American jobs and outsourcing

Originally posted on 12-05-2010

The United States is on a downward spiral. How would you like it if the only jobs available to your kids, or you for that matter, are services.  Like waiting tables, cashier, gas station attendant, helping customers at the department store or cleaning that only pay minimum wage or close to it?  That’s where we are headed.  And in actuality, people making minimum wage is making less than people 40 years ago earning minimum wage if you convert it to current dollars.  Who’s fault is it?  It’s yours, mine and most americans!

A long time ago, when I saw what was happening with companies, moving manufacturing outside of the U.S. I said that we are going to end up a nation of service.  At that time it seemed bad but not too bad.  Now I’m seeing services getting outsourced outside of the U.S.  I guess we will end up being farmers again or servicing that can’t be outsourced.

How is it our fault?  Because of what we buy and where we buy it.  It’s in not holding companies accountable or working for a company that manufactures and or outsources outside the States.  It’s also companies fault for not thinking about and taking responsibility to the community and to America.

I would venture to say that most people don’t even think about it unless they are looking for a job and their career field market is shrinking or gone in which case it’s a wakeup call.  We are busy with our lives and don’t take the time to think deeply about anything and we have a lot of distractions so that we don’t have to think.  Lets follow the money.

You need to buy something so you head to store and buy it there.  They employ local people, that’s good, some of the money will end up back in the community.  Other than that, there are 2 things wrong here, one which you don’t see and I’ll get back to that.  First the product was probably made in China.  That means the money is going over to China where they will spend the money there, not here.  It also means that jobs that Americans could have been doing is over there as well.  You might have thought that far but it goes deeper than that.

Lets say its a company that is just starting.  They need to build a plant.  You need architects, carpenters, electricians and a whole slew of people (lots of jobs and work) to get this built.  This is just the tip of it.  They might need roads built, hire or buy trucks for shipping.  They need to fill it with machines, computers, telephones, chairs etc.  They need electricity and telephone service.  You need housing for all the workers and all the requirements they need like utilities, groceries.  Think a whole town or community.  In other words you can keep going down this path, like schools, theaters, police and fire. They have to buy the raw materials which would be from America which means more jobs….I think you know where I’m heading with this one.  All this is happing in some other country because it’s being made there and not here.

Here’s an idea, make the products here and sell it overseas and have their money come back here instead of our money going over there.  Even better yet, we make stuff for their companies so we get their money and jobs 😀

I understand the need for a company to make profit and I agree.  If it’s a big enough company they have great power and with that should be great responsibility.  Responsibility, not only to the share holders but also to their employees and community.  I consider America to be just one big community.  Companies are always chasing the higher and more profit, there is a point where it’s too much.  This is also our fault, we let them.  We buy their stock and wanting to become rich and let them move manufacturing to other countries.  So you could be double supporting a companies that doesn’t make a product (s) here.

If you bought the product at Walmart there is one part you don’t see or hear about.  They are causing companies to make cheaper products.  A long time ago, when Sam ran the company before his kids took over, Walmart was proud to advertise that they buy American made products over a foreign made products.  Sam understood what I’ve been talking about, then his kids took over and it seems that all they are after is money and power.  Now they have so much clout they dictate to companies what they will pay for something.  I worked for a company that sold products to them.  Even after an agreement was made on the price of a product and delivered.  They would turn around and send the company a check that was less then the total amount of the invoice and would say, this is what we determined we are going to pay you instead of what we said we would pay take it or leave it.  You’re thinking then why is the company still doing business with Walmart.  Because they buy such large quantities and salesman just see the big commission checks.  This forces a company to find ways to cut costs and probably even quality.  Don’t forget the smaller companies that were put out of business because Walmart moved into an area.  You can do research and see some of what they do or cause.

If moving manufacturing outside the U.S. wasn’t bad enough now they are outsourcing other jobs, service type jobs.  This is not only causing less jobs, it costing the people that do these jobs to accept less pay.  Example, Lets say you’ve spent 4 years and thousands of dollars on getting a website designs degree.  You’ve been working with a company for a while and they see that they could have a company in India design and build a website for way less then they are paying you.  Now your out of  a job and because of India offering such cheap service it’s put a lot of designers out of work.  Your once thriving and highly sought after, not hard to find a job, career has become low demand.  Now you have to take a job that pays less then what it should.  You could go on your own but your competing with the really low wages in other countries.  Or do you go back to school for something else or take that job at McDonald.  Again, money that would have stayed in America is now being sent overseas.  And that degree you spent all that time and money on is now putting you into we can’t afford you because you have a degree and will want to much when we can hire or outsource for a lot less.  Wait, that means people wont need degrees, or not nearly as many, so more job lost (educators).

What job is next to get outsourced or moved overseas, could it be yours?  What about your kids, what do you tell them, what type of jobs can they get?  How about Doctor, well I could think of way it could get outsourced.  Instead of a doctor you have a nurse be the hands for a doctor that is in some other country and your video conferencing talking to the patient and asking the nurse to do this or that.  How about a Pilot, planes could be flown by remote control, Air Force is doing that now with drones and they are thousands of miles away.  What does that leave us with.  Fire, police, restaurants, stores, cleaning, government and farms.

I like getting things as cheap as possible as much as the next person and in these times you try to make your money go as far as possible.  Getting things dirt cheap comes at a cost which you might not see until you loose your job and can’t find one.  You can get the cost of products down to free, but it’s not going to do you any good if you don’t have a job to pay the electricity to power it or pay for a place to keep it or to even buy food so that you can survive long enough to actually use it.

What you buy and do not only effects you it effects everyone around you and even those that aren’t, directly or indirectly.  You don’t live on an island by yourself.  You do the math.  Less jobs and population of America is going up.  Now your going to have to make more money to pay more taxes that will support the Americans that can’t find jobs to feed themselves and their families.  Oh wait, how are you going to make more money if there are only minimum wage jobs available other than the few manager positions.

I might have over simplified and skipped over a few things but it’s to make it simple and get you thinking and maybe realize what is happening.  It’s hard to see because it’s over a long time period and there are many variables.