"Outsourcing" has become a bad word in the United States. Many of our citizens have had to change careers, because the types of jobs they used to hold are now being performed outside the country for a much lower cost to their former companies.
This has helped to fuel the political fires here and the current administration has been charged with declaring "war" on the middle class. In siding with the corporations in favor of profits over citizens, they have lost favor with the people. Personal pocketbooks and bank account sizes belie the administration's assertion that the economy is strong. The facts say the amount of people under the poverty level has grown, so the rich must be getting richer.
America's loss is India's gain, when it comes to two types of commonly outsourced jobs - programmers and call center employees. The latter is familiar to most of us who have had to call in to our credit card company customer service, software support centers, or catalog ordering numbers. It seems most of these jobs have been outsourced to Indian firms. Although the language barrier can sometimes pose minor difficulties, there really is no reason anymore why people all across the globe can't service the customers of any nation. Technology makes it all possible today.
Computer programming is another profession that is heavily outsourced to Indian firms. India has worked in computer programming. Many of the United States' largest companies outsource their programming jobs to Indian firms with great success. This takes several forms. Sometimes the U.S. company plans and administers the project closely. Other times the Indian firm takes on all the planning and project management duties as well as the programming. One advantage is overall project speed. This is because the planning, review, system testing can be done here, corrections requested and sent to India, who programs them "overnight" and we have the changes first thing in the morning in the United States. The most important reason all outsourcing is done by American companies is simply cost. Indian workers make far less than Americans. Programmers here can start out of college making over $50,000 annually. An experienced programmer in India will make the equivalent of about $10,000 annually. The cost difference is less spectacular in the call center workers, but it's still substantial. Since business is driven by the bottom line, many inconveniences are tolerated to gain this distinct financial advantage.
A television show called "30 Days" told the story of an American programmer who lost his job to outsourcing and traveled to India to get it back. There he found these two industries, programming and call center work, to be very prevalent. Many different Indian firms were contracting out to U.S. companies. What really surprised him was the relative professional standing between the Indian workers performing them. In India, it is the call center worker who is more highly respected and highly paid! This particular programmer ended up going for a call center job, where he had to prove how well he could act and sound American!
So is outsourcing fair? And what will be the result of shipping all these jobs overseas? The U.S. government allowed this to happen; can they do anything to stop it? Should they? Is this, as some people say, a selling out of the middle class? What do the unemployment rates mean, if a large percentage of the employed are making substantially less than they used to before their jobs were outsourced? These are highly debated questions and hot political topics these days. Financial globalization is still in its infancy and these questions will continue to challenge us to find the best solution for everyone.
Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Outsourcing |
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