OT Food for thought

Outsourcing assumes that those who produce the product cannot
afford to buy it. Or, put another way, it's goal is to pay wages
to build a product lower than it takes to make someone a consumer
of the product.

There are two major reasons for the current outsourcing mania:

1. The "Wal-Mart" syndrome. As wages in the U.S. drop because the "real" jobs
are gone, prices of goods must be reduced so that the average consumer can
still afford to buy. This is accomplished by outsourcing and by economy of
scale. How much longer before Wal-Mart is the only store left.

2. Return on investments. The pressure is on corporate CEO's not only to show a
profit, but to maximize profits, basically to satisfy investors with short
attention spans who seek instant gratification from the stock market. Ever
notice how a stock climbs after a company announces a layoff?

Eventually this bubble, like the hi tech bubble is going to burst. When the
manufacturing jobs started going overseas, the word was that all was well, and
we would develop a "service economy". Now the service jobs are going too. The
momentum is such that it seems unlikely it can be stopped in the foreseeable
future, but it somehow has to be slowed down long enough to formulste a
strategy to keep work here, and that ain't gonna be easy. Try explaining to the
average consumer why the digital camera that used to cost $200 is now $600.



George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller