Outsourcing of Jobs, The Negative Effects for the United States

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

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Informative article here on outsourcing. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/outsourcing-negative-effects-remington-rhett


Innovation is what made the United States the economic powerhouse it is, and now jobs are being sent overseas because companies want to save money.

Eventually, at our current rate, innovation and the social benefits that it creates will no longer be our right. In 1980, America was one of the top producers of Semiconductors in the world, at 42 percent. As recently as May 2011, The United States now only produces 14 percent of the world’s semiconductors, a huge dropoff as a result of outsourcing.

Research and Development has been the “ bread and butter” of the US and since 2001, the intensity of R&D, which is the percentage of the Gross Domestic Product that is dedicated to the R&D, has decreased sharply since innovation was being outsourced to developing countries.

According to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency dedicated to the progression of science, in 2008, $58 billion, which is one-fifth of total Research and Development spending by US companies occurred overseas (Nothhaft).

Outsourcing of jobs have been ongoing since the late 1960’s and 1970’s with the Textile industry. According to Wily Shih and Gary Pisano, professors at Harvard University, “40 years of outsourcing will deprive the US of the means to invent new high-tech products that are very important to help better the economy” (Nothhaft).

Companies such as General Electric, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Chevron, Cisco, Intel, Stanley Works, Merck, United Technologies, and Oracle had cut their workforce by 2.9 million people over the last 11 years, while at the same time increased hiring input overseas to 2.4 million people.
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Manufacturing, in the U.S., is becoming less and less. What remains is quickly being taken over by automation and robotics. About the Only labor intensive manufacturing anymore is in the Armament and Military/Industrial arena....which is perhaps why our government continues to see the need to "police the world".

Then, if the scientists are correct, and Artificial Intelligence surpasses human capabilities...some say within 20 years...what will humans do to support themselves????
 
I agree about Robotics & Automation taking over because many jobs of years gone by required absolutely no real skill of any kind. I remember lying about my age in high school to get a job in a factory taking card board sheets one at a time and inserting them in to a waxing machine to make milk cartons. A monkey could be trained to do the same job for a banana or two.

The key to this whole out sourcing thing is education. We needed a better over all educated working force that learn and develop skills that are not readily duplicated by machine or cheaper manual labor. This will take time but it is really the only solution.
 

Maybe Stephen Vincent Benet knew what he was writing about. ("By the Waters of Babylon," read it in 6th grade.)
 
Lon said:
I agree about Robotics & Automation taking over because many jobs of years gone by required absolutely no real skill of any kind. I remember lying about my age in high school to get a job in a factory taking card board sheets one at a time and inserting them in to a waxing machine to make milk cartons. A monkey could be trained to do the same job for a banana or two.

The key to this whole out sourcing thing is education. We needed a better over all educated working force that learn and develop skills that are not readily duplicated by machine or cheaper manual labor. This will take time but it is really the only solution.
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AND we need some kind of policy or legislation that makes it more difficult to outsource middle-type jobs overseas. Not everybody can be an engineer.
 
Harley Davidson, which makes a lot of their motorcycles here in my home town, have likewise been cutting their workforce for the past several years. Processes that used to be done by hand here in the U.S. are now being done by robots in Mexico. Cable assemblies are assembled in Mexico, but the for the most part, the finished product is still produced (assembled) here in the U.S. IMO, Harley will remain a solid employer for the U.S., if for no other reason, but for them to be able to state "Still made in America."

I toured the factory just a few years back and I marveled at all of the robots, including welding, that were being done by robots.

I also just learned that Nabisco is going to start making their Oreos in Mexico, just like Hershey is making their Kisses in Mexico.

http://www.themadeinamericamovement.com/jobs/nabisco-ships-600-jobs-to-mexico-time-to-give-up-oreos/
 
The whole paradigm of work is shifting and not many people are prepared to deal with it.

They grew up with the thought that you got a good job with a company and stayed there your entire life. That began changing a few decades ago. A slow adjustment took place and people began to realize they would have to have several jobs in their lifetime.

As for trained monkeys and robots taking our jobs - we have to accept that those jobs are no longer available to us. The societal shift from manual labor to refined labor to entrepreneurial thinking has made many uncomfortable, but it is the Way of the future. Again, we have to accept and learn and improvise.

Schooling is not always the answer. The trend of seeing NYU Law School graduates working at Starbucks, trying to pay down their $200,000 student debt, is more than an outlier at this point - it's a common occurrence when there are more law school grads than jobs available. Even with the highly vaunted STEM degrees the competition for jobs at that level has become fearsome. More and more people are finding that they're deep in debt and seemingly consigned to a life of playing catch-up.

What is the answer? Not an easy one, of course. Find something that people want and provide it. Find a service that is lacking and offer it. Start an online business, where your success depends only upon how well you learn your "trade". Accept that you may have to do 3 or 4 "mini-jobs" to stay afloat.

These are the new realities. Those who cannot conform to them will be left begging - perhaps literally.
 
Phil - I agree people have to stop shoving college degrees. Degrees don't create jobs, they create debt.

Go for a degree if you seriously want to be a doctor or lawyer. There's always work for those guys.

Otherwise, Job training is the way to go, imo.
 
Wrigley's said:
Phil - I agree people have to stop shoving college degrees. Degrees don't create jobs, they create debt.

Go for a degree if you seriously want to be a doctor or lawyer. There's always work for those guys.

Otherwise, Job training is the way to go, imo.
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Totally agree about job training.

I attended a combination tech / trade high school, where by 10th grade you had to decide on your "major" and spend the next 3 years learning it. The Techies and the Traders were always at war with each other. We techies would laugh - "Ha, ha, we're going to college while you guys get dirty hands".

Yeah, and now those dirty hands are counting the $100 bills at the bank while the Techies are working the drive-up window at McDonald's.
 
NancyNGA said:
Teachers and nurses. Still takes a degree, last I heard. Health care in general. To take care of us aging boomers.:)
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Teachers, yes. Nurses not so much. My lady friend is an RN and went to "nursing school" not a regular college/university. And her tuition was around $10K, far less than she'd have paid for a four year college. She was an RN in less than 3 years and it took her 18 months to pay off her student loan.
 
Ralphy1 said:
People will always go for the cheapest price no matter where a product is made...
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Yes!

In April, retail sales in the US down .3%, auto sales down over 2%, Gasoline up .9%.

You don't have to be a whiz at math to see, that looks dismal.
 
Wrigley's said:
Teachers, yes. Nurses not so much. My lady friend is an RN and went to "nursing school" not a regular college/university. And her tuition was around $10K, far less than she'd have paid for a four year college. She was an RN in less than 3 years and it took her 18 months to pay off her student loan.
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The tuition fee for a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing (BSN), which takes four years to finish, costs anywhere from $40,000 to well over $100,000 each year in private institutions and large universities. At Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, for example, the Summer-Entry Accelerated Bachelor’s Program tuition fee for the 13-month program is $69,024. At the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, the tuition fee for their accelerated program starting from Summer 2014 to Fall 2015 is $103,000. Meanwhile, the tuition fee for their undergraduate course is $47,668 each year.
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source
 
SifuPhil said:
source
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There's a way to get around that.

She went to a "nursing school" for a couple of semesters to get a basic nursing license (I don't know what it's called). That was $3K back then. While she worked, she kept going back to that school and earned subsequent nursing/skills certificates. The she finished up to get the RN lic. That bit cost $10K.

So she did it sort of in steps. The actual RN lic was the last phase. I should have been specific.
 
Also, Phil, she's been an RN for a long time. So probably now it would cost her a lot more.

STILL! Point is, there's great jobs in skilled labor! :playful:

I wonder how many people with Phd's are driving garbage trucks?
 
Get it. Thanks.

Still ... nursing is a tough job. At the beginning you put up with a lot of sh*t - literally. I think it's only at the higher levels you truly become a respected medical professional. And now they have the PA (Physician Assistant) degree - more money!
 
Wrigley's said:
Phil - I agree people have to stop shoving college degrees. Degrees don't create jobs, they create debt.

Go for a degree if you seriously want to be a doctor or lawyer. There's always work for those guys.

Otherwise, Job training is the way to go, imo.
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A college degree is not a guarantee of a good job. Huge numbers of young people go to college on a Liberal Arts program...which prepares them for little or nothing, and leaves them with years of debt. Vocational and tech schools would be a far better choice for many of our young....at least those who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. A few weeks ago, I saw a piece on the news where some machine shop owner was having gobs of trouble finding welders...for $35 an hour. The military has many good fields which can prepare a young person for a good career. That's the route I took...got into the longest and most complex electronics school the USAF had to offer, fixed electronics on aircraft for the remainder of my tour, then went into an excellent career of fixing big computers for IBM. No college had any programs, other than electronics engineer, that would have fit my needs....and the Best part was I got paid to learn my "trade".
 
Don M. said:
A college degree is not a guarantee of a good job. Huge numbers of young people go to college on a Liberal Arts program...which prepares them for little or nothing, and leaves them with years of debt. Vocational and tech schools would be a far better choice for many of our young....at least those who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. A few weeks ago, I saw a piece on the news where some machine shop owner was having gobs of trouble finding welders...for $35 an hour. The military has many good fields which can prepare a young person for a good career. That's the route I took...got into the longest and most complex electronics school the USAF had to offer, fixed electronics on aircraft for the remainder of my tour, then went into an excellent career of fixing big computers for IBM. No college had any programs, other than electronics engineer, that would have fit my needs....and the Best part was I got paid to learn my "trade".
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Glad you brought up the military, and especially the USAF, where spending cuts is resulting in plane mechanics having to cannibalize planes to repair other planes because there's not enough funding to build new planes. "Trying to make a Ferrari out of an old Cadillac" ....a USAF CO said that but I don't remember his name.
 
In a theoretical world an outsourced job/employee should be able to live on lower wages by buying cheaper goods from said outsourcing. That's what is not happening. There is a balance in the economy as a whole.
 
WhatInThe said:
In a theoretical world an outsourced job/employee should be able to live on lower wages by buying cheaper goods from said outsourcing. That's what is not happening. There is a balance in the economy as a whole.
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Good point, WIT.

It certainly isn't happening here.
 

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