Is offshoring truly about greed, or is there some big plan in store for everyone?

Sometimes it feels like there's more to it than that, but I am also known for finding menace behind every shadow.

But still. My job is my life. That's why I aim to strive for top performance and look for opportunities to improve.

Got big by taking from the masses who labored cheaply allowing the bigshots to rake in the money.

Their plan for cheap labor fueling their further riches has been hurt by American unions which raised the wages of the whole world's working class.

Now they must get rid of the fair waged American worker so that their profits can continue to gross out even higher.

And the economy goes bye-bye.

Plus, Indian and Chinese middle classes are forming because their economies allow $2/hr or whatever to make their people rich. That cannot be done here until the mutha of all "corrections" occurs. Much like the housing "correction" of recent.

Excluding the Pentagon which ranks 10th

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x856816

http://www.corporations.org/system/top100.html

Rank Country / Corporation GDP / sales ($mil)
1 United States 8,708,870.00
2 Japan 4,395,083.00
3 Germany 2,081,202.00
4 France 1,410,262.00
5 United Kingdom 1,373,612.00
6 Italy 1,149,958.00
7 China 1,149,814.00
8 Brazil 760,345.00
9 Canada 612,049.00
10 Spain 562,245.00
11 Mexico 474,951.00
12 India 459,765.00
13 Korea, Rep. 406,940.00
14 Australia 389,691.00
15 Netherlands 384,766.00
16 Russian Federation 375,345.00
17 Argentina 281,942.00
18 Switzerland 260,299.00
19 Belgium 245,706.00
20 Sweden 226,388.00
21 Austria 208,949.00
22 Turkey 188,374.00
23 General Motors 176,558.00
24 Denmark 174,363.00
25 Wal-Mart 166,809.00
26 Exxon Mobil 163,881.00
27 Ford Motor 162,558.00
28 DaimlerChrysler 159,985.70
29 Poland 154,146.00
30 Norway 145,449.00
31 Indonesia 140,964.00
32 South Africa 131,127.00
33 Saudi Arabia 128,892.00
34 Finland 126,130.00
35 Greece 123,934.00
36 Thailand 123,887.00
37 Mitsui 118,555.20
38 Mitsubishi 117,765.60
39 Toyota Motor 115,670.90
40 General Electric 111,630.00
41 Itochu 109,068.90
42 Portugal 107,716.00
43 Royal Dutch/Shell 105,366.00
44 Venezuela 103,918.00
45 Iran, Islamic rep. 101,073.00
46 Israel 99,068.00
47 Sumitomo 95,701.60
48 Nippon Tel & Tel 93,591.70
49 Egypt, Arab Republic 92,413.00
50 Marubeni 91,807.40
51 Colombia 88,596.00
52 AXA 87,645.70
53 IBM 87,548.00
54 Singapore 84,945.00
55 Ireland 84,861.00
56 BP Amoco 83,556.00
57 Citigroup 82,005.00
58 Volkswagen 80,072.70
59 Nippon Life Insurance 78,515.10
60 Philippines 75,350.00
61 Siemens 75,337.00
62 Malaysia 74,634.00
63 Allianz 74,178.20
64 Hitachi 71,858.50
65 Chile 71,092.00
66 Matsushita Electric Ind. 65,555.60
67 Nissho Iwai 65,393.20
68 ING Group 62,492.40
69 AT&T 62,391.00
70 Philip Morris 61,751.00
71 Sony 60,052.70
72 Pakistan 59,880.00
73 Deutsche Bank 58,585.10
74 Boeing 57,993.00
75 Peru 57,318.00
76 Czech Republic 56,379.00
77 Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Ins. 55,104.70
78 Honda Motor 54,773.50
79 Assicurazioni Generali 53,723.20
80 Nissan Motor 53,679.90
81 New Zealand 53,622.00
82 E.On 52,227.70
83 Toshiba 51,634.90
84 Bank of America 51,392.00
85 Fiat 51,331.70
86 Nestle 49,694.10
87 SBC Communications 49,489.00
88 Credit Suisse 49,362.00
89 Hungary 48,355.00
90 Hewlett-Packard 48,253.00
91 Fujitsu 47,195.90
92 Algeria 47,015.00
93 Metro 46,663.60
94 Sumitomo Life Insur. 46,445.10
95 Bangladesh 45,779.00
96 Tokyo Electric Power 45,727.70
97 Kroger 45,351.60
98 Total Fina Elf 44,990.30
99 NEC 44,828.00
100 State Farm Insurance 44,637.20

Offshoring happens because stockholders, many of them not rich but merely petit bourgeoisie, allow it to happen in the interest of making a short-term buck.

But anyone who even has a passing understanding of economics must understand that if a huge number of skilled, high-paying manufacuting jobs are removed from an economy and replaced with lower-paying service jobs, that it will have a ripple effect and fewer and fewer people will be able to buy those "cheap" imported goods. In recent years many people have tried to maintain a middle-class lifestyle by borrowing against speculation-inflated equity, flipping houses, high-risk, adjustable rate debt, but that gravy train seems to be slowing to a halt now.

But the power elites, the super-wealthy, the ones "in the know" are well aware of how unsustainable this all is, and that's why they are looting the economy for every last cent, and they have multiplied their own wealth by many times in recent decades while the bottom 90% have stayed stagnant or lost ground.

I believe that when the inevitable collapse and chaos comes, these people will already be comfortably ensconced in their hideaways in Bermuda, Switzerland, etc. They will NOT be riding it out along with the rest of us.

They are seen as American as everyone else, and to the last of my understanding, America isn't liked right now.

?

that's just the way the world works

First, the American Workers, who have risen to every challenge put before them to date, will do it again. Then, we will still have law enforcement and specops military: We can go an "parakeet snatch" them out of their mansions and villas and while at it, stop off in the Caymans and take back our looted treasure.

Radical? Extreme? No more then the economic warfare they are waging against the American People, from within.

I've attended seminars and other things; the people do NOT have that mindset. People want time for their families and money to raise them on. You know, family values. That's the consensus I have observed.

However these corps have to know the effects of what they are doing and either don;t care at all of never even consider the worker as anything more than a tool to be tossed out if they even think that far .

I fear many people who still have jobs don;t really realize that many of them may be on the layoff list at this moment or are one paycheck away from no job .

Usually you don;t get a warning and even if so many find no jobs or a job that will under-employ them .

You wonder why there are all sorts of commercials or emails telling you you can work from home , all have a catch and a fee and none pan out and cost you money you really don;t have , one would be better off to bet in Vegas at least there is a chance to win .

I get emails all the time and even on AAR or other stations you hear these same commercials .

But if things continue apace, they will.

I just can't imagine the job market turning around anytime soon , it's always much easier to destroy than to build anything .

Hell we can't even get a lousy raise in the min wage passed , as if this raise is such a big deal ,by the time it's in full effect the cost of items will far outweigh the small $2 gain over two years .

is the role of currency trading. Workers who are paid in rupees or bhat or other depressed currencies working for offshored industry generally have a better deal than domestic jobs would have provided (the exception being China). When you translate a wage that keeps them alive quite nicely back into dollars, it looks like they're living on three dollars or so a day, an amount that won't supply adequate calories to somebody living in a tarpaper shack in the woods and who is immune to health problems.

There is no way an American worker can possibly compete head to head with someone being paid in a depressed currency. Yet, this is what we are asked to do when corporations justify outsourcing.

Another thing to consider is the position this country is being placed in. We no longer make cloth, shoes, consumer electronics, many replacement parts for cars, washing machines, computers and other things we take for granted. Much of our steel production has been offshored. Restarting these industries, some of them strategic and necessary for our survival in the next big war, is impossible because the equipment was either offshored with the jobs or was sold for scrap.

Offshoring is quite literally killing this country. All the nukes in the world won't compensate for a population that has been left with nothing and a country stripped bare of what made it great.

There will be an end result while the US jobs continue to be out sourced . It may be a plan to make the US a third world country at least this is the course we seem to be headed on .

Without manufacturing jobs what is left , not everyone can afford to re-train and even if so what will they train for .

I keep hearing people will change jobs every three years or so , there will be no more long term employees and alot of the jobs are contract jobs so you have to keep looking after the short term contract job ends .

I have been looking for over a year and have found nothing even at low pay and it seems to be my age more than for any other reason .

I have never felt so lost since not having a job . it is quite scary .

Except most people saying it are not fond of it.

I would try for my own business except the laws only serve to strangle small businessmen; never mind the taxes (which is double-dipping for entrepreneurs - for owners AND employees get socked; everyone else it's only for being an employee since nobody owns the business.)

Small biz laws need to change; especially if it's the Republicans who hype them up as being the backbone TO our economy. That comment is a non-sequitur.

It's not about a sustainable economy. It's about taking and owning.

The plan is for the masses to clamor for a leader, damn the consequences.

The plutocracy has always had a preferred economic system. It is called feudalism. Hyper-rich ruling class own everything and the rest of the population is an indentured peasantry.

A corporation which makes consumer goods moves a plant there to produce goods primarily for that country and perhaps the region. In some cases, they pay above the going rate or locate in an area where people have been unemployed. The extra wages allow people to buy products which the company produces.
In other cases, it does not seem to make sense at all other than saving on labor costs.

haven't many corporations been treating with the enemy - an act of treason against the United States?

I do not understand. :(

Doubt that rises to the level of treason as specified in Article III section 3 of the Constitution.

treating with in your opinion?

The rest of the world's the enemy??

Since when?

Did I miss something?

The market is a non-human dynamic.

There is no big plan. There is no Man. In fifty to seventy-five years, there will be sufficient competition in India, etc., for there to be wage equity. Then we'll see. Until then, the American worker is roughly in the position of the pre-industrial gunsmith roundabout 1820. Fucked and heading towards extinction. The American worker will have to be reinvented, just as the pre-industrial gunsmith had to become something else.

It's over. But this is the system we fought the Cold War for. This is capitalism. This is what capitalism does.

Lou Dobbs and others are residual feudalists. They believe in territoriality. But capitalism deterritorializes. It's actually almost amusing to hear Dobbs wax nostalgic about the "American middle class," which was always the result of massive government regulation and labor union action, a virtual control economy model. Then he rants about the borders. Excuse me, Mr. Dobbs, but "borders," from an economic perspective - from the perspective of capitalism - are horrendous government regulations, limiting the free movement of labor on a labor market, the free circulation of goods, the free circulation of capital itself. Borders! What are we, medieval lieges? Artificial lines inhibiting the perfect operation of the Market? My goodness! Capitalism brooks no borders, and poor Mr. Dobbs and his Nostalgic Remnant will just have to eat that. They are reaping what they've sown. It's almost amusing. Almost.

destruction of the American middle class and eventual radical depopulation is the method

for workers and environment. Think about the $$ they save by not having to deal with safety, benefits, safe disposal of waste materials, safe working conditions.

Not just about the wages. They figure when US workers are hungery enough, we will insist on gutting our own protection.

It's about the return to a feudal system.

always trying to catch up? No.

As someone who works in IT I encounter offshoring and 'staff aug' every day. I think there are several parts to it. First is just the overall greed factor, you can fire one US programmer and use 3 offshore for the same money. Even if their work is half-ass and it takes twice as long to complete or takes time for someone else to fix their mistakes its still cheaper.

I don't think it helps that business users attitudes towards IT is not one of two partners working together to help the overall business, instead its a face off, its that IT is annoying or dorks.. or just a pain their ass in other words "its always ITs fault" that I can't do XYZ today because of IT. Consequently the business doesn't protect IT they cut them loose. Thats why you see good IT jobs going left and right but not accounting or finance jobs yet, there is resistance because its their area and of course it must be "valuable". I think eventually it will all go but thats just my opinion.

If your the first company to do it then it works great because all of your consumers are still making good money, but what if your the last company?

I think we are working our way slowly towards a decline or elimination of the middle class...so far its being proped up by easy.. way to freakin easy to obtain credit. I see this decline taking a generation or two.

and sometimes the quality of the work isn't hot to trot either.

I suppose it's a good thing we're hearing mixed reviews.

And it's not "the" middle class, it's OURS. Notice how India and China now have middle classes. Not a bad thing, but it suggests a form of migration rather than expansion. The only way to make the USA compatible, under these nonsensical conditions, is to match pay along with cost of living. But that will eradicate corporate profits.

It is NOT sustainable, and it'll effect the rich too. If that's of any consolation.

Okay, if OUR middle class is being eradicated, tell me this:

1. Our economy - at least 70% of it depends on middle class spending.

2. Who has thought who is going to pay that $9 trillion debt?

A giant international luxury retirement community, where the victims of corporate downsizing, rightsizing, reductions in force, off-shoring, and whatever the jargon du jour happens to be are housed absolutely free of charge in spacious condos or mini-mansions, given three squares a day and plenty of snacks, drinks are on the house, and there's even a mint on each pillow at bedtime.

And why is this happening? Because it turns out that the rich, practical jokesters that they are, were just play acting for centuries, conning the peasantry into believing that the rich are just barbarous exploiters, when actually they've been quite saintly, nay almost god-like, in their dedication to bettering the lives of the little people.

So after a few centuries, when they had finally captured every single resource, scrap of land, city, state and country -- in fact, owned the deed to the entire planet -- they figured "game over; let's drop the masks and let the good times roll."

And so, after decades of top-secret construction that involved the complete bulldozing, reforestation and redesigning of Central America -- funded by what Americans thought was the Pentagon budget (and of course they had to be kept in the dark or the surprise would have been ruined) -- the new, fabulous Glutco Corp. Retirement Towers, Garden Community and 24-Hour Car Wash is finally open.

Sixteen thousand championship golf courses. Millions of tennis courts. Fifteen million weight rooms and personal fitness centers. Two and a half billion cineplexes that never run out of popcorn. Rivers, lakes, streams for fishing. Mountain trails for hiking. Not one, but TWO whole oceans for swimming, diving, surfing and boating. Motocross for bike enthusiasts; oval and road racing tracks for fast cars and superbikes. Five massive airports, where there's never a wait in the security line. Dozens more smaller airports for everything from Gulfstream Jets to motorized hang gliders -- all free to use for as long as you want.

Fine dining at any of two billion restaurants, with a few million fast food outlets to keep the burger junkies happy. The very finest health care that the world's combined technologies could achieve, everything free of charge, with enough hospital beds to handle an epidemic of dyspepsia caused by the inevitable overeating as the world's formerly poor and hungry discover the wonders of free haute cuisine.

And it's all free; a gift from the rich to the rest of us for our unwavering contributions over the centuries to their massive wealth, comfort and prosperity. It's a shame that previous generations had to labor at poor wages for long hours with little joy in their lives just so the project could be completed on time. We owe them an eternal debt of gratitude.

But we who will benefit from their sacrifice, and who will give up our crappy little lives of desperate acquisition and crushing debt in favor of unprecedented luxury and ease, will always remember those folks who, down through the ages, made it all possible.

As for the rich, while it never seemed quite fair to talk about class warfare and neo-feudalism, who could have imagined that their sole motivation all these years has been to free humanity from the drudgery of work, poverty and disease for all time? Who could have foreseen that all that labor strife, environmental devastation, worldwide poverty and hunger, infant mortality, and so on, were tough but necessary parts of the big picture?

Oh the munificence and generosity of the rich! Let us praise their pure motives and unyielding dedication to the betterment of all humankind! Let us revere the names of Gates and Ellison and Buffet, the great sheiks of the lesser emirates, the enlightened Russian mafia bosses, Idi Amin and Baby Doc, too. All played their parts to perfection, and Glutco Towers and 24-Hour Car Wash is the result.

Got to go now; we're having shrimp omelets for breakfast today and I don't want to be late.


wp

- to maximize profit. They've no other purpose. The business of America may be business, but the business of business certainly isn't America.

Maybe it's time for America to rethink its love of business.