A rchive Date
[ 15-02-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/berlind_blog_021304.html
Offshoring is all good? Tell that to ZDNet's readers, Mr. Bush.
Whenever I write about outsourcing, I get tons of letters from out-of-work IT professionals saying how bad it is out there. I also get e-mail from would-be IT pros asking which baskets to place their eggs in now that the IT profession isn't looking so lucrative.
More recently however, my inbox has been peppered with e-mail from out-of-work techies who were angered by recent remarks from the Bush administration that appear to support the export of U.S. jobs. Those remarks came from N. Gregory Mankiw, the chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers who, as he released his Council's annual economic report earlier this week, said that the exporting of U.S. jobs overseas was "just a new way to do international trade." The report goes on to say, "when a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than make or provide it domestically."
But the Bush administration's posture isn't resonating with folks like veteran Bill Tonn from St. Louis, Missouri, who left behind his job as an electrician to seek an education and career in information technology.
"In 1998, I left my job as an electrician to get a degree in computer science in order to better myself, my family and to make more money," Tonn said. "I still have not been able to enter the industry in a professional capacity. I am currently unemployed and have been looking for work for five months now. At 44, I'm really wondering if I have made a big mistake."
In his letter, Tonn goes on to describe how he feels cheated by the country that he and his father swore to protect: "My father is a WWII veteran. He protected this country, was given a free education, and had a career of more than 20 years. He helped his kids and has a good retirement. His actions gave himself and his family a better life. His own country helped to do this. I served in the Air Force during Desert Storm. It helped pay for a little college but not much. I was told that veterans have job preference in this country. My question to whomever wants to hear it is, 'If the people who fight and defend this country are going to be systematically swept under the corporate rug for cost-cutting measures, what is there left to fight for?' My father and my generation have honored our country by giving the best years of our lives to it, and to have other countries reap these benefits cuts very deep. Another factor is that U.S. workers aren't offered first refusal on these jobs. These large corporations have undermined the American people. So I will be in the street begging for money while the Indian, Iraqi, and Singapore people that I gave my job to put a nickel in my cup."
When I asked Tonn if I could publish his thoughts, he replied, "It will help to know that at least one other person knows how I feel." Judging from my e-mail, Tonn is not alone. In the name of some profitability and shareholder value for domestic companies, offshore outsourcing seems to be a sacrifice that must be made to employ the U.S. workers that they do. Otherwise, if they can't be profitable, then what's left of their domestic workforce could be out of work as well.
No easy answers come to my mind. Write to me if they come to yours.
You can write to me at david.berlind@cnet.com. If you're looking for my commentaries on other IT topics, check the archives
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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