'The man who wants to take your jobs'

[robertlaferla at comcast.net (Robert La Ferla)]

"Rich Braun" <richb at pioneer.ci.net> wrote:

>Regarding the attitude of corporations:  it's too bad Americans so often make
>the argument that overseas workers are clearly inferior and hence that
>companies must only care about the price and quantity of work they can get
>from those overseas workers.  Ask yourself if you really believe that.  If you
>were the boss, is this what you would do?  It doesn't really make any sense. 
>Suppose the overseas people are *better* educated and more *highly* motivated
>than their peers in the USA?  Isn't it possible (likely) that corporate
>managers are being pulled overseas to take advantage of
>high-skilled/high-motivated workforces that have developed there over the past
>couple of generations?
>
No.  There are plenty of high-skilled and highly motivated yet 
unemployed US workers.  The problem is not an objective one but rather a 
perception.  The perception amongst management is that they can save 
money because they can get lower rates.  The reality is that a lower 
rate rarely translates into a lower overall cost for a project and more 
importantly it doesn't translate into a better value.  This is because 
the total cost depends on the time it takes to do the analysis, design 
and implementation as well as the efficiency of the staff (i.e. how hard 
does each programmer work per hour?  how productive are they?).  The 
efficiency is hard to monitor if your staff is thousands of miles away 
from you.  There are communication issues (distance, language, culture, 
time zone, and even technical) that take time to resolve that drive up 
the cost.  It's clear that if you, the boss, had the choice (all other 
things being equal) of a local programmer working in your office or a 
remote one, you'd take the local one.  Beyond cost, there is value and 
that's where quality comes in.  What are you getting in return for your 
investment of X workers * Y hours * Z rate plus international long 
distance and airfare expense?  How much reusable code was generated?  Is 
the source code commented in English?  How about the variable names, are 
they in English?  What risks have you the offshoring manager (for 
example at a financial institution) exposed your company to by letting 
foreigners code your application?  Who else has seen your source code?  
If there are problems, do you have any legal recourse in that foreign 
country?  Then there's the ethics of decimating your own local economy 
for your own profit.  (e.g. Roger Smith of General Motors and the people 
of Flint, Michigan)  Let's not consider ethics.  It's not the corporate 
way...

I do think that between offshoring and H1B/L1 visa abuse, the latter is 
the bigger problem for US workers and offshoring is somewhat of a red 
herring  If corporations want to send projects overseas, let them deal 
with costs and risks associated with it.  US citizens need to FIGHT to 
make sure H1B/L1 visa regulations are not widely abused as they are now.