Business Week examines and has no solution to the 30%-50% manufacturing savings in China. The only thing I'll add is that service jobs that don't require in-person contact face the same future. Is America suffering from bi-polar depression, both the two Americas and the lack of reality from the media and "Middle America"?
"The China Price"From the start of A discussion of the personal net result of this on American jobs at Daily Kos.
They are the three scariest words in U.S. industry. Cut your price at least 30% or lose your customers. Nearly every manufacturer is vulnerable -- from furniture to networking gear. The result: A massive shift in economic power is under way.
In 1998 I was working as a consultant for a manufacturing company, and the union was threatening to picket some of the plant locations during a wage dispute. I was so ready for them to picket. "I'll run `em down with my car, the un-American bastards," I would tell my coworkers. "They should get over it, and get an education. The company doesn't owe them squat."...
When I started at this company, there were over three hundred information technology employees. Now there are only about one hundred. The rest of these jobs are being filled by outsourcing agreements with a handful of overseas outsource companies, billing out my work and the work of my coworkers at no more than $15 per hour. They came for the union workers, and I didn't care, because I was "educated". Then one day, my high demand techee job went to someone in India for one quarter of my pay, and no one cared. Oh Crap.
No comments:
Post a Comment