I caught this story on NPR today. Seems that a woman and her husband from Wisconsin both lost their jobs. Times, of course, getting tough they decided to apply for food stamps; they were given a phone number to call. As the wife was making application and giving information on this call, she noticed that the person on the other end sounded foreign. So she asked where this employee was located -- the answer was India. Her next phone call was to her local congresswoman who followed up only to find that -- yes, the state had outsourced a number of state jobs to India.

What a joke -- no wonder we're loosing jobs left and right. But I guess it's all about the money; they can do it cheaper this way. Nothing against Indians -- but shouldn't we hire Americans first?
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01-27-04, 11:05 PM
FredPuli
You are in for a lot more I expect. In the UK a very great number of call centres are, in reality, in India. It is a natural progression. They have all the technology needed. They consider the rates of pay excellent; while these are far lower than ours the cost of living quite comfortably is far less too.

There is a rigorous selection process for applicants to serve the UK and competition for jobs is fierce. They attract educated staff . The candidates are taught about English news as well as geography and even the weather. (It would be puzzling to ask 'And how is the weather with you?' thinking the operator is in Liverpool , and to get the reply 'Well the monsoon season is just ending' Big Grin)

Many of the British telephone directory enquiry services are in India as are other enquiry agencies and service providers. That's why the local knowledge is taught; initially there were complaints because they did not know local names for places or that Kingston upon Hull is called Hull but Kingston upon Thames is called Kingston ,for example. Nonetheless these firms improve overall and the weakest lose their contracts; it's a tough business. We, of course, are not surprised at a slight Indian accent; there are 4 million people in Britain who are descended from people from the sub-continent, so it is commonly encountered.

01-27-04, 11:08 PM
notinmyname
My hometown is pretty much over run by people who moved here on HI-B visas, because local industry could get this folks to work for very very much less than Americans.

My beautiful valley was paved over because everyone from everywhere moved here for jobs. We actually have a tree museum, Heritage Orchard Park. (Needs barfing smiley.)

In a way I prefer that to moving cheap labor here, at least the crowding will slow a bit here. Of course I would much rather see my neighbors getting a decent wage and not be able to hire non-Americans so easily, either here or there.

States are usually more sensitive to that however.

Better hope you're the investor class, the rest of us are going to be globalised into poverty I expect.

01-28-04, 01:12 AM
DorianGreyed
The idea of a state hiring a business in another country to do the paperwork so that unemployed residents in that state can get some type of beneifts because they are unemployed is surreal. The politicians that allowed that to happen should be sent to India for any medical care. After all, it would cost the state less, wouldn't it?

01-28-04, 05:43 AM
Kelleygirl
Heck, DG, why not just use foreign policitians?
Wouldn't that be cheaper? Have we gotten so immersed in capitolism that we just look at the dollars involved for the bottom line and forget the people in our communities? I work for a very large retailer and it shocked me when I mentioned this case to one of my bosses who said "Well, it would be better to use this foreign help --- after all, you don't have to give them any perks (vacation pay, medical insurance, unemployment costs, etc)". Wonder what he would say, if his job was outsourced? Roll Eyes I'll have to ask him today.

01-28-04, 10:32 PM
AMoore

quote:Originally posted by Kelleygirl:
Heck, DG, why not just use foreign policitians?
Wouldn't that be cheaper? Have we gotten so immersed in capitolism that we just look at the dollars involved for the bottom line and forget the people in our communities? I work for a very large retailer and it shocked me when I mentioned this case to one of my bosses who said "Well, it would be better to use this foreign help --- after all, you don't have to give them any perks (vacation pay, medical insurance, unemployment costs, etc)". Wonder what he would say, if his job was outsourced? Roll Eyes I'll have to ask him today.



That's an excellent suggestion. And I know just where we can find a currently unemployed chief executive with many years of experience, and moral values to match our present highly paid chief executive!

Alan Moore

01-31-04, 03:30 PM
coldfuse
LOL Kelly! I second Alan's thoughts.

This sort of touches you in the gut, doesn't it? But I also see it as government speaking out of both sides of its mouth.

On the one hand, when a state recruits industry, they speak of the value of a paycheck being multiplied many times over as the money is spent in the community. This is fully supported by reams of economic data. On this issue, apparently, they have tunnel vision with the line item expense only. I suspect the drain on their unemployment fund is not even considered. You can't have it both ways!

01-31-04, 09:27 PM
EBknowsBUBBA

quote:Originally posted by Kelleygirl:
Heck, DG, why not just use foreign policitians?



We have tat too. Remember the California Recall election? Look who replaced Gray davis as Governor. Sure doesn't sound like a California accent to me.

02-01-04, 02:54 PM
gatman

quote:Originally posted by Kelleygirl:
Heck, DG, why not just use foreign policitians?...



We have done that too much. Look at Clinton and the first Bush for two. One thing I like about GWB is that he is pro America.

02-01-04, 06:25 PM
Kelleygirl
Sorry, Gatman, I don't get the Clinton or first Bush connection here at all. And as far as GWB, if you think that bankrupting a country or having many nations turn against it is pro-American, then I'm with you.

02-02-04, 06:29 PM
gatman

quote:Originally posted by Kelleygirl:
Sorry, Gatman, I don't get the Clinton or first Bush connection here at all...



As in One Worlders, New World Order, no protections at the border or tariffs.

02-02-04, 10:12 PM
AMoore

quote:Originally posted by EBknowsBUBBA:

quote:Originally posted by Kelleygirl:
Heck, DG, why not just use foreign policitians?



We have that too. Remember the California Recall election? Look who replaced Gray davis as Governor. Sure doesn't sound like a California accent to me.



No, it doesn't. As Gray Davis ungenerously pointed out during the campaign, he couldn't even pronounce "California". On the other hand, neither can most of the people living here in Santa Clara County, CA.

02-05-04, 04:46 AM
FredPuli
Call centres were always at risk, being labour-intensive.

Our government, like Wisconsin's ( I hope this is so there) sees no real harm in such work going abroad. Socialist though it is (in theory) the Blair government does not hesitate to place government business into private hands and does not care much where those hands are in the end.The overall cost to the British economy is what matters; plainly it thinks that there is no overall loss and probably gain in so doing. On a very grand scale we took no steps to preserve our coal-mining, we just closed the pits,operable or not, because the industry could not compete with coalmines outside; preventing this and subsidising the industry is to affect other business adversely.

Our National Rail Enquiries service (n a private consortium )has just switched half of the 50 million telephone enquiries it receives each year to Bangalore and Bombay and so axed 600 jobs here.Knowing the intricacies of UK rail travel, with or without a computer, should defeat foreigners but the staff have learned fast in training and prove as accurate as UK locals . But the crunch is that they earn £1,200 a year basic pay; ours earn £12,500.The fact that they are nearly all university graduates, and none of ours are, is another indicator of what is had for the money.

02-08-04, 10:54 AM
teeceeum
I just completed a three-day seminar by the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) in which they noted the beginning of a general trend toward moving production and assembly processes back to this country. It seems that the real costs of "offshore outsourcing" lie in shipping, lead times, and production delays at the final assembly point. All in all, it ultimately seems, it's much cheaper to produce in close proximity to the plant than it is to buy cheap overseas labor and ship in the sub-assemblies. Foreign manufacturers who have built facilities in this country (Mercedes, Honda and BMW, to name a few) have known this all along and have required their vendors to build production facilities near their plants.

Of course, this is a very simplified explanation of what the speaker spent hours explaining, but what it means is that we should see production and manufacturing returning to the U.S. As for service operations, India seems to be the fair haired child at the moment. However, in my area we have seen a huge influx of service providers, specifically call centers, in the past couple of years. I hope the trend continues.

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