Tech Firms Defend Moving Jobs Overseas

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.'"

Get a nice curry

[Anonymous Coward]

with your tech support call! Yay!

Outsourced CEO

[Anonymous Coward]

'There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore,' Carly Fiorina

Your job too, babe. Can't wait until we are ordering the latest HP Presario Tandoori Edition on Anandtech or FatWallet.com

I hear that the Bahamas are nice this time of year

[PIPBoy3000]

Personally I think it's great that they're moving my job, hopefully to somewhere warm. Uh, I'm going with it, right?

Outsource the CEO as well

[sacremon]

Given how well HP has performed since the merger with Compaq, perhaps it would be in that company's best interest to outsource the CEO. I'm sure they could save a considerable sum vs. Carly's paycheck.

.

Outsource your CEO

[AntEater]

How long before shareholders demand that their companies outsource their CEO and other executives? It would be only fitting afterall, the problem isn't bad CEOs in America but finding bad CEOs that will work for minimum wage in the US.

Re:Outsourced CEO

[TedCheshireAcad]

Windows Vindaloo. Yum! Instead of crashing beyond recognition, it simply shoots fire out of the DVD drive to scald you.

Minimum wage??

[KE1LR]

"The problem is a lack of highly educated workers willing to work for the minimum wage or lower in the U.S."

Definition of Minumim Wage:

If they paid you anything less, it would be illegal.

Re:Morons in Tech Companies

[Kenja]

"What other impetus is there?"

To better serve your HP masters of course.

Moving Jobs Overseas?!

[akudoi]

Ok, I'll admit that the mini iPod was overpriced... but isnt deporting the man a little much?!

oh... wait....

what happend in the old days

[digitalsushi]

sometimes i like to think about how companies and ceos and money are kind of like back in the day, when you had a king, and a few lords, and a bunch of serfs or what have you. kingdoms are like companies. ceos are the kings, and then you have like the c[f,t,i]o who are like princes, or earls, or dukes or whatever, I never played D&D so i'm trying to remember history class. And then you have your serfs, the little dudes at the bottom doing all the work. i guess those are like employees.

so then you have all the serfs all together, and they all have to buy junk like... food and deers and arrows. so, they are the source of all the money dumplings, like gold nuggets, which are like a C-note. And then the CEO-kings go "ha ha ha thanks for the money dumpling, laddy".

K, but, what if those kings sent money dumplings to The Oriental Land of Panda-la. They pay King Chow for his serfs to make wicker baskets and... wheels, and other high tech. And then send it back with Magellan. And, the CEO-King fired all his serfs by telling some dragon to go eat em, and they're not in the picture. Cept, they are, and now they're eating tree bark cause they arent making wheels for his majesty.

So the wheels and baskets are coming back from panda-la and the CEO-King is like "dude.. this is sweeteth" and he has more gold dumplings than ever before, cause he doesnt have to pay his localites, and.. ugh, see, this is where my example falls apart, as it lacks both a cunning mix of logic, and sense. Actually, it might just be that it's veilded under a shroud of retardedness, but that's left to you, dear reader.

Maybe someone should correct my giant metaphor so that I can understand it for me...

Re:Start a Grass Roots Movement

[Mr Pippin]

Ummm, except that drastically decrease the number of scheduled meetings, and a like decrease is coffee and donut consumption. Pastry and specialty coffee shops would be in ruins.

Craig Barrett's economic diet

[mojotooth]

Barrett complained about federal agriculture subsidies he said were worth tens of billions of dollars while government investment in physical sciences was a relatively low $5 billion. "I can't understand why we continue to pour resources into the industries of the 19th century," Barrett said.

Yeah, that whole eating thing is sooo 19th century.

Re:Make a note

[Anonymous Coward]

Kinda reminds me of what Marie Antoinette said when someone told her the people were without bread. Let them eat cake... For the most part, people with lots of money tend to forget what it's like being poor.

Re:Not Funny!

[Coryoth]

There are very, very few people qualified to run major corporations, compared to the positions available. That's just an unpleasant fact. In IT, particularly after the job losses of recent years, the situation is more a buyer's market.

Depends on what you mean by "Qualified". There are probably plenty of people willing to take their best shot at the job for those sorts of pay rates. IT is fairly similar - plenty of people willing to do the job, not many good ones. IT, of course has MCSE which lets someone be "qualified" without necessarily knowing anything.

What we need is a nice piece of paper qualification that lets you be an exec, and all you have to do is sleep through a bunch of courses to get it... Oh, wait, that would be an MBA wouldn't it?

Jedidiah.

Re:Make a note

[jafac]

" Kinda reminds me of what Marie Antoinette said when someone told her the people were without bread. Let them eat cake... For the most part, people with lots of money tend to forget what it's like being poor."

I wonder if I can use google to find instructions on how to build a homemade guillotine. . .

true, but doesn't apply

[alizard]

You really think among the hundreds of millions of people in India, there's nobody who'd make a better CEO than Carly Florina of HP?

However, the problem will take care of itself.

When a company outsources everything to India except management and profit-taking, how long will an outsourcer doing 95% of the work, who knows the end user the company no longer has to deal with, who does the R&D and makes the product... be content with just taking the money the outsourcing company is paying?

And how are outsourcers going to enforce non-compete contracts in courts with judges they can't buy because they don't know the territory?

However, while it'll be nice to see justice done, losing a good chunk of the Fortune 500 overseas won't help us a whole lot, we won't even get their tax money.

Just the bills from our insurance companies, banks, etc.