Dirty Words? GLOBAL OUTSOURCING - Also, is the world flat ?

[enjoy the ride]

That PBS special mentioned this man- one of his fellow citizens explained that this was typical of the Chinese government- when the noise gets bad enough, pick a scapegoat and execute them- the man also pointed out that no one really involved in the problem was punished- just a bribe taker who embarassed the government by being caught. Not my words- the PBS special.
I am not advocating any particular punishment for someone who callously killed a bunch of people for a bit more money- you can make you own decision about that.

And to add something- I did not raise this topic and certainly did not deserve your remark inferring I am blood thirsty.

 

[Nifty]

Last night I was talking to one of the owners of the company we use in India. He got his degree in the US, worked for a large company for about 10 years (which was later acquired by Google) and moved back to India. I've been talking to him about possibly taking my family to India to live for a few months (in a few years) to live in a way that will help our perspective of life in the US. He said:

"it will be a good experience for the kids... they will run back to america! sometimes, kids find it disturbing to see the conditions. emotionally, they will have lots of questions"

Regarding living in India, he was prepping me, he mentioned how good / easy we have it in America and I tend to agree with him. He said "america is very modern, rich, country."

There are a lot of changes happening, hopefully the totality of changes will be good for mankind. I think what it comes to is being intelligent to work with the changes and have the changes work for you. There will always be people who will be complacent and want to maintain status-quo... these are they that will have a bit of frustration as change happens.

 

[Nifty]

And to add something- I did not raise this topic and certainly did not deserve your remark inferring I am blood thirsty.

Sorry if you misunderstood my remark. I read your statement to say that people are not being punished. I meant nothing to you, but was saying there are people who are punished. I don't think I have enough information to know if the person was a scapegoat or not.

Unfortunately, I do know that the PBS statement about "the noise gets bad enough, pick a scapegoat and execute them" can readily applied to the US as much as any other country... maybe not in the traditional "execute" statement (even though that has happened relatively recently in the US history) but often punished.

Again, no inference of blood thirst was made to you, and I apologize if you took my words harshly.

 

[me&thegals]

enjoytheride--I'm sorry to hear about your friend It's one thing to debate this online, something else entirely to be so closely touched by it...

nifty--It's very interesting to me that you are thinking about moving to a country that we outsource a lot of work to. I imagine that would be incredibly informative and formative for your family!

 

[Nifty]

It wouldn't be a permanent move, but there are a couple reasons I'd like to do more than the 7 day touristy thing...

A big reason is to just get out of the comfort zone. I kinda feel the tiny yearnings for a big zap to my "world" which would help me start thinking more out of the box and give me some new perspective.

Another reason is to expose me, my wife, and our children to other cultures very early on... I've read some great things about how character building this experience can be. (and I need all the help I can get)

And the last reason is because I'm pretty entrepreneurial and have read about some amazing things happening in India. Some say a wave is coming and I'd like to see, first hand, what the wave looks like so I can potentially catch it and have a wild ride.

But for now, I like to get just get a few tastes of the possibilities by outsourcing. Here is one example of something I outsourced that was tremendously helpful to our family:

My grandfather wrote a book many years ago and about 100 copies were printed, but no soft copies existed. The book was 500 pages (250 double sided) but someone had to scan and OCR the pages individually and then do all the corrections for words that couldnt be read. A VERY time consuming task.

A company in China quoted me a price that was extremely competitive with other companies locally and even other companies abroad. I unbound the book, sent the loose pages to China, and within a week I had a 4 mb PDF soft copy of my Grandfathers book! I wouldn't have ever been able to afford to get the project done here.

 

[Beekissed]

And the last reason is because I'm pretty entrepreneurial and have read about some amazing things happening in India. Some say a wave is coming and I'd like to see, first hand, what the wave looks like so I can potentially catch it and have a wild ride.

So, at least some of your interest in outsourcing is more opportunistic than altruistic, I take it?

 

[Nifty]

So, at least some of your interest in outsourcing is more opportunistic than altruistic, I take it?

Absolutely! If I can help other people and my family at the same time, then COOL BEANS!!!

Oh, and another reason I want to go to India is to further the non-profit project I've been working on for years with a few friends. Here's my site on that project:

http://www.worldtorch.com/

Check out some of these pics, especially the first two: http://www.worldtorch.com/gallery/india

 

[FarmerChick]

Bekissed---good post

And to everyone....I am just chatting in general basically....never an attack on anyone at all. It is very good to just see everyone's ideas on the subject. We are spread wide and far thru this country and it is good to read different points of view.



But I don't agree that other countries EARN our jobs at all. It is a matter of economics only. People in other countries are no better or no worse than our country. I still say I wish our jobs would stay here...but the almighty dollar makes it different.

And to the woman who works like a dog constantly, pays her med bills etc. etc....she is the typical american person. up in debt and struggling to get out and survive. it is no different to survive here than in a "bad" foreign country. we all have our struggles and none are light to anyone having these struggles. no matter the content.

but again I say change happens and adapting is the only way to survive. And it isn't going to get easier in our country any time soon....the times are still going to get worse definitely for millions of americans that are just afloat now. send out more jobs and homeless numbers soar here. we are not that "rosy" in our financial status in this country. I am more apt to help my country in times of need than to worry about another countries people's in their daily needs.

Hmm...which makes me think....how about a thread about our community work? What charities we support and such. I will post one..LOL

the board is lively, I like it!

 

[enjoy the ride]

Think of the things that the US has tried to do right- despite lots of self-interest with money to put against them.
1)Evironmental issues
2)Worker's Compensation
3)Social Security
4)Anti-trust legislation
5)universal education without cost
6)Medicare and Medicaide
7) Foreign aide for health and emergency issues
Etc Etc Etc

Now we struggle with many of these issues and certainly it is against an individiual's interest to pay for other people care- but we do try and this costs money.
And where does this money come from- not so much from the rich or poor but from the middle class. Who work for their living and pay lots of taxes. And what's left after the Congress and lobbiest cut their meat from the pile, pays for this.

How can we compete with a worker who pays virtually no taxes for Social or Environmental issues- who has the ability to hire work done by others who are constantly close to starving and work for anything in order to survive? Whose whole legal system is designed to keep the rich rich?
Guess what -we can't. I have more respect for other peoples than to think that no matter how much we damage ourselves, we will always have a good life. Nonsense. We can go down the tubes as fast as anyone else.

Creating financial instablity for a large part of the people in this country will have unexpected and unpleasant consequences- turmoil at the least.

If the conditions that other's live in was really the issue, an individual could send their own "excess" money to educate a child and buy food for an old person. Or help set up a local business in another country to help them raise their own standards for their own people.

I can understand why a person living in the Bay area of California might think that the US is too rich but there are lots of places where right here in this country there are problems to solve. If you don't like that Americans are not as competitive as others, then try educating US kids that drugs and welfare is not a good way of life. Try stopping US and international companies from selling tobacco products to others- pay for resolutions to problems you see here. Any one of a million other things that are harder and not profitable in the self-interest line but that need doing. But pulling the rug out from someone who is working hard- well that is wrong and harmful.

But never deprive a working US citizen of his work- we need all the people who are actually willing to work as an example and a support in this country. Honor Labor- our citizens as well as others.

 

[FarmerChick]

good post Enjoythe Ride