Lumpish Scholar's Journal: Outsourcing watch: What scares who?

I stumbled across this article, which loads slowly, so I'm going to quote few choice bits.

Backlash: What scares US of A?

Backlash will soon be passe, but what scares the outsourced community is the ripple effect. Here is a run down on what fuels the backlash fire!

NEW DELHI: Anti-outsourcing legislation, presidential candidates calling it treachery and the biggest scare of all times--job migration, what exactly is the US of A worried about? Perhaps it is the fear of the inevitable--in the times of global economy, true as it was for the manufacturing jobs--passing the work to cheap labor that can deliver on time and with the right quality. Experts say that what the US is trying to do is unnatural for true economical development.

Historically, the US government realized that agricultural jobs could well be made into manufacturing jobs, which later turned into more service jobs and finally letting them into the other destinations and generating better employment opportunities. With a strong lineage talking about getting cheap labor, what is it that is [sic.] withholding federal government to curb this phenomenon?

Four reasons that are fueling the backlash fire are: 2004 being the election year, the job drain, the historical prejudice against India [emphasis mine] and other developing nations and the issue of patriotism....

... many observers expect the offshore trend to continue. And its long-term implications for the US IT industry have some people deeply concerned. As the bulk of technology work moves offshore, the deep, experiential knowledge and IPs might move offshore, which can be a prime concern for the US.

The other reason is more emotional in nature. Americans have refuted the usage of Linux, saying that it is not made by Americans or not made in America. [Honest, folks, that's what it says.] Absolutely similar sentiments are prevailing for the outsourcing backlash. Why get serviced by non-Americans? These sentiments too have been passed down historically, and with time and experience, as US realizes the pros of outsourcing, this too shall pass.

To sum it up, the waters are rough and first waters will flourish for the times to come.

"... its long-term implications for the US IT industry have some people deeply concerned. As the bulk of technology work moves offshore, the deep, experiential knowledge and IPs might move offshore, which can be a prime concern for the US."

Yeah, in addition to fear of me personally losing my job, and concerns the country's whole middle class might evaporate, that's just about exactly what scares me.

Something else that strikes me as really weird: the offshore guys receiving the jobs are getting just as defensive as the domestic guys losing the jobs.

What do you think?

I think...

[Zarf]

we need to have an economy that isn't always looking for the next big thing all the time. This national boom-town mentality has got to end. We need to re-imagine our society in a more sustainable ... steady-state structure.

Unless we start building a Mars colony or something.

An interesting thing

[fractaltiger]

Outsourcing seems to complete the cycle: Brains from India seem to be flooding certain education fields, such as medicine and business/economics. In a way, outsourcing means that money lost in India from the migrated minds will make its way back there in the form of outsourced seats. (Unless the Philippines takes over soon, like they fear --and damn, latin america might be even more cost effective and local to USA economy's own eco(n)system [sic], but they don't speak english natively)

Now, to start ranting

Re:An interesting thing

[Cyberdyne]

We are losing jobs to another country.

Meanwhile, they're "losing" jobs right back to the US. Where do you think the Indian airlines get their 747s? (Over the last century, America has "lost" every single job at least twice over...)

I've said it before: Bloomberg radio mentioned that the industrial indices were picking up this year and somehow the jobless claims did not improve proportionally.

Yes: instead, they've been covering most (but not all) of their increased workload through increased productivit

What do I think?

[Kris_J]

I think that every time I have to deal with a clueless Indian call centre critter I want to buy my next product from that company a little less. I'm talking about you Compaq/HP.

Companies that outsource highly technical jobs to generic placement agents rather than specialist consultants will collapse under their own stupidity. There's no quality control, no pride in work, no sense of honour in doing a good job and no point in thinking ahead because you might not be there next week. Much as you wouldn't wa