Re: Jobs (or the lack of....)

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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