The flaw (Score:5, Insightful)
It is the governments job to make sure that jobs stay here. I don't think any job is an americans god given right but why does this lady expect an educated engineer to work for min wage? I can get a McJob for min wage. She is essentially saying that HPs workers don't matter to the company. They find no value in their skills.
I'm not trying to be paranoid here but eventually won't most jobs be shipped over seas to countries who with lower cost of living and governments who don't care. This doesn't sound good for our country.
Minimum wage?? (Score:5, Funny)
Definition of Minumim Wage:
If they paid you anything less, it would be illegal.
It's not just tech. (Score:5, Interesting)
We need some kind of regulation to discourage these practices or our entire economy will go to shit. George Bush wants to help ILLEGAL immigrants out by letting them work? Because he is so compassionate?? Give me a fucking break. It is about exploiting people and getting cheap labor so the rich get richer.
Make a note (Score:5, Insightful)
Were going to see the new megacorps in India (Score:5, Insightful)
On top of this, can someone please explain how sending good paying jobs out of this company is good for the economy? Competitive advantage doesn't mean anything if all the competition is doing it. The jobs that are replacing these are the low wage jobs in fields like retail that don't have things like health insurance.
Whose minimum wage? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nor are highly educated workers willing to work for the (local) minimum wage or lower in places other than the U.S. It's just that the U.S. minimum wage provides a pretty good living in some parts of the world.
You know, painful as it is to those who pay the price, one can make the argument that this trend will, in the long run, help to minimize the economic disparities between the "developed" countries and the "third world." And that can't be bad for international security.
walmart, anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
http://fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html
The article makes a believable case that WalMart is singlehandedly, drastically, speeding up the move of manufacturing jobs overseas. Towards the end, they have this quote:
'Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills: "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions."'
That's exactly what's going on here. 'Middle class' in the US costs a hell of a lot more than 'middle class' elsewhere, and if consumers here have a choice, they will buy the things that were not made under those expensive conditions. Of course, by making that choice, we push our own jobs overseas
I can't predict how this will end up, but it's going to be a trip finding out. What do you all think? I want to see I Am An Economist in the replies.
Costs (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if they all suddenly would work for half the salary overnight, HP would have to reduce the price of their products too in order to ensure that people can afford to purchase them.
In other words, their percentage profit on an item would stay the same. The fact that educated workers can demand a higher salary in the US means that corporations can get away with providing more expensive goods. In many other countries, you'd never be able to sell something at US prices.
why would I want to work at below minimum wage? (Score:5, Insightful)
The initial comments are correct - we don't have inherent rights to jobs - if someone can do it better and cheaper than us, they will get the job and we'll have to do something else. I simply have a problem with the PHB logic that the stated CEOs seem to labor under - that others should sacrifice their well-being for their benefit while they have no duty to do the same. I'm certain that if their logic were applied to their jobs (I'm pretty sure someone as competent as these CEO's could be hired from overseas at 10% of their pay), they would not be so quick to advocate sacrifice for the benefit of others.
my my my ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Costs are driving outsourcing? How about wanting to make sure that ALL the money stays on the top? This is what completely amazes me in the world we live in, Joe Millionaire really believes that paying family providers a salary 1/100000th of his own is a COST.
Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not some hippie banging my Commie Drum here, but I wouldn't mind some honesty. When saying why you're outsourcing, simply tell what you are doing ...
1.) You are not outsourcing, you are laying off americans in a hope that every other company won't follow your lead (you still need people in america to buy your stuff right?)
2.) You are personally making the statement that you believe that it means more to have 3 yachts instead of 2, and the best way to get there is cheap labor.
3.) You believe that you are above 'regular' people in America, and would love to just keep screwing us all.
Well what's the problem with all of this? Think back into the history books for me a little bit here. At what point in America's history did we see an ever pressing economic turmoil because of extremely low cost labor? Was it, ohhh yes the bloodiest battle costing more American lives than any other war in our history?
Lets face it the Civil war was fought not to free the slaves, but in fact because the South was so rich because it legally could force people to work with no pay. This pissed off everyone else who HAD to pay their workers. Believe it or not some of the anger in the "Free North" was because they themselves weren't allowed to have slaves.
Getting a little bit off topic here, the point being is that this country was built on the backs of "Joe Average", who is in the lower to middle class. There's just one big problem with everything here, there are whole lot more "Joe Averages" than there are "Joe Millionaires" and you can only piss "Joe Average" off for so long before he and his buddies organize together.
So Mr Corperate Joe Millionaire, I implore you to please consider your actions and possibly not bite the true hand that feeds you, over and over and over and over again. "Joe Average" is collecting welare/unemployment because you believe he is not worthy. Lastly you can fight the government all you want, but remember there are more "Joe Averages" and if you keep pissing "Joe Average" o you may actually see democracy in action in which you as an American company will be spanked, because "Joe Average" also can vote.
An interesting article (Score:5, Interesting)
Neither "solution" is very attractive. (Score:5, Insightful)
1) "Screw you, you lazy bastards. It's Capitalism, compete or shut up. Just like I'm going to do as soon as I graduate from college with my CS degree. I can't wait!"
2) "Let's outsource the CEOs! nyuk nyuk" [about five or six times per thread, always ranked 5:Funny]
3) "Dammit, if they want to work for US tech companies, let 'em come here!"
None of these responses is an effective means of addressing the problem. The Western system of democratic capitalism has worked so far specifically because it harnesses capitalism to acheive wealth and social stability. Notice that I said "harness". Capitalism is a great tool, but left to its own devices it destroys the middle class.
Banning job exportation completely is stupid. The US will quickly lose its competitive edge in IT. Already we're seeing Indian companies churning out quality, high-margin software (such as Flexcube) that's making significant inroads into US markets. When the Chinese start getting warmed up, watch out.
Allowing the exporters free rein is also stupid. It will destroy the US IT industry, put millions out of work, and we'll lose critical mindshare (as all the bright kids who would've become engineers wind up as lawyers). And people with families and other responsibilities DON'T HAVE the resources or time to retrain, you knuckleheaded Objectivist brats. They'll drop out of the middle class and screw the rest of the economy, destroying jobs they might have otherwise tried to retrain for.
Really, what we need are measures to soften the blow of global capitalism. That's what governments are there for. We need controls (but not a ban) on job exports, perhaps a tax-credits-per-domestic-employee plan. We need federal retraining incentive program, giving out vouchers to unemployed people who can redeem them for tuition to get new job skills. And we can take a big chunk of the cash to do these things out of agribusiness subsidies. Fuck Monsanto, the US stopped being an agricultural economy about a hundred years ago. Let's keep our leadership role role where it really matters: in science and technology.
What about unionizing? (Score:5, Insightful)
We could use them here, and they could use them in India. Unions with some kind of international perspective (instead of the nationalism of the AFL-CIO and others) are the only kinds of unions that can be effective in a globalized economy.
This is why we have to be concerned about the economic conditions of the third world, and need to support their right to organize. Our decent jobs are going to be much less likely to cross overseas and become sweatshop jobs if we give support to people in the third world who are trying to form unions.
this is what globalization is getting us (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize protectionism is not a viable long-term strategy. I don't want to steal the potential for economic development from nations transitioning to an advanced economy.
But here's the problem: we are growing production capacity without growing the markets to support them. Everyone would be getting rich and improving their quality of life in this equation if there was a demand from within India for IT work. There isn't one to speak of.
Without such markets to support the expanded production capacity, the benefits of globalization are realized only for corporations -- and they are short-lived. The net money going to workers drops as companies utilize cheaper labor. By shipping capital out of the country to foreign workers who will not inject it back into the corporations' native economy, that economy will suffer, people won't be able to afford services and the corporations will collapse.
The corporations are not really to blame. This is irresistable poison fruit. If they don't take it, they will starve long before their competitors die from the toxicity of the practice.
Protectionist measures are not a permanent solution, but they MUST be put back into place to slow the bleeding. They can slowly be relaxed as foreign markets expand and produce consumers to support their industries.
The hard truth is that there is no shortcut to developing a nation's economy. To do it right takes a slow process. Otherwise all you get is short term corporate enrichment, the establishment of unsustainable foreign labor markets, and the destruction of local economies and cultures.
Re:moving jobs overseas (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't like to see the US Govt. legislating corporate policies...but, I don't mind them giving them incentive to shape said policy towards thing beneficial to US citzens.
But, c'mon....minimum wage for an educated person? I can't believe any US business would expect that.....
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Re:moving jobs overseas (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:moving jobs overseas (Score:5, Interesting)
Not the only place where India is not playing by the same rules we are. See my sig.
It's no damn wonder India can pay minimum wage for tech jobs, half the freakin' country is slaves and most of the other half is 'untouchables' forced to work for next to nothing.
Carly really needs to explain how she personally and HP feel about supporting slavery.
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Re:moving jobs overseas (Score:5, Insightful)
Not everyone can do the same things, some are blessed from birth with inherit capabilities, some work harder for them, some don't. So yes...your hard work (education) to attain skills that everyone else does not have DOES entitle you to better pay for your job...because is not something any 'joe' can do.
I'm not happy to see the blue collar jobs moved either....I think by putting our manufacturing outside our borders along with much of our intellectual work out there, will at some point become a national security danger. If other countries at some point get pissed at us...and cut off steel supplies (add whatever other industry here) to us...what will happen? WE don't have the manufacturing capabilities dues to shipping them overseas and across borders. Right now, we're worried about oil embargos? Well, wait till it is MUCH more than that that the world can threaten us with...
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Re:moving jobs overseas (Score:5, Insightful)
When the overpaid factory jobs went elsewhere, it wasn't that hard (in theory) to retrain those workers for something else. In many cases I believe, those workers had other skills, but stayed with the factory jobs because they paid very well and were very stable. When they lost the jobs, they used their other skills to find other employment. If you're already skilled in assembling cars, how hard is it to learn how to do oil changes, and go to work at Jiffy Lube? Construction also is a manual labor job that doesn't require any education, and it pays very well too.
Tech jobs are different: they require years of education to become qualified for. Sure, help-desk operators don't have Master's degrees, but companies are also moving engineering jobs overseas. If you have a Master's degree in engineering, which probably took 5-6 years to achieve, along with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, you can't just retrain on a whim and get a different job.
Worse yet, just a few years ago all these same companies were whining about how there weren't enough engineers for them to hire. They yelled at the government to improve science and math education and encourage more kids to go to engineering school. Now that a bunch of people have gotten engineering degrees, they're being kicked out the door because these same companies found out they could outsource the work to 3rd-world countries for much less. Now these engineers are stuck with too much education to easily change jobs, and high student loans they still have to repay.
What I don't understand is why these stupid execs are still calling for better education in this country. What's the point if there's no jobs for the kids to go into because they've all been outsourced?
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Re:Outsourced CEO (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Minimum wage? (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny how the executives never have a problem justifying their massive pay and perks.
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Re:Get a nice curry (Score:5, Insightful)
Go on any job board or discussion about outsourcing and you'll see the trolls and out-of-work complaining about how Indians are "stealing" American jobs, either through H-1B visas or overseas outsourcing. This is a case of blaming the wrong people.
The Indians aren't "stealing" anything. American CEOs, with the willing complacence of their bought-and-paid for politicians, are giving them the jobs. Until last year, the H-1B visa caps were permitted to increase despite convincing evidence of a slowdown in the tech market. Outsourcing advocates have convinced American companies that lower hourly pay rates are the savior of their bottom lines.
Some jobs, especially call center work and manufacturing are gone and aren't coming back. Others may drift back and forth as industry discovers a balance.
It's a supply and demand thing. One thing that you might also want to to worry about is those "schools" churning out paper MCSEs month after month, advertising big $$$ and life on Easy Street by passing a few tests and getting a few certificates. In an already overcrowded tech market, these places are turning out tons of folks with overblown expectations. Once their dreams are crushed, who knows how cheap they'll be willing to work?
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Re:Holy cow (Score:5, Informative)
Although the way the story was posted on
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Re:Minimum Wage (Score:5, Insightful)
I've got a friend who's got a master's degree in biochemistry, and he's squeaking by (but not by much right now) but he's aiming to get a Ph.D. and end up in the upper middle class later in life. Would he do that if highly-educated people would get the same amount as a high-school dropout flipping burgers at McDonalds'? Hell no.
By HP's logic, we should all go to grad school (or equivalent) for ten years after getting our BS/BA, and then live in debt for the rest of our lives because our McJobs won't pay enough to pay off the horrid student loan debt.
And this is okay? I can't believe that anyone would make a statement like that, even a corporate flunkie, and be able to keep a straight face.
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