Selective Outrage

[QC]

Now that "outsourcing" has begun to hit the professional class, there is much outrage in liberal circles, including a thread here on the subject approaching 400 posts. Presidential candidates are being asked what they would do about it and the media are full of stories about people who used to knock down $100k but are now having to do menial labor.

We're right to be angry about this, and it is long past time for those in power to answer for it.

But exporting jobs is nothing new. People in manufacturing have been helplessly watching their jobs leave the country for twenty years now, and the usual response, even of many alleged liberals, has been along the lines, of "Gee, that's really sad, but free trade benefits everybody and besides, you people didn't update your skill set." All those folks working in clothing and shoe factories should have just become java programmers, I guess.

It's hard not to see this sudden awareness of job exportation as an example of selective outrage. It was no big deal while it was happening to hicks in the sticks, but now that it has hit the white-collar class, it's a Very Important Issue.

But I think that something even more important is at issue here. In a masterful bit of divide-and-conquer, those who run things have convinced many American professionals that they are a class apart from the guys out on the loading dock. But now the truth has come out: the bosses don't think any more highly of professionals than they do of the shipping crew and are no more hesitant to can them if it can bump up the stock price.

In other words, regardless of what you wear to work and how smooth your hands are, if you work for a paycheck, you are a prole. Only if the professional class learns that they share more interests with the blue-collar crowd than with the corporate elite will there be any real change.

[theivoryqueen]

1. spread the word!

you are right - there is no employer loyalty whether one is blue or white collar. Time to reconsider the usefulness of labor unions....

[Nay]

2. Actually, there were plenty of us white-collar workers alarmed

about the job loss in manufacturing when it was going on, because our neighbors and friends were being hit. We could see that it was not a good trend, but we were listened to about as well then as we are now. That is to say, nobody listened at all.

[Warpy]

3. Office jobs have always

...been the mainstay of suburbia, and suburbanites have always thought they could count on jobs that would let them work in comfort while keeping their hands clean

Now that outsourcing to countries that were once in the British Empire and retain English as a widely taught second language has been discovered, expect to see those staunch Rethuglicans rethink their position on which class they really belong to.

The good news is that outsourcing these jobs doesn't seem to be working very well. Dell has just brought its customer service department back onshore. It seems that customers aren't getting very good service from people who speak very poor English. Of course, that won't stop firms from trying to save a buck in the short term, and I expect the trend to continue

[jono]

5. Point of clarification

Dell is bringing corporate customer service back. It has no plans to do such a thing for consumers. I agree that I expect the offshoring trend to continue, despite this concession from Dell to corporations.

[SharonAnn]

4. Yep, my husband, after a lifetime working for a Fortune 100

company has had several benefit cuts already (since he retired in 2000) and now they've increased my insurance fivefold since 2001. I'm covered until I'm eligible for Medicare which will be another 8 years. Want to bet I'll end up with no medical insurance at all, even after I'm 65?

But they say it isn't "a cut in retirement pay", it's just an increase in deducted costs. And, of course, there's no COLA and I'm sure they're not done yet.

During the 1980's and 1990's they were part of a group lobbying Congress for the right to "restructure" their retirement plans and they did so, several times. Now, they say there isn't enough money in the plans to cover the promised benefits. Wonder why?

The real story was that they had a LOT of money in the retirement plans and they wanted to remove it and use it for other purposes (probably executive bonuses).

Sigh, there's no end to it and we're facing a very bleak future. We've done everything right, both of us worked hard, continued our education, updated our skills (we're both systems engineers), paid into our 401-Ks, paid into Social Security and Medicare, saved some money in private accounts and we're being ripped of by corporations in every direction. My kind of jobs are being given to people with L-1 visa's, companies hire Indians and then "bingo" bring them to the U.S. to work. During the "stock boom" our savings were damaged, Mutual Fund companies continue to steal from all of us, Medicare is being destroyed and Social Security is next.

I'm beginning to understand why elderly people feel there's no hope and commit suicide.

[redqueen]

6. Divide and conquer is exactly right.

It's shocking how many are still unaffected, therefore still choose to believe that 'everything will be ok, the experts say so'.

[SahaleArm]

7. IT workers have yet unionize, why is that?

Right now they don't seem to have a collective voice.

[QC]

8. Not here, but on other boards,

I used to see IT workers get indignant when someone would bring up organizing, because, they said, that was something blue-collar workers did, not professionals.

My guess is that that attitude has probably changed, but it's really too late now to do anything about it. The jobs are gone.