Reader Feedback on As I See It: Induced Labor

Published: April 30, 2007

Victor:

I enjoy reading your articles and your most recent one, As I See It: Induced Labor, was excellent, but I disagree with your conclusion. I can't fault you for trying to conclude with something positive, but it's misleading.

India and China are definitely not running out of candidates for outsourcing and H-1B visas--I think we can both agree on that. The only phenomenon that is actually slowing things down a bit is the Y2K-type job-hopping that's occurring in India. But American CEOs are so thrilled with the idea of shedding full-time employees with their costly salaries, benefits, and retirements that they could actually care less if it really works or not. I think that even if it were discovered that some of the outsourcing companies were actually owned by Al-Qaida, it wouldn't slow it down significantly.

Businesses have always tried to lower wages from the start of the Industrial Revolution until now by importing labor from farms and other countries, fighting unionism, and even using slave labor. There was one exception (probably a few others) to this rule and that was post World War II America, during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. This is when we were so far ahead of the rest of the world and there was such a sense of American ingenuity that there was no thought of globalization. Unions became powerful (and corrupt), but they were still a voice for the working man. These were times when political candidates (and certainly presidential ones) could not succeed without their backing. In the coming election, there will be more time spent on single sex marriage than on the outsourcing issue.

The real problem will arise when the people with the high-priced cars and expensive suits have no other option but take the $8 per hour jobs. Who will buy the SUVs, the big homes, or take vacations? Who will be able to afford $600 TVs or $100 a month cable services or even expensive medical care? We seem to be on a precipice where everything seems to be tilting just perfectly for profit margins, consumers have enough money and confidence to continue buying, but that will tilt and when it does it just may do so rather suddenly--as it did in 1929.

--Jay

Great article. The additional H-1B program for developers were never needed. It was just an attempt to displace U.S. software developers. The H-1B workers may have initially started at lower salaries, but after they had been here a while, they wanted the higher salaries of the workers that they had displace. So, companies have not saved money; they have just gotten rid of U.S. workers rather than train them and now have an almost completely new generation of developers (on the emerging languages) that are from outside the country. These actions have reduced my annual income by tens of thousands of dollars over the last 15 to 20 years.

Back in the 1970s, I tried to tell my brother-in-law and his insurance co-workers that, if they continued to buy so many foreign built cars (they almost all drove foreign vehicles--cars and SUVs), then pretty soon there would not be any U.S. workers left to buy their insurance. And, I think we are starting to see that today.

Thanks again for helping to expose this issue.

--Chuck

When I was energized against offshoring--I still hate it--and while I was writing a book of my own, I was writing some responses to your competitor's articles on offshoring.

In a lot of ways, I see it your way. I thought this article today was just outstanding.

--Brian

As always, today's article was well thought out, well-researched and well-written. Keep up the excellent wordsmithing!

--Lori

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As I See It: Induced Labor

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