Nickname: CrankyOldMan

Review: I wonder how good outsourcing will be for US companies in the long run. What happens when their engineering talent is all in countries outside of the US? This might not be an immediate problem for the larger countries that run their own shops, but what happens when a contract company in India fails, or is bought out by a rival? Even large companies increase their risk of losing control of their creative human resources when they place them halfway across the world.

Date reviewed: Mar 1, 2006 9:21 PM

Nickname: hutch

Review: The reader who pointed out that the U.S. consumes 30% of the world's resources with only 6% of its population is on to something. This is what is known as "economically unsustainable." There is no way around it: the standard of living in the U.S. of the 20th century (which was purely a historical accident to begin with) is going to fundamentally change.

Date reviewed: Feb 24, 2006 1:51 PM

Nickname: cooler

Review: There are two sides to the coin. Today a big sell of the offshoring companies is the wage disparity. However, over time as the standard of living goes up in these countries, the attractivness of offshoring to them will go down as the cost will increase. That is when companies will move to cheaper pastures. So today it is India, tommorrow India will be in the same position as what US is in. Outsourcing is a global trend which is here to stay. The best thing to do is to get retrained in non-outsourcable areas.

Date reviewed: Feb 23, 2006 4:09 PM

Nickname: SKS

Review: This is real Globalization. American companies like GE, Whirlpool, Wal-Mart setting up shops in in India and reaping profits, plowing it back in thier home countries.At the same time , the very same companies looking for best talents at the most affordable price to remain profitable. People STOP whining and get ready to face reality

Date reviewed: Feb 23, 2006 3:01 AM

Nickname: in_007

Review: One basic question we must ask is when do companies go and look for outsourcing? In most cases, it is when companies are doing bad and are reporting losses. The executives try to look at cost effective measures and the first thing that comes to them is reducing overhead costs. Now by outsourcing some of the jobs, the companies are able to recover from losses and make some profit. Now what if they did not outsource? Can the comapnies bear the losses incurred? How long will it continue? It will ultimately lead to layoffs or closing some business units. Outsourcing is a way for the companies to realize some profit during tough times and stay ahead of the competition. Why aren't the companies making profit? It is because of competition and globalization. Competition is healthy, as it allows the consumers to get products and services at affordable rates.

Date reviewed: Feb 22, 2006 8:51 PM

Nickname: John

Review: To Outguy and all: Whining? Do you know that the official unemployment stats don't count people out after 26 or 39 weeks unemployment? There are many former IT professionals selling cars and real estate, while I work alongside many people here under H1B status -- in a major company! I know of ex-Lucent programmers who make sandwiches at Subway, or former $80,000 analysts doing $10-an-hour clerk jobs. So injustice, a tragedy in the making for our middle class is nothing, but only to whine about? Wake Up!

Date reviewed: Feb 22, 2006 3:24 PM

Nickname: morgan

Review: Outsourcing is currently an experiment. Most companies are just now starting to measure the tangible and intangible costs vs. savings from outsourcing. In the long run the benefits are going to be negligible. In addition Bangalore could also become a security risk and target for radical Islam extremists. That will be the end of outsourcing.

Date reviewed: Feb 22, 2006 1:58 AM

Nickname: Tony

Review: This is what capitalism is all about. The companies CEO's are paid hefty salaries and bonuses to make the shareholders money at any cost. They do not care what happens to the working population in the United States. I don't agree with this but there is nothing that anybody can do including the Congress of the United States of America! Outsourcing is here to stay.

Date reviewed: Feb 21, 2006 11:03 PM

Nickname: dave

Review: I have read all the comments and IMHO some aspects of all the statements are correct. We as Americans have no obligation to help the rest of the world (no one helped us when we were developing). But, in turn, we can say that offshoring (let's use the politically incorrect term here) is wrong. My question is why do we continue to support companies that move jobs overseas? We buy the products and let our goverments give them tax breaks, why? If you want to do something then write your congress person asking to remove incentives to offshore and give incentives for local jobs (while you are at it ask them to fix the education system and not cripple it like "No child left behind," and the current budget proposal is trying to do). We need to find the answer to this problem within ourselves and not blame the rest of the world.

Date reviewed: Feb 20, 2006 2:39 PM

Nickname: rmuk

Review: Josva, how to persuade your son to become an engineer? Well, I live and work in an Indian engineering company (no BPO work) and I live and work in India. I had the same problem with my own son. He preferred to join an Indian advertising firm as a copywriter. And guess what, one of the projects he's working on involves taking on outsourced copywriting work for a US ad company. So really, the West's dilemma runs much much deeper than just engineering. We who live in the developing world see a huge problem in, for instance, the USA's being able to consume 30% of the world's resources with just 6% of its population--a consequence of bloated compensations. Now with shareholders (including affluent Western shareholders)demanding higher returns, it's but natural for companies' managements to look to accomplish their tasks better and more cheaply by outsourcing whatever thay can short of a haircut and a shave.

Date reviewed: Feb 19, 2006 10:28 AM