Friedman - A safer world for our own 20-year-olds - Outsourcing Jobs

[otohara]

BANGALORE, India - 30 Little Turtles

Indians are so hospitable. I got an ovation the other day from a roomful of Indian 20-year-olds just for reading perfectly the following paragraph: "A bottle of bottled water held 30 little turtles. It didn't matter that each turtle had to rattle a metal ladle in order to get a little bit of noodles, a total turtle delicacy. The problem was that there were many turtle battles for less than oodles of noodles."

I was sitting in on an "accent neutralization" class at the Indian call center 24/7 Customer. The instructor was teaching the would-be Indian call center operators to suppress their native Indian accents and speak with a Canadian one — she teaches British and U.S. accents as well, but these youths will be serving the Canadian market. Since I'm originally from Minnesota, near Canada, and still speak like someone out of the movie "Fargo," I gave these young Indians an authentic rendition of "30 Little Turtles," which is designed to teach them the proper Canadian pronunciations. Hence the rousing applause.

Watching these incredibly enthusiastic young Indians preparing for their call center jobs — earnestly trying to soften their t's and roll their r's — is an uplifting experience, especially when you hear from their friends already working these jobs how they have transformed their lives. Most of them still live at home and turn over part of their salaries to their parents, so the whole family benefits. Many have credit cards and have become real consumers, including of U.S. goods, for the first time. All of them seem to have gained self-confidence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/opinion/29FRIE.html?hp

I await your thoughts...

[eridani]

1. Great

Just what we need. Our own 20 year olds out of work permanently. One, two, many Tim McVeighs and John Muhammeds.

[NJCher]

2. I got the warm fuzzies now

Thanks, Tom.


Cher

[rfkrocks]

3. Im sure

Indian columnists would write better than this moron-time to outsource tom

[Ms. Clio]

4. I fucking hate that jackass Friedman

I do wish all the people who have lost those "low wage, low prestige jobs" could read about how very very happy their loss has made some folks in India. Especially since they are probably now flipping burgers or Wal-Mart greeters for even lower wages and less prestige.

Sorry I have nothing more thoughtful to contribute. :)

[Eric J in MN]

5. Americans with jobs also buy American goods. (nt)

nt

[The Zanti Regent]

6. Will Dinesh D'Souza outsource Tom of Finland Friedman?

Maybe then that worthless asshole will wake up.

Really, I don't know who the bigger asshole is, Tom or his Pinochet-lovin Daddy!

[Eric J in MN]

7. Apologists for "Free Trade" never stop spewing garbage.

First the apologists for "Free Trade" said, yes, we'll lose manufacturing jobs, but workers can re-train and become computer programmers.

Now we're losing computer programming jobs, so the apologists for "Free Trade" claim that Chinese and Indians who are getting those jobs would wage terrorist attacks against us otherwise.

People like Thomas Friedman spew garbage.

A few years ago, Thomas Friedman was arguing for H1-B visas to replace American computer programmers here just on the theory that American worker salaries were too high.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Friedman understands the problem, but is clueless about a solution

As usual, Friedman is very good at identifying a problem and proposing a poor remedy. Development of local industry and the payment of good wages, not outsourcing, is the path to a peaceful and prosperous future.

Indeed, listening to these Indian young people, I had a déjà vu. Five months ago, I was in Ramallah, on the West Bank, talking to three young Palestinian men, also in their 20's, one of whom was studying engineering. Their hero was Yasir Arafat. They talked about having no hope, no jobs and no dignity, and they each nodded when one of them said they were all "suicide bombers in waiting."

Friedman's image of these Palestinian youths should not be dismissed lightly. This is the picture of people without hope. Desperate people resort to desperate measure -- some of which are pointless and self-destructive. Consequently, Friedman is right when he says the way to end the unrest in the developing world is to provide jobs for the young people of developing nations.

Nevertheless, the people who benefit most from neo-liberal trade and labor arrangements are the wealthy financiers and industrialists in the developed world. The lower classes of the underdeveloped world may end up slightly better off than might have with no job at all. However, they are not nearly as well off as they should be. Better is meaningless when the improved conditions are still inadequate. For most factory workers in developing countries, wages paid by a transnational corporation only mean they'll starve more slowly; working conditions are still abysmal and union movements are brutally repressed.

Meanwhile, Americans see their jobs disappear. Manufacturing jobs are replaced by stocking shelves at WalMart or assembling hamburgers at McDonald's. Does this have to be a zero sum game?

When all is said and done, the neo-liberalism advocated by Friedman is not a solution. It's the problem served with garnish.

[wellstone_democrat]

9. Friedman's cover is always

a sort of "exporting Democracy!" argument.

Iraq: no WMD? No problem! What we are really doing is bring Democracy (tm) to the heathen. (BTW, caps and trademark on "Democracy<tm>" is because he and Bush* hawk it like a product rather than an ideal)

Jobs disappearing? No problem! What we are really doing is bringing Democracy(tm) to the heathen. They won't be terrorists! (the unspoken also in some cases is they will convert from Islam I suspect)

So, your soldier son or daughter faces death and YOU don't have a job but...you are on the side of the angels because you are saving the world! Lucky you!

[Jack Rabbit]

10. Yes, he has

Like most people who do that, he confuses neo-liberalism with democracy. They are not the same thing; in fact, one is often the antithesis of the other.

First, let's define a term:

Democracy is a state where:

• Citizenship is universal. Each person born within the boundaries of the state is a citizen, as is one born abroad to at least one citizen parent or who swears allegiance to the state in a rite of naturalization.
• Citizenship is equal. Each citizen has an equal opportunity to participate in and influence public affairs. Every adult citizen shall be enfranchised with the right to vote. Decisions are made by a majority voted based on the principle of one man/one vote.
• Citizenship is inalienable. A guaranteed set of civil liberties is in place to assure full and open public discourse of civic affairs. No citizen may be stripped of his citizenship or otherwise punished by the state for expressing any point of view, no matter how unpopular or even absurd.

A neo-liberal state is one which is designed to maintain the power of those who hold private wealth. It is based on a set of social relationships that is elitist rather than democratic; however, it maintains many of the trappings of democracy. A nation governed on neo-liberal principles may feature contested elections; however, the candidates are chosen by social elites and their campaigns paid for by the social elites. Social elites run the news outlets, and thereby determine the nature of discussion. In short, a neo-liberal state is not one where each citizen has an equal say in influencing public affairs; instead, the elite use their wealth to distort and corrupt the democratic process.

[fortyfeetunder]

11. Guess what an engineering degree can do

<<Indeed, listening to these Indian young people, I had a déjà vu. Five months ago, I was in Ramallah, on the West Bank, talking to three young Palestinian men, also in their 20's, one of whom was studying engineering. Their hero was Yasir Arafat.....">>

Yasir Arafat AND Osama binLaden were both trained and practiced as civil engineers.

Civil engineers are the ones who create most of our world's infrastructures.

You can't tell me Mr. Arafat and Mr. binLaden aren't using their knowledge in their current occupations. I hope the Corporate whores think about that as they outsource career after career.

[trogdor]

12. I wonder if Friedman's job can be "offshored".

Surely there is somebody in Bangalore who can bang out a couple thousand words a week on the benefits of unfettered free trade.

[trogdor]

13. Dude's spinning so hard he's making me dizzy.

Better take Dramamine!

[alarcojon]

14. Accent neutralization

In addition to what I've read here, I had a major problem with the "accent neutralization" part of this. First of all, it must have some negative psychological effect on you to speak in an unnatural accent at work every day. Secondly, it reflects the racism of Westerners who are uncomfortable having Indians answer their questions for them. Yet Friedman paints this all as a good thing, a sign of youthful Indian enthusiasm and enterpreneurship.

I also thought Friedman brought in the Palestinians in a forced, awkward way, almost as if he was done with the Indian part and decided to throw in his favorite whipping boy right towards the end.

[eridani]

15. Outsource Friedman's column to Arundhati Roy! n/t

[idlisambar]

16. LOL

That's what I call justice. :D

[dryan]

17. Outsourcing Jobs--No Laughing Matter

Two comments:

For over 30 years, the largest employer in Seminole County, Florida was Stromberg-Carlson. In 1992 over 5,000 people worked at their Lake Mary plant (my husband was one of them). Stromberg paid well and had good benefits. My husband was an inventory & production control manager. Even after Stromberg was bought out by Siemens the plant still employed about 5,000 people.

...now its a different story. Less than 200 people work at the Lake Mary plant. By the end of the year, it may be less than 50. All of those hundreds of jobs have been shipped to India. To make matters worse, when the outsourcing started, the employees at the Lake Mary plant were told that they had to train their Indian replacements who came to the plant. Even though many of the Indians were college graduates they did not speak, read, or write English very well (if at all) and if they could speak English it was very difficult to understand them. Among one of the departments being outsourced was the Customer Service Department. How would you feel if you were a Stromberg-Carlson customer calling in for service and you can't understand the person answering the phone? The only reason that the plant is staying open -- from what I have been told its mostly janitorial people -- is because Seminole County gave Stromberg a huge property tax break that hinges on the plant being kept open.

My husband was out of work for 2 years. The telecommunications industry across the country is in bad shape. He was finally able to find a job at the University of Central Florida's telephone office for almost 20% less salary. Even though I work, it was a big slide for us financially. We have seen many other ex-Stromberg employees and many of them are now working at filling stations, at Wal-Mart, or have had to move to other parts of the country.

On another front on this issue -- this last weekend at Disney World, believe it or not, the Communications Workers of America had a convention at the same hotel where (this is rich) where a seminar was being held about "Outsourcing Resources". CWA members barricaded the doors to the seminar, protested outside, kept the luncheon speaker from entering the ballroom, and tried to get in. Disney security was going crazy!!! It was all over the media here.

I just keep remembering quote..."We can't build an economy if we'are all delivering pizzas." Jim Wright, former Speaker of the House ...forced out of office by newt grinrich