I'm seeing entirely too much of this "offshore job movement" posting on
the main list, and I suppose I just needed someone to flame me. ;-}
I'm tired of hearing the whining about this phenomenon. Companies don't
do this because they're bored or evil or anything of the sort. It's a
business decision. It's a matter of cost. It costs less to host many
jobs overseas. Plain and simple.
Corporations are owned by stockholders, who have a stake in the
profitability and continued existence of the corporation. In order to
get these things, management has to increase sales and decrease costs.
They [mis]spend scads of money to market and sell their products to
increase sales. The other side of the equation is costs. If a company
makes enough profit, it can invest in R&D to determine how to more
cheaply deliver its products. This could mean replacing metal parts with
plastic ones, moving plants from Detroit to Tennessee, or any of a
number of other things.
Offshoring jobs is another way of reducing costs. I can pay some guy in
India less money for doing the same job. And I wouldn't do this why?
Most of the arguments I've seen against offshoring are pretty specious,
and really come down to, "It's not fair!" And most of the people who
complain don't really say what they appear to mean, either 1) profit is
bad, or 2) companies _owe_ employees.
First, profit is what makes the business world go around. Without it,
there would be no business. Employees go along with this as long as they
get what they want out of the corporation (money, benefits, niceness,
whatever). But once the tide appears to turn against them, the true
nature of employees is revealed: profit is okay until it interferes with
_my_ slice of the pie. Or, _your_ profit is okay until it interferes
with _my_ profit. Unfortunately, you're dealing with a company that's a
lot more powerful than you are. And its fate has a far greater effect on
the rest of the country than you do. They win, hands down. Their profit
is more important than yours. You can prove this by going in and socking
your manager one day. The company will go on, and you'll be without a
job.
Second, businesses don't _owe_ employees. More precisely, businesses owe
employees whatever they agreed to when the employees signed on, no more.
That could be salary, benefits, day care or whatever. Beyond that,
corporations don't owe employees anything. They don't have to be nice to
employees, provide clean restrooms or private email accounts. If you
work for a company for fifty years, they don't owe you a gold watch or a
pension, unless you both agreed to it in the first place. Should
businesses treat their employees with dignity, courtesy and respect?
Sure. And smart corporations do. Dumb ones have a higher turnover. But
they don't _owe_ that dignity, courtesy and respect. If you believe they
do owe you this stuff, you probably also believe that poor people are
_owed_ welfare from the government. Companies don't make happy
employees, they make widgets. Happy employees are okay as long as it
doesn't interfere with making profitable widgets.
It's a laissez faire economy. All things being equal, the market
regulates itself. Disaster normally accompanies government intervention
in free markets. But part of the deal is that business changes. An
agrarian economy yields to a manufacturing economy. A manufacturing
economy yields to an service economy. Auto manufacturing moves from
Detroit to Tennessee and Kentucky. The entertainment industry moves from
New York to Los Angeles (the beginning of the motion picture industry).
Somebody builds a computer that fits on a desktop, and a whole industry
is born. When millions of people get trained in computers and IT, and
the bubble bursts, thousands of people are left unemployed. It's not
some sinister plot by evil corporations who secretly hate all employees.
It's business.
Now, there is the related issue of H1B visas, but it's really more of a
government than a business issue. Businesses want to offshore their
jobs? Well, I just checked the Constitution, and there's nothing there
about that. It's a free market, so go ahead. But wait-- you also want to
let people from these other (sucky) countries come here and fill in for
Americans in the job market? I know I read something about _that_ in the
Constitution. Yep, there it is: immigration. Yep, I _can_ do something
about that. You want to get educated here? Fine. But our country doesn't
suck and yours does. So when you're done, you have to promise to go back
there and make your country un-sucky with this education you just paid
us a lot of money for. Only fair. Besides, the world needs a lot fewer
sucky countries. And look at it this way-- if you make your country suck
less, maybe you'll stop hitting us up for international aid money. Our
taxes will go down (yeah, right), and our companies can afford to pay
their employees more, so we can keep more of our jobs onshore. Sweet
deal, eh? ;-}
Paul
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