So here we are in the spring of 2009 where flowers are blooming and American jobs are dying. One gift that time has given me is the ability to look back at mistakes and ...sometimes... learn from them.
As one who started out in technology programming machines that are now in the "Computer History Museum" ( located in Mountain View, California), I can remember when American ingenuity and American innovation had the romantic endorsement of our culture to follow the motivating words of the old Star Trek introduction narrative... "To go where none have gone before". In this case, the early technology pioneers were romantic figures that dared to tame an unknown world of data by capturing information and making sense of that collection beyond just a calculation at the bottom of a report. The modern Silicon Valley "was" identified as a center of technology innovation because our culture encouraged creativity and thinking outside the box at that time. Alas, I believe our culture is losing that aspect of creativity as jobs today have been lost to the outsourcing trend.
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* For purposes of clarification note that, according to the U.S. Citizenship Immigration Service the "H-1B visa program" referred to in these reports is defined as follows:
"U.S. employers may employ foreign workers with specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field and a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. Typical H-1B occupations include architects, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors and college professors. The current 2009 annual cap on the H-1B category is
In my ongoing discussions I will especially focus on how the outsourcing of American jobs has caused a reduction in American technical expertise and greater dependence on foreign workers. I want to point out that the very skills that define the need for foreign workers are the same skills and training denied to American workers. After all, why train an American when a foreign worker is cheaper? In addition, I want to establish that corporate America's outsourcing direction has been validated primarily by such motives as greed, subservience to share holders, increased profit margin at any cost, and avoidance of federal taxes. I am suggesting at this time that the carrier host for what I call the "greed virus" has been spread by this job outsourcing process.
Given the current economic crisis in this country, the "greed virus" infection appears to have spread to other sectors of the American business environment such as banks and credit card predators. This "infection" has also allowed corporate America to force wages down within the IT market and (given that IT jobs have been at risk to outsourcing) has caused a drop in students seeking computer science as a career path. The drop in computer science career interest, of course, means that more dependence will fall to the outsourced resources. Something wrong with this picture?
Could it be that the price of cheap foreign labor and a business culture that continues to overlook the importance of a respectful relationship between companies and employees has partly caused our current economic crisis? In this report, I have focused on technology because I personally know many technology people who have lost their jobs ( and expertise ) to the outsourcing process. *
I now suggest that outsourcing American jobs (logically based on greed rather than a trusting relationship with employees ) has acted very much like a viral infection creating an adversarial relationship between employees and employers. This has resulted in a breakdown of our national economic vitality. I will later be saying more about the "outsourced virus", but for now, I invite other ideas and thoughts on the following questions for my next post:
1. How should America resolve this breakdown of trust and respect between employees and employers?
2. How will this country regain its economic health... both in the technology field and the overall American job market?
3. Do you believe there's something wrong with the H1B visa quota math?
4. Do you you think that more H1B visa permits should be allowed in this country?
* As a footnote outside of the technology focus, I believe we can use, as a dysfunctional example of corruptness, that the "greed virus" has also infected the integrity of our banks and related credit card companies.
As one who started out in technology programming machines that are now in the "Computer History Museum" ( located in Mountain View, California), I can remember when American ingenuity and American innovation had the romantic endorsement of our culture to follow the motivating words of the old Star Trek introduction narrative... "To go where none have gone before". In this case, the early technology pioneers were romantic figures that dared to tame an unknown world of data by capturing information and making sense of that collection beyond just a calculation at the bottom of a report. The modern Silicon Valley "was" identified as a center of technology innovation because our culture encouraged creativity and thinking outside the box at that time. Alas, I believe our culture is losing that aspect of creativity as jobs today have been lost to the outsourcing trend.
----------------------------------------------------------------
* For purposes of clarification note that, according to the U.S. Citizenship Immigration Service the "H-1B visa program" referred to in these reports is defined as follows:
"U.S. employers may employ foreign workers with specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field and a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. Typical H-1B occupations include architects, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors and college professors. The current 2009 annual cap on the H-1B category is
- General Quota - 65,000
- Advanced Degree Quota - 20,000
- Chile and Singapore - 6,800 ( from 65,000)
In my ongoing discussions I will especially focus on how the outsourcing of American jobs has caused a reduction in American technical expertise and greater dependence on foreign workers. I want to point out that the very skills that define the need for foreign workers are the same skills and training denied to American workers. After all, why train an American when a foreign worker is cheaper? In addition, I want to establish that corporate America's outsourcing direction has been validated primarily by such motives as greed, subservience to share holders, increased profit margin at any cost, and avoidance of federal taxes. I am suggesting at this time that the carrier host for what I call the "greed virus" has been spread by this job outsourcing process.
Given the current economic crisis in this country, the "greed virus" infection appears to have spread to other sectors of the American business environment such as banks and credit card predators. This "infection" has also allowed corporate America to force wages down within the IT market and (given that IT jobs have been at risk to outsourcing) has caused a drop in students seeking computer science as a career path. The drop in computer science career interest, of course, means that more dependence will fall to the outsourced resources. Something wrong with this picture?
Could it be that the price of cheap foreign labor and a business culture that continues to overlook the importance of a respectful relationship between companies and employees has partly caused our current economic crisis? In this report, I have focused on technology because I personally know many technology people who have lost their jobs ( and expertise ) to the outsourcing process. *
I now suggest that outsourcing American jobs (logically based on greed rather than a trusting relationship with employees ) has acted very much like a viral infection creating an adversarial relationship between employees and employers. This has resulted in a breakdown of our national economic vitality. I will later be saying more about the "outsourced virus", but for now, I invite other ideas and thoughts on the following questions for my next post:
1. How should America resolve this breakdown of trust and respect between employees and employers?
2. How will this country regain its economic health... both in the technology field and the overall American job market?
3. Do you believe there's something wrong with the H1B visa quota math?
4. Do you you think that more H1B visa permits should be allowed in this country?
* As a footnote outside of the technology focus, I believe we can use, as a dysfunctional example of corruptness, that the "greed virus" has also infected the integrity of our banks and related credit card companies.
I do agree that losing American jobs to outsourcing is painful ... but ... what is the truth that outsourcing actually creates ...MORE ... jobs in this country?
ReplyDeleteYes I have heard the logic that outsourcing is good for America, however, there is a possibility that corporate executives use that logic to justify raising the H1b visa quotas.
ReplyDeleteBoth outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing capacity of American know how has come to roost her at home in America..... the unemployment rate is up to 15% in some of the manufacturing sectors of ths country where the livelihood of American families is at stake... very sad and unfortunate in this intertwined global economic climate.
ReplyDeleteBoth outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing capacity of American know how has come to roost her at home in America..... the unemployment rate is up to 15% in some of the manufacturing sectors of ths country where the livelihood of American families is at stake... very sad and unfortunate in this intertwined global economic climate.
ReplyDeleteToday's news indicates that President Obama will promote a change in tax rules to tax American companies that outsource American jobs and promote tax breaks to companies that hire Americans. What is your guess on the effectiveness of this new direction? Will it result in a direction that will open new jobs to Americans or will it (based on the skeptics) cause a negative effect on business environment vitality?
ReplyDeleteVery good question. I would like to reference an article from the 30 Mar 09 magazine "Information Week" title "The Dangerous Prejudice Against Outsourcing". This article was written by Bob Evans who is described as a senior VP and director of Information Week's Global CIO unit. Mr Evans says "When CIO's employ outsourcing to remain competitive and create new customer value, the outrage industry calls it anti-American and sceeches about the loss of our jobs". This seems to me to be a common response of corporate American executives who are not looking at the big picture involving the motivation of "innovative" Americans who never have a chance to work their talents in the local job market. In fact, I believe that many young Americans that should be encouraged to follow a career in technology are forced to look at other career paths. Consequently, I believe that his mind set (as describe by Bob Evans quoted previously) creates the illusion that we need to outsource American jobs because we can't find innovate people here. I invite anyone who agrees or disagrees with me to engage in dialog.
ReplyDeleteI don't think outsourcing is about being unable to find innovative people -- it's about finding ways to spend less. Those driving businesses here today are the money crunchers; they want more money for the shareholders and execs. The competition is really about who takes home the most.
ReplyDelete