RE: Jobs (or the lack of....) -- MIDRANGE-L

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Before I started programming as a career I owned a cast iron foundry.  I've
been through this battle and still have the emotional and financial scars.
At the end, I could buy finished cast iron delivered to my doorstep from
India for less than the cost of my raw pig iron.  We blamed unions, we
blamed energy costs, we blamed environmental costs, we blamed fringe
benefits.  In short we spent a lot of energy blaming the world.  It didn't
make a difference.  We still closed and put close to 50 unskilled American
families out of work.

About quality: Don't sing that tune; find some other tune.  Programmers
learn fast.

In the end for my own emotional well-being I had to accept the idea that I
am a citizen of the World.  Raising the standard of living for impoverished
people can't be considered a bad thing.

How can we compete at our high earnings?  I haven't an answer, but I'm sure
we can't ever win by stepping on the necks of impoverished people fighting
to feed their own children.




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Booth Martin   http://www.MartinVT.com
Booth@MartinVT.com
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-------Original Message-------

From: midrange-l@midrange.com
Date: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 10:14:55 AM
To: 'midrange-l@midrange.com'; midrange-jobs@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Jobs (or the lack of....)

Mr. Nelson states :
"We need to turn around the argument that the offshore can do the
work for less money to one
where the work is done with higher quality in less time. "


The answer to that statement is very simple, and it has everything
to do with cost. When we go to Wal-Mart to buy a shirt, it's made somewhere
other than the U.S.A., but we don't care because it's inexpensive. The
shirt's quality, while usually less than desirable, is acceptable because of
the price of the shirt. Translated into software, just look at
Windows...we can't stand the fact that we have to reboot 2 times a week, but
the $110.00 price tag for the OS offsets our frustration.

Hence, a U.S. company has a strong financial incentive to use
offshore labor because while the quality may be lacking (and this is
debatable as time goes by), the price for that labor is so damn cheap, they
don't care.

Finally, outsourcing turns labor into a capitalized cost instead of
a long-term commitment involving labor disputes, last productivity due to
illness, insurance, retirement issues, and so forth.

So, what's the solution? I don't know, but I do know that preaching
quality ain't gonn'a save our jobs, so let's explore other avenues too.


Just my .02 worth. :-)




Ray Shahan

"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans", John Lennon
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