Where Have All the IT Jobs Gone?
I've read all these posts and it seems that this issue is getting more and more complicated. Let me see if I can bring it down to earth. I have been a programmer for 23 years. I have worked all over the country. In the past 10 years, I have been laid off from several positions due to downsizing. I always kept an eye on my old position to make sure I was recalled according to the law. What most of the companies did instead was outsourced the projects. To what companies I don't know but I do know that one of the biggest complaints of the people still at the company was getting the actual programmer to understand what needed to be done and what they were actually saying. We Americans have problems understanding each other so I would inquire as to where the programmer was. The answer was almost always in India. So I have been replaced several times by outsourcing to foreign companies (I say foreign because 90% of the work force do not reside in America). So I've had to ask myself: Have I been overpricing myself? The answer is no. I don't have all the frills (extra cars, large house, etc.) heck I can't even afford to go on vacation. I live paycheck to paycheck. That is what most Americans do. So the arguement that we are overpriced is inaccurate. The problem is simple, companies want to save money and boost profits. The market out there is not what it used to be so the revenues are not up. The only way to make a profit is to reduce costs. The one department that doesn't bring in revenue is IT. So companies look for less expensive labor. Reduce the cost (even if it takes longer for projects to be completed) increases profits. I am upset at being replaced by outsourcing but there really isn't anything we can do about it. It would be nice if American companies would keep there money in the American market place by hiring Americans or at least people residing in America, but they are looking at the bottom line and not where their money is going to. A perfect example is the clothing manufacturing industry. They needed cheap labor and to reduce overhead and improve profits. What happened? sweat shops in 3rd world countries. At least the IT outsourcing isn't violating child labor laws. Anyway, the simple problem is that the cost of living in America has reached a level that Corporate America cannot afford to pay us what we need to simply survive and still make a profit. So they searched elsewhere to find less expensive solutions. They found it in foreign programmers. Do we blame the government for this? I don't think so. Personally I blame the Corporate America who are the ones that created the high cost of living. Think about it, a man sits on an assembly line monitoring a computer that is welding the frame of a vehicle. This man is paid over 40K. Why? Because Corporate America agreed to pay him to do nothing (essentially). Because of that we now are paying what it used to cost for a house for a car now. Corporate America is doing what it has to bring in as much money to so it can go into their pockets ..... it is called capitalism. If we want to keep jobs in America then Corporate America (especially the board member and executives) stop demanding and getting the 100K + bonuses and other perks. Stop our government from using our hard earned money on trips and things they don't need. There was a time that all expenses for our representative came out of contribution and the individual own pockets. Now we pay them way too much money to do nothing but find ways to increase what they get paid. If we reduce both of these then prices will go down because volume of sales will go up because we will have more money. We spend more we then create the need for more jobs. And the cycle continues. I don't like being replaced by someone that doesn't even live in the same country but I don't think I should stop them from trying to earn a living too. There are a lot of IT jobs out there but there could be more for us if Corporate America would give us hard working people who just want to support our families a chance to do just that. Okay I didn't make it simple, I started venting a little because of my own experiences. Joe your article was great. It opened a can of worms that has needed to be openned for years now. If the executives would simply open their eyes and hear the cries of us to be employeed in positions that we can feel safe at not being replaced by the cheaper labor they will see a very high quality of work and see that in the long term we will save them more money.
I've read all these posts and it seems that this issue is getting more and more complicated. Let me see if I can bring it down to earth. I have been a programmer for 23 years. I have worked all over the country. In the past 10 years, I have been laid off from several positions due to downsizing. I always kept an eye on my old position to make sure I was recalled according to the law. What most of the companies did instead was outsourced the projects. To what companies I don't know but I do know that one of the biggest complaints of the people still at the company was getting the actual programmer to understand what needed to be done and what they were actually saying. We Americans have problems understanding each other so I would inquire as to where the programmer was. The answer was almost always in India. So I have been replaced several times by outsourcing to foreign companies (I say foreign because 90% of the work force do not reside in America). So I've had to ask myself: Have I been overpricing myself? The answer is no. I don't have all the frills (extra cars, large house, etc.) heck I can't even afford to go on vacation. I live paycheck to paycheck. That is what most Americans do. So the arguement that we are overpriced is inaccurate. The problem is simple, companies want to save money and boost profits. The market out there is not what it used to be so the revenues are not up. The only way to make a profit is to reduce costs. The one department that doesn't bring in revenue is IT. So companies look for less expensive labor. Reduce the cost (even if it takes longer for projects to be completed) increases profits. I am upset at being replaced by outsourcing but there really isn't anything we can do about it. It would be nice if American companies would keep there money in the American market place by hiring Americans or at least people residing in America, but they are looking at the bottom line and not where their money is going to. A perfect example is the clothing manufacturing industry. They needed cheap labor and to reduce overhead and improve profits. What happened? sweat shops in 3rd world countries. At least the IT outsourcing isn't violating child labor laws. Anyway, the simple problem is that the cost of living in America has reached a level that Corporate America cannot afford to pay us what we need to simply survive and still make a profit. So they searched elsewhere to find less expensive solutions. They found it in foreign programmers. Do we blame the government for this? I don't think so. Personally I blame the Corporate America who are the ones that created the high cost of living. Think about it, a man sits on an assembly line monitoring a computer that is welding the frame of a vehicle. This man is paid over 40K. Why? Because Corporate America agreed to pay him to do nothing (essentially). Because of that we now are paying what it used to cost for a house for a car now. Corporate America is doing what it has to bring in as much money to so it can go into their pockets ..... it is called capitalism. If we want to keep jobs in America then Corporate America (especially the board member and executives) stop demanding and getting the 100K + bonuses and other perks. Stop our government from using our hard earned money on trips and things they don't need. There was a time that all expenses for our representative came out of contribution and the individual own pockets. Now we pay them way too much money to do nothing but find ways to increase what they get paid. If we reduce both of these then prices will go down because volume of sales will go up because we will have more money. We spend more we then create the need for more jobs. And the cycle continues. I don't like being replaced by someone that doesn't even live in the same country but I don't think I should stop them from trying to earn a living too. There are a lot of IT jobs out there but there could be more for us if Corporate America would give us hard working people who just want to support our families a chance to do just that. Okay I didn't make it simple, I started venting a little because of my own experiences. Joe your article was great. It opened a can of worms that has needed to be openned for years now. If the executives would simply open their eyes and hear the cries of us to be employeed in positions that we can feel safe at not being replaced by the cheaper labor they will see a very high quality of work and see that in the long term we will save them more money.
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