Explosive editorial from a few days ago that really hits to the core about how I feel on this issue. America is sluggish, unresponsive, and lazy. We're innovative and we still have great promise for the future, but only if we really shape up and harness are tremendous human resources. It's time to stop patting everyone on the back and making everyone feel "special" (so no one is). We need to stop feeling smug, confidenent, and bloated with self esteem for the areas of life where we are mediocre and actually rise to the occassion and rediscover the competitive drive. But it should be competitive cooperation. Economics is a game of limited resources, but we can find greater mutual benefit through activities based in comparative advantage. I'm going to stop with the ridicuously basic econ 101.... but outsourcing is nothing to complain about, especially since most of the stats are ridicously skewed and it accounts for, in actuality, something like less than 1% of job losses at present (and most outsourcing is to somewhere else in the US, like credit card centers springing up in Idaho). That's all I've got for now, Suketu Mehta is much more eloquent. Just feeling quite a bit frustrated by how many people are so angry and upset about this issue but a) are horribly misinformed because politicians and businessman don't want to address the real problems of inefficiency, redundancy, and product extinction, b) don't seem to want to work hard to change the problem--rather than a workable solution, they just want to scapegoat and complain.
A Passage From India - New York Times: "The outsourcing debate seems to have mutated into a contest between the country of my birth and the country of my nationality. Of course I feel a loyalty to America: it gave my parents a new life and my sons were born here. I have a vested interest in seeing America prosper. But I am here because the country of my ancestors didn't understand the changing world; it couldn't change its technology and its philosophy and its notions of social mobility fast enough to fight off the European colonists, who won not so much with the might of advanced weaponry as with the clear logical philosophy of the Enlightenment. Their systems of thinking conquered our own. So, since independence, Indians have had to learn; we have had to slog for long hours in the classroom while the children of other countries went out to play."
This is also a good quote:
"The rich countries can't have it both ways. They can't provide huge subsidies for their agricultural conglomerates and complain when Indians who can't make a living on their farms then go to the cities and study computers and take away their jobs. Why are Indians willing to write code for a tenth of what Americans make for the same work? It's not by choice; it's because they're still struggling to stand on their feet after 200 years of colonial rule. The day will soon come when Indian companies will find that it's cheaper to hire computer programmers in Sri Lanka, and then it's there that the Indian jobs will go."
1 year ago
2 comments:
I'm going to comment via stream of consciousness (not sure if that came out right, but I'm just gonna spew basically).
You are absolutely right, AmericANS have become sluggish and lazy. But don't you think its true that once a country rises "above" the working class that made it what it is, its inevitable to happen?
Let's say, in a land far far away, that India has paved roads throughout, working plumbing -- basically has an infrastructure. Well, now what need is there for building buildings or paving roads? Time to make the dinero.
I think this is what's happening in the United States. Middle class, blue collar values (the American work ethic) is disappearing. No one has to actually WORK for their money. When I'm get back from the fire station all sultry, sweaty, and tired, it a great feeling. I know I've worked to my full potential. Yet its harder and harder for people to be in those positions. Heck, here I am in a 4 floor office in the A/C typing on your blog instead of doing some research for a report.
Do you hear what I'm saying? Sometimes, as sad as it is, people become lazy. And to an extent, its ok -- we indeed are living in luxury for the hard back-breaking work our ancestors did.
However, not saying we ourselves should forget these values.
I'm just saying its somewhat to be expected.
Shamit (I think),
I agree and disagree. It's like environmental issues--if we're living comfortably and it doesn't seem to directly affect us, are we going to actually work to "incovenience" ourselves and conserve water or walk rather than drive? Not many people will! The gift of leisure time means people will act on it and be "leisurely." Something that can also be read as lazy. On the other hand, desperation breeds productivity if harnesses correctly. So sure, it is a bit of a natural evolution, further augmented by our cultural mores (whereas the somewhat collectivist mentality of some Asian societies, say, Japan, where the company is your life--counteracts the leisure/lazy factor and somewhat neutralizes it...but Japan is having its own problems).
My point where I agree with the article, however, is that, whether this is natural or not, we don't have a right to mouth off and complain and blame someone else. The hardest workers should be rewarded. Same reason I despise agricultural subsidies that pour tax payer dollars down the drain to prop up inefficient agricultural systems in American and Europe while squashing attempts at sustainable legal economic activity (farming) in places like Bolivia and Afghanistan--they simply can't compete on price, the fruit rots on the streets, and the farmer's turn back to drugs as a reliable source of income.
I'm throwing a lot of tangent themes up here, so let me reiterate the core. Rather than complain and scapegoat, we should recognize this "laziness inherent in the system" and do something about it if we want to retain those sectors of the economy. Capitalism practices properly should create cheaper prices for consumers and greater efficiency for manufacturers. Shape up or ship out. America needs to lose its gut and work, if they're truly desperate and want to retain these jobs. Otherwise, let the work go to where it's done best (and best is not *cheapest* and companies KNOW that and don't just move around on a cost basis unless there is NO skill involved).
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