So can I stop feeling bad for downloading Adobe Master Collection CS4? Or did that not help layoffs?

 

Even with the outsourced jobs and cheaper jobs which means more profit for the company, they still sell their software for the same price as they did when they had all American employees, so getting more for less doesn't apply here, it has to do with the company wanting more for less.


Also, in regards to an earlier question, the jobs varied and no, the people that were laid off weren't laid off because they were overpaid, it was actually quite the opposite. Some of the people that were laid off (that I knew personally) have been working there for over 15 years which means that they were hired during a time when the base salary was much lower then it is now, or during the tech boom where salaries sky rocketed... What I'm trying to say is that the people who were hired in 1996 for example were making less then someone who started in 2001 due to the difference in base salary when they started, even with promotions and such involved.

 

So we've effectively eliminated the steel industry in America, and shipped the tools to China. Therefore, we have to import (and pay for shipping, etc.) the steel to make the cars that we do make here in America. We have to import the steel to build the buildings, we have to import the steel to repair our infrastructure (say, how's that Bay Bridge coming along?). By your reasoning, it was the "simpler" work we got rid of, so we could spend our time designing cars, designing infrastructure, but who pays for it?

Bad example - You outsourced locally - to a company whose employees live in your town/county, and invested your money back into your own local economy. Pedro, the landscape engineer, earns $20 of the $50 you paid to the company. Presumably, he pays taxes, he buys food locally, he keeps a roof over his head locally, he drives his car locally...the company who hired him pays for gas locally, pays for new equipment locally, insures the business, and pays other salaries of LOCAL jobs. How does this differ from sending the customer service jobs to India? How much of the money comes back to the American economy? A MINUTE FRACTION compared to the amount left here in the economy if you left the job local. So the upper level manager and owner of the company from India can afford a $70,000 Corvette - out of the TENS OF MILLIONS of dollars that have been shipped offshore.

I don't grow my own wheat to make my own bread, but I buy from the local bakery - supporting my LOCAL economy. I purchase shoes made in America to support the American economy - be it in a town far from mine, but still keeping the support here in this country.


It is, and I believe I demonstrated how in my above statement.

ROFL - My question to you is this: How many people from China (live/work/have the outsourced jobs) are eating in the United States? Umm, please. Those who are on vacation perhaps - but the common worker in China doesn't make enough to afford to take vacations. Have you taken a look at the balance of trade with foreign countries lately? No? Here, take a look at the trade imbalance from China alone - the amount of money pouring OUT of the United States economy vs. how much we have coming in:

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

Trade with China : 2009

NOTE: All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars, and not seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified.
Month Exports Imports Balance
January 2009 4,178.1 24,748.0 -20,569.9
February 2009 4,678.4 18,874.5 -14,196.1
March 2009 5,569.9 21,187.7 -15,617.8
April 2009 5,164.9 21,918.7 -16,753.8
May 2009 5,247.8 22,731.5 -17,483.8
June 2009 5,549.2 23,979.1 -18,430.0
July 2009 5,274.3 25,691.2 -20,416.9
August 2009 5,553.1 25,784.7 -20,231.7
TOTAL 41,215.7 184,915.5 -143,699.9

For those of you who don't want to look at the link, here's 2009 for you. We're currently down 1,436,999,000,000.00 this year alone. Yes that is TRILLION WITH A "T". How much of the "simpler" work is work that could be manufactured in the United States? Anyone care to guess?

Outsourcing to another state in the UNITED STATES to support the economy of THIS REPUBLIC who is a UNION of states - not really outsourcing.

Please again refer to FREE TRADE BOTH WAYS - and the IMBALANCE that has been created...

How does this work? Our manufacturing base has been moved offshore, so much so that they'll source their needs cheaper from somewhere outside the United States.

Must be nice to drink the kool-aid of not having to work hard (lost our work ethic in this country) and sit back and rake in the money.

So what you're saying is that everyone here should have keyboard punching, sitting in office "high-tech" low-labor jobs and the world will be grand?
Sorry, I guess you missed seeing "Wall-E" - and the irony that comes from having everything spoon fed without labor.

 

Getting laid off sucks hairy toes....I've been there a few times.

Hope it's OK to say this but I'm hiring if you or someone you know is looking for a job - the only bad part about what I am looking for is that it is a very specialized field of IT called Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing. Job seekers with this type of experience can should PM me or PM me to get my work email.

Thanks and good luck!

 

Roo,

You failed to comprehend anything I wrote. You also failed to prove how outsourcing suddenly stops being a positive thing the second it occurs over arbitrarily drawn national boundries. When you can clearly make that argument, I'm all ears.

 

You can't begin even BEGIN to comprehend what I wrote above, or you're overloaded with the rhetoric that your corporate overlords have subliminally brainwashed you to believe.

Try reading it, try quoting me IN CONTEXT and WHAT I TYPED, not changing words around. If the only thing you could come up with is a mis-quote about a movie, then you sadly lack the intelligence to grasp what's happening to our economy.
(I need the popcorn because I think this thread is about to get good).

 

I agree with Roo on this topic. You wonder why the US is going broke, the millions of people that had manufacturing jobs were making a live-able salary where they paid income tax on that salary(say 50,000 a year). Now that those jobs are gone the US isn't collecting income tax on that 50,000. Now they are coming up with ingenious ways of generating tax money, like putting a tax on text messaging.

 

I agree with Roo on this topic. You wonder why the US is going broke, the millions of people that had manufacturing jobs were making a live-able salary where they paid income tax on that salary(say 50,000 a year). Now that those jobs are gone the US isn't collecting income tax on that 50,000. Now they are coming up with ingenious ways of generating tax money, like putting a tax on text messaging.

 

wtf indeed.

 

America is going broke, easier to find cheaper jobs overseas in India/China. Sorry but you guys really need to wake up, and people need to realize this economy is going to SUFFOCATE extremely fast and nasty. WE DO NOT HAVE THE JOBS to sustain for the next decade what is about to implode in the United States.

All the jobs are outsourced, we, Americans, need to understand we have to go back to the basics and MAKE THINGS here for cheaper prices than normal and compete with foreign markets.

Anywho, this is going to suck and suck really bad soon.

 

I'm sorry but this is completely false. We produce more in this country now than we ever have:



Here's a good article explaining the current state of manufacturing in the US:

http://cafehayek.com/2008/04/the-strange-wor.html

When we make assertions based upon rumors, guesses, old-wives tales, and soundbites we hear in the media, chances are good that we're not going to get to the truth.

I will agree that things are probably going to get a lot worse before they get better but the problem is not outsourcing and it not that 'America doesn't make anything anymore!'.

 

I think that data is somewhat skewed because the US population in 1960 was around 170m, almost half as much as today, so of course manufacturing output had to increase even if we don't manufacture all things in this country.

 

I appreciate you coming back to the thread with something better...however skewed and biased the source is. The manufacturing statistics shown are skewed, but why? Those show the "manufacturing" totals of all the U.S. based businesses. Sounds good, right? Then I take a look at the closest thing to me right now (other than the keyboard) and I see an iPhone. Well, Apple "manufactured" the product, they're a United States based business, so it counts, right? According to this chart, it does. The REALITY of the situation is that the iPhone is NOT manufactured here in this country, using American labor, using American sourced parts, but it's manufactured in China. Surprised? Big American names like General Electric, Honeywell, and other "American" brands have been doing this for years to return more dividends to the shareholders. Cost of making the item goes down, sell at the same price as if it were American made, profits go up!!

http://smartselling.cincom.com/2009/...turing/#high_3

^interesting counterpoint.

Especially interesting is the part highlighted in red.

http://www.worldsteel.org/?action=newsdetail&id=279

^I went to worldsteel.org - who tracks steel manufacturing, a foundation in building and infrastructure, and here's what they had to say:

Anyone see a trend here?