“Insourcing”?
So Earthweb has an article out entitled, “Is the Answer to Offshoring… Insourcing?”. It’s an interesting look at the few jobs that are trickling back the US from all these offshore companies that are accepting all the call center and programming work that have been leaving these shores in droves for the past, um, 4 years or so. The cynical might raise their eyebrows at the idea of “selling out” because, I guess, the majority of these jobs coming back are for selling offshoring options to domestic companies.
Now what I thought particularly interesting was this statement, by the author of Rising Elephant: The Growing Clash with India Over White Collar Jobs:
Sheshabalaya also says the U.S. government should try to attract foreign companies to the U.S. by doing things like creating tax breaks and other benefits, similar to the tax breaks awarded to U.S. companies that send jobs out of the country.
Didn’t Kerry suggest something to this end? Wouldn’t this make the most sense to help get our economy back on track?
There is a lot more in the book itself, which are constructive ideas. If you follow a site call isyourjobgoingoffshore.com, it seems the book’s synthesis of both the economic and the political, the American and the Indian, is already working on calming some of the more heated and reflexive stuff.
Comment by Brad — 11/19/2004 @ 5:02 am
One of the most important things in Rising Elephant is that it shows jobs have been “leaving”, to India, for almost two decades, not 4 years, and today’s pull is a consolidation, with very powerful roots in the new and evolving world economic - and political - dimensions.
Comment by Vik — 11/19/2004 @ 8:32 am
I’m sure there’s a lot of worthwhile information in the book - and I don’t doubt for a second that the outsourcing trend has been going on for a lot longer than 4 years (it’s just at its most pronounced presently). I just wanted to point to the very simple idea that was posited by the author of the book was something one of our presidential candidates incorporated into his platform. Sure, it’s a little protectionist, but if you want to have a strong country powered by a strong economy, incorporating a little defense into your plans wouldn’t be such a bad idea… I read the article with a “well duh” sort of reaction.
Comment by Brian — 11/19/2004 @ 2:45 pm