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

I'm just saying that we need to take care of our own people before sending
our cash elsewhere.
We're not stepping on anybody's necks. Their governments are.

Paul Nelson
Braxton-Reed, Inc.
630-327-8665 Cell
708-923-7354 Home
pnelson@braxton-reed.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Booth Martin" <Booth@MartinVT.com>
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 9:39 AM
Subject: RE: Jobs (or the lack of....)


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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.
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Booth Martin   http://www.MartinVT.com
> Booth@MartinVT.com
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> -------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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