RE: The Journal News: Flow of jobs overseas has human toll

Lou,
How about enforcing the laws we currently have on the books? How about not
purchasing products who have moved their call centers to India, the
Philippines or China? How about requiring the label "Made and supported in
the USA" ? How about just making corporate weenies responsible to their
stockholders, their communities and their employees rather than themselves?
Just a few ideas.
John Brandt
iStudio400.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Lou Forlini [mailto:lforlini@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 2:44 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: The Journal News: Flow of jobs overseas has human toll


At 11:57 AM -0400 7/29/03, Douglas Handy wrote:
>When a company hires an offshore firm to code a project for them and the
>software is returned via the internet, how should the tariffs be
>imposed?  What
>if the firm provided support or maintenance instead of a new project?
>
>What if it is just a call center which is moved offshore?  For example, our
>small town used to have a call center which employed hundreds of
>people for tech
>support for a major PC manufacturer.  They recently moved the entire
operation
>to the Phillipines where they are not putting in a 1600 seat call center.
>
>What do you do?  Add international tarrifs to raise the price of long
distance
>to compensate for the labor rate differential?
>
>What wonderful regulations and taxes apply in a situation like an
>offshore call
>center?  The concept of tarrifs seem to be easier to apply to things
>like steel,
>not that it has saved the steel industry either.

Doug,

    I don't know the answer.  In the case of a software company that 
used more than 50% offshore development to create a product, I would 
class the product as an import.  But I'm just as sure that any 
company that would do that sort of thing would also re-classify as 
many US-based executive secretary jobs to "product development" as it 
took to get around any such law.

    In cases like call centers and offshore IT development, I have no 
idea how to fix it.  For the call center, no long-distance tariff 
would work because I'm sure that these companies would think nothing 
of using Internet voice from overseas to a station in the US to get 
around that.

    I would think that in the long run a difference in quality would 
be perceived in the marketplace, but past experience shows that the 
vast majority of consumers are price-conscious to the exclusion of 
all else (they like to complain but won't pay more to resolve the 
complaints).

    So are we all doomed?  Should I pack up and move to India so I can 
get a job in IT?

    Regards,

    - Lou Forlini
      Software Engineer
      System Support Products, Inc.
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