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Subject:Re: Offshoring: San Jose Mercury News article? From:eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 11 Nov 2003 13:21:13 -0500
"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca> wrote on 11/11/2003 11:47:21 AM:
> <<That's the answer. If your work has become commoditised,
> develop new skills that aren't.>>
> That's only a short-term solution. Any skills we can
> develop, Indian writers can develop just as quickly.
Perhaps, but the fact that Indian companies are now looking for foreign workers
means the market is drying up. That means that prices will be driven up in
India. Also, when I said skills I also meant the knowledge in the technology
sector in which you work. Off-shoring and outsourcing happen after the cutting
edge has passed. Stay on the cutting edge of technology and your job will be
safer.
Or, in your case Geoff, I suppose it's unlikely that India will develop much in
the way of forestry technology and research.
> The thing about working in the knowledge sector
> is that it doesn't require much in the way of capital:
> intelligence is a
> rare commodity, but it's every bit as common in the third
> world as it is here. Probably more so, in fact.
But many sectors requiring large capital investments and intensive labour have
already moved overseas, so what's the difference? It isn't the intelligence
level of the labour or the size of required capital that are important it's the
use you're going to put them to that is. Capital investment for commodity goods
and services goes to the cheapest suppliers. While it seems knowledge workers
are easier to move I don't really think so. It doesn't matter whether it's a
techwriting shop, auto manufacturer, or steel mill. The scale of investment in
each case is identical between overseas and local. It's just that now you can
ship service and knowledge industry product as reliably as you can ship
containers of shoes or automobiles.
> The short-sightedness of the offshoring attitude beggars description: If I
> have no money to buy Microsoft's software because they've moved my job
> offshore, they've lost me as a client.
Sorry, but that's a poor argument. Microsoft's main clients are not Microsoft
employees. If you're talking about your employer laying you off, then that's out
of Microsoft's hands, except in so far as they should market their products to a
wide enough group of consumers that a change in one company or industry won't
put their operations in peril. Thousands of companies are letting people go
everyday without a care for the survival of their suppliers. Are you suggesting
the impact to your local grocery store should be taken into consideration before
your company can make a decision to fire or lay-off? Where will the needed
support money come from to keep your company and all the dependant suppliers
artificially alive?
Hundred's of types of jobs have been made redundant and been eliminated by
outsourcing, increases in productivity, automation, and advancement of
technology. All those telephone operators that once could afford to buy phones
on their phone company wages that were then laid-off certainly didn't cripple
the communication industry or the economy.
Sure, the laid-off buggy-whip makers stopped buying horse buggies. But that's
because they all found other employment and started buying cars. The original
saboteurs and Luddites fought the industrial revolution. While they initially
suffered economically, the world economy owes its current size and might to the
commoditisation and elimination of their jobs.
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