Who do you think is going to save America? Will it be those same companies who are moving operations overseas? Are you going to put your faith and your future in the hands of a corporation that will move to Mexico or Brazil if it's prospects look a little better there? The government is the only large institution that has a commitment to Americans. No corporation has any interest in American citizens beyond what they can get out of us. To put your faith in them because current government doesn't suit you is foolhardy.

Good Job, you picked a Republican Candidate for Governor, with an Ax to grind, as a source.

Next

That should have been in green.:o

The answer to your question, is of course, Americans! Not corporations, not government, not Oprah.

WD, agree with you about having faith in corporations in a general sense. Especially ones which fail to balance profits with other facets of life. I disagree with you regarding the government though. The reason being, switch out the word "profit" with "power".

The government is a living breathing monster just like a corporation and more often than not its interests do not necessarily coincide with my interests, your interests, or the interests of any other American.

Do you know what you call a corporation that focuses on other than the bottom line? Out of business.

People should be charitable. A corporation is a construct for people to pool money to do something. Expecting anything but profit from one is a problem, for you.

Red-Beard,

Not sure I totally agree with you. I'm also not sure how it applies to my answer of us saving us (an not corporations or the government) with respect to the topic of out-sourcing either.

For example, a corporation which focuses on the SHORT-TERM bottom line is out of business sooner or later. So much for simply bottom line.

A corporation is not a construct for people to pool money "to do something". That " to do something" is what is executed or performed if you will in order to create wealth. The creation of wealth is what a corporation is constructed for. Wealth has many forms. One form of wealth naturally is profit.

You don't exactly "get" Capitalism, do you?

Actually Red-Beard, yes I do get capitalism. One kind of has to if they are to run a business successfully.

I'm guessing that something I stated rubbed you wrong and you do not agree.


Also I would like to clear up some statements made by you as well as others earlier regarding engineering and design. Design is typically considered a service job. This is true whether the customer is internal to the company or external. Engineering can be a service job but it is also possible that it is instead a manufacturing job. It all depends upon the job. Again this is true whether the customer is internal to the company or external. As far as value-added. Some design/engineering jobs are some are not. It entirely depends upon the job. I can provide examples if it is not clear.

This is where you go wrong. Corps are there to "do something" which makes a profit for the shareholders. If it isn't doing this, it is going to fail. Are there times when a company doesn't make money and then make larger profits later? Yep. But if it has to go too long without a profit, it will fail.

But that isn't "Balancing other facets of life". That is liberal speak for not following the bottom line.

I believe someone mentioned Boeing earlier in the thread. Here's an LA Times article on how Boeing handled outsourcing parts of their new superliner.

787 Dreamliner teaches Boeing costly lesson on outsourcing - Los Angeles Times

Sherwood

People tend to think of outsourcing as a bad thing.
I understand how most people think it's unfair, it does cause unemployment and it also has a bad effect on economy. However, for business owners, it's not something personal. It's a business strategy and I think it does something good for the company, otherwise, why is it successful.
Personally, it's not really much of a big deal on wherever country you outsource to, either you do it offshore or onshore. The important thing is it's got good quality and at the same time it is cost effective. The good thing about outsourcing is that it is possible to find the best employee for the job half way around the world. You just gotta have an effective hiring process. Lesser cost doesn't necessarily mean poor results.
;)

Holy ressurrected thread, Batman!!!

Are many companies outsourcing for non-manufacturing jobs? We just ceased our offshore development agreement to hire 2 to 4 local developers.

Red-don't forget the insane regulations we have over here and all the agencies that hinder you, none that HELP you!

What are some of those insane regs. and agencies you refer to?

Thanks,
Sherwood

Do you think we have enough skilled and motivated workers here to fully support domestic manufacturing of everything we consume? I am very skeptical. According to the Steve Jobs biography labor availability - not costs - was a key driver in Apple using contract manufacturers in China and elsewhere. Apparently they did not see a quick way to get 700,000 trained workers pulled together in the US.

A guy I know who manufacturers his company's products in China said they're experiencing 20% per MONTH turnover due to the competition for labor in the tech manufacturing hotbed areas there. There is no loyalty among factory floor workers and they'll change jobs for a few cent a day raise. Still, the cost structure, regulatory landscape and tax code here are prohibitive to moving the jobs to the US where you'd think communications and employee loyalty would be less problematic.

Sorry for being late answering Sherwood but holidays, you know. Working on a pipeline you can't imagine how many agencies we have to deal with. They have conflicting rules and regulations and you can get into deep dodo by crossing one of them. One example, a few years ago I was in East Colorado in charge of the right-of-way on a 24" crude line. We had quite a few dry creek beds in the area. A local farmer had farmed his place for 25 years and had never seen water flow through his property. Yet, due to the rather inflexible rules, I still had to put down hay bales and silt fence as water breaks and build mat bridges over non-existant streams. We now have to plant grass on the spoilbank when we excavate a ditchline, even though the pipe will be backfilled as soon as it is lowered in. Water bars have to be built every night before leaving even with no chance of rain. Of course these expenses all reflect at the pump.

very very VERY costly for boeing and honeywell(honey weird).