RE: How the world becomes wealthier (was Re: Offshoring: San Jose Mercury News article)

["Helena Jerney" <hjerney -at- actional -dot- com>]

Richard G. Combs wrote
<snip>
Before I finished replying to his first salvo, k k calmed down and revised
his remarks. But, here's my response to the first message anyway. My general
points apply equally to the lower-key second edition. ;-) So, initially, k k
wrote:

> Corporate newspeak at its finest. Offshoring makes us
> richer. So that makes it all better. It's OK for
> Americans to lose their houses and go two years and
> more without work because that somehow makes us
> richer. <snip>

Anyone who remains unemployed for *two years* is sitting around feeling
sorry for himself, cashing a government check, and waiting for someone to
hand him something. Sorry, no sympathy.
</snip>

Ok, so I usually lurk (actually, this is the first time I ever remember posting).

I have one question: regardless of whether you agree or disagree with offshoring, could you please tell me where you're located that someone can sit at home colleting unemployment for two years? It certainly doesn't happen to be here in California. I don't know what the situation is for others, but having done well as a tech writer during the boom, and having been able to sustain during the bust, I can still tell you that there have been plenty of good people during the bust in Silicon Valley who haven't been sitting around feeling sorry for themselves while cashing government checks, and who have still been without jobs for a couple of years. None of the people I know that have had to go through such experience were expecting anything from anyone. They tended to be experienced, well-rounded, well sought after professionals (pre-boom) in varieties of tech jobs, who just simply fell victim to the fact that at least around here, we went through a phase of months and months without more than literally a handfull of jobs that opened every so often. 

Some of these people have children to support, houses (not extravagant boom-era mansions) to pay for, and food to put on the table. Not everyone in the tech industry cashed in on the boom, as there were just as many failed boom-era businesses are there were successful ones, it's just that no one likes to talk about that and no one remembers that the failure rate of the tech industry has always been high, regardless of the booms or boomlets that are present at times. And no one likes to talk about the fact that "cashing-in" was always a matter of luck . . . always a gamble.

While some people did plan better than others, being able to survive periods of unemployment without losing the basics, even then savings, investments, retirement funds, and equities have been used up. It must be very sad to watch everything you've built for many years dissapear in a matter or months or even a couple of years, especially when it is not an extravagant amount. 

I really object to the lack of empathy in your postings. You cannot judge people or groups of people with such sweeping statements without showing a modicum of an idea of what their situations may have been. I really don't see many tech workers here waiting for a handout. Most people I know that are or have been in those circumstances have tried to do something constructive with their time, from job hunting relentlessly to changing careers, to moving to far away places. All of these people have had their lives and their families disrupted. And whether or not offshoring is the "right" or the "wrong" thing for the ecomnomy, which we call all discuss from the comfort of our own jobs, does not lessen the pain of the families that are displaced in the process.

I personally consider myself extremely lucky (so far) to still be employed, employable, and at a time in my life when disruptions like these, while stressful, do not cause huge concerns yet of issues such as lack of health insurance, for example, or the inability of changing careers due to age. A government check does not pay even half of a mortgage around here, not even the rent, let alone food, let alone health insurance. I cannot imagine anyone in the tech industry in Silicon Valley, sitting and collecting unemployment for any extended amount of time even if they could (I think the limit is 20 weeks, by the way), without doing anything about it but sitting and feeling sorry for themselves. 

</end of soapbox>


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