T1B

BTW - why do you insist that we pay more for goods and services?

'cuz that is what happens when the government restricts outsourcing through state contracts. This happened in NJ in 2003 when an outcry arose after a state contractor was revealed to be using Indian call centers. NJ took action to ensure more of those were in NJ. Result: the addition of 12 jobs cost state taxpayers $900,000.

More actual data from 2004 BLS

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/reloc.txt

Of the 239,361 private sector nonfarm workers who were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days in the first quarter of 2004, the separations of 4,633 workers were associated with the movement of work outside of the country, according to preliminary data. Domestic relocation of work--both within the company and to other companies--affected 9,985 workers....

In establishments that had layoffs related to the movement of work, the average size of a layoff was 135 workers. This compares with an average of 199 for all establishments that had extended mass layoffs in the first quarter of 2004....

Sixty-eight percent of the layoff events involving the movement of work and 65 percent of the laid-off workers were from manufacturing industries during the first quarter of 2004.

So, to conclude -- the percentage of jobs lost due to mass layoffs -- in turn due to offshore outsourcing -- as a percentage of total jobs lost through mass layoffs was not 3% -- it was a whopping 1.9%. If you drop out seasonal employment, the figure rises to 2.5%.

Now come on, people, think.

Mvscal:

Wages are barely keeping pace with inflation. Where do you suppose all the miraculous bounty of outsourcing is going? Well, wonder no more. It's being carried straight to the bottom line.

When removing the rapid increases in energy costs, the cost of living is increasing very rapidly. However, I know that you and I cannot evade thos eincreased, but nonetheless, wages are keeping pace. Those "savings" are being invested for the most part. very little goes to executive officer compensation or paying dividends and the like. The vast majority goes to keeping current employees employed and expanding existing operations. This is a growing economy or did you just conveniently ignore this?

If you believe that it or even a noticeable percentage of it is being plowed back into wages or benefits for the remaining workers, you are pathetically naive.

Surely it's not being plowed back into wages, however, we have not seen large increases in wages in two decades primarily because of increasing health care costs that employers continue to pay despite massive increases. So while some of that savings is, in fact, contributed towards wages, a far larger percentage goes into maintaining hospitalization and medical coverage for employees.

BTW - is it your expectation that the savings would be plowed back into wages only?

It seems like they ought to be getting a little taste for their trouble. Especially since all those gains in productivity mean more work for those at the transactional level.

I would agree with you.

However, I still see don't see how the case can be made that outsourcing is killing the American worker as the rhetoric employed by you and others would certainly suggest.

You have worn out the "zero sum game" horsepuddle. Believe me, I "get it". That's why I invest.

Well, you conventiently ignored it in this dicussion.

Who hijacked mvscal's nic? :?

Diego in Seattle wrote:Who hijacked mvscal's nic? :?

What do you mean? This is hardly out of character for him.