The Outsourcing Conundrum

Let me begin this post by sharing this joke with you that I received at work from one of my seniors (yes, again).. Read the joke carefully, it highlights the emotions of the people residing in the greatest (self-proclaimed) nation of the world, the United States of America (USA).

An Israeli doctor says "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can
take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work
in six weeks."

A German doctor says "That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one
person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks.


A Russian doctor says "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can
take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both
looking for work in two weeks."

The Texas doctor, not to be outdone, says "You guys are way behind, we
recently took a man with no brains out of Texas, put him in the White House for
eight years, and now half the country is looking for work.

I sure hope you liked the joke for I simply loved the sarcastic dig taken at the Americans at the end of it. The ending epitomises so many things which are uniquely American: Their advancements in technology that are bettered by no one else (okay, okay, I can hear a few protests already); their President who is renowned for making public goof-ups at the drop of a hat and yet he gets elected for a second term as the President and finally, the outsourcing of jobs which has disgruntled many Americans and left even more without a job. However, I wonder why they are disgruntled now for weren't they the ones who pushed the envelope towards cheaper, better goods? What ever led to the origination of the sweat shops in China and other cheap labour-intensive countries where Lee and Nike manufactured their lines of clothes and shoes in the early '90s? [Please correct me if I am quoting the wrong names here; I recall having read these in the book "NO LOGO" by Naomi Klein about 3-4 years back.]

The American consumers and the then-shareholders of these companies were not complaining then and as for the sweat shop workers -- well, let's just say that neither the companies nor their own governments were much concerned about their well beings. Even the workers did not make much of a noise as holding on to a job was much more important than good working conditions. Thanks to the strength of the dollar, especially against the weaker currencies of the developing nations, the workers were paid pittance compared to the average wages of a job of a similar nature in the U.S. The Americans -- from the consumer to the shareholders -- enjoyed this cost effective way of manufacturing foods which made quite a few of these brands competitive and highly profitable ventures. Companies which did not set up such shops had to work extremely hard to make ends meet -- forget about matching the impressive margins posted by the companies indulging in the trade-off of manual labour known as "outsourcing".

2 decades later, the same people want the jobs returned to their country, the USA .. they have had enough of the outsourcing bit and now with joblessness on the rise and the economy into a recession, people have woken up from a deep slumber to realise that while they had initially only outsourced manual labour, over the course of time, these small, weaker developing nations have taken the art of outsourcing and delivering work to the next level -- so much so that there is a lack of jobs for the people back home!

Sounds funny?? Or does it seem reasonable? I believe in life being a give and take sort of a relationship and int h adage "what goes round comes around" -- The USA took a lot out of the world, now the world is taking its due out of the USA. It's a symbiotic relationship -- neither can survive without the other. Turmoil will ensue but balance too will be restored -- hopefully sooner than later. I sure dream of the day when we can outsource our work to USA -- though the upbringing we have had, I believe we may end up treating them fairer and better than what we were subjected to!

N.B.: I may sound like a hypocrite to some of you for I [and others like me] are helping these companies outsource most of the work from USA to India but but .. .. .. I shall defend my honour some other day! 'Til then, play hard and keep cheering Knight Riders (hee hee hee)..