Why did the US send so much work overseas?

Discussion in 'Economics' started by noob_trad3r, Sep 15, 2009.

  1. When will the U.S. begin seeing new jobs created, net?

    What industries will they be in?

    What will the pay structure and benefit structure be like?

    Most green shoot assholes on CNBC have no f*cking interest in telling people how bad things are ALL ACROSS the U.S. because they're either trying to sell something, promote something, or are as coked up as Kudlow.
     
    #51     Sep 15, 2009
  2. Good questions. Your guess is as good as mine. I wasn't arguing that we are seeing green shoots. Rather that the only way to get out of a debt spiral is to quit leveraging. And the consequence of that is a severe contraction. That's just reality.
     
    #52     Sep 15, 2009
  3. I am in science and engineering. I'm an R&D engineer to be precise, for one of the nations largest companies.

    You are citing anecdotal evidence. I'm citing empirical evidence. The US has only relatively recently started outsourcing a higher number of jobs. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate is the same as it was before outsourcing really began to catch on.

    The facts remain. The vast majority of actual data suggests that we benefit dramatically as a population by outsourcing these jobs. Boston University recently discovered that less than 20% of outsourced jobs leave the domestic worker unemployed. Of the 80% who stay employed, most of them are repositioned in the same company at the same or higher pay.
     
    #53     Sep 15, 2009
  4. Isn't most of the job growth coming from government, not private? That doesn't sound like a long-term benefit to outsourcing...
     
    #54     Sep 15, 2009
  5. yes - most of the job creation has come from government and health care, even while there's been a net loss of jobs.

    Now, health care and local units of government are softening.

    This whole recovery, let alone a V shaped recovery is a fairy tale Goebbels would be proud to lay claim as his own if he had spun it.
     
    #55     Sep 15, 2009
  6. Yes, but this current situation really has little to do with the long term implications of outsourcing. It has a lot more to do with a psychological shift toward Keynesianism that happens about every 40 years in the US.
     
    #56     Sep 15, 2009
  7. Wouldn't this unusually low rate of employment have something to do with the unusually low interest rates - cheap credit - that the US has experienced over the past 10 years?
     
    #57     Sep 15, 2009
  8. Low interest rates and low unemployment are both characteristics of expansionary phases in the business cycle. One doesn't necessarily cause the other.

    Besides, I'm talking about the fact that unemployment has averaged 5-6% for the last 100 years. Only spiking temporarily during significant contraction phases. That doesn't bode well for the crowd who insists that outsourcing is costing us millions of jobs.
     
    #58     Sep 15, 2009
  9. Oh, Selllobuyhigher, you're going to lose a lot more credibility before the end of the year when we go ever more higher. V shape by 2012 I'd consider to be a fast recovery.
     
    #59     Sep 15, 2009
  10. Outsourcing is great for multi-nationals. They run the show. End of story..

    You also have to understand that your local uncle's IT repair shop cannot sell its services in Asia. But IBM can.

    So not only do they make money in the short term by outsourcing the US, but in the long term, they move their customers to Asia, cutting the feet right under the competition of every business that's too small to sell internationally.


    And do I believe outsourcing is bad? Absolutely. Personal debt is all time high, the banking system was way over leveraged. Yes unemployment was low, but incomes weren't keeping up. Incomes were dropping! And the fact people had jobs was because of an unsustainable bubble, consumption economy.

    The unemployment % we have now is the real number, and it will not come down, because the bubble popped and consumers are broke.

    The last time this kind of unemployment persisted was the 70s, and back then it was sending our cash to the Middle East. Now we're sending out cash to China. Before those events it was the Great Depression. Not great examples to go by.
     
    #60     Sep 15, 2009