Monday, June 4, 2012
TWIF Flattener 5 - Outsourcing
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://mrsfridaysclass.wikispaces.com/Current+Events to find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that outsourcing was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
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Title: Needing an Artist, and Calling on India
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/business/media/outsourcing-extends-to-creative-work.html?_r=1
This article is about how a musician outsourced his music video so people living in India could create it for him at a lower cost than in America. Drew Smith, the musician, says how he just allowed the people he outsourced his video to make the major decisions. In addition, the article talks about how outsourcing is now starting to become an option not just for large companies, but for small companies and individuals too.
This article relates to Diamond's flattener outsourcing because he talks about how there are people that live in America who send some of their work to a foreign country, such as India, and have it done their. That is exactly what happened in the article. Smith outsourced his music video over to India where people could create it at a lower cost than in America.
Article & MP3 Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n6z3h
ReplyDeleteArticle & MP3 Title: Womb For Rent
Summary: Woman in other countries are outsourcing surrogacy to India, where it costs less than in the United States. The money that an Indian surrogate makes in nine months is equivalent to that of ten years rural Indian salary, but the surrogate mothers face emotional and cultural challenges. Many people believe that the surrogates in India are being exploited, but many people involved in the process can verify that the surrogate mothers are treated well and volunteer for their job.
The World is Flat describes outsourcing in companies, where work is sent to India, so it can be done cheaper than in The United States of Americas. Though the job of surrogate mothers is a bit different than normal business outsourcing described by Friedman in the book, it still provides another example of how Americans save money by outsourcing to India.
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ReplyDeleteThe article, “New Obama Renews Outsourcing Attack”, discusses how Obama is accusing his opponent, Romney, of outsourcing jobs to low wage companies, and how he supports tax breaks for companies who send jobs abroad. But there is minimal evidence at all, while Romney was still running Bain Capital, that he has shipped jobs overseas. Whereas Obama supports insourcing, but has left 23 million without work.
ReplyDeleteThis article relates to the fifth flattener of “The World is Flat” because Friedman discusses how jobs shipped overseas is lower paying, in opposition to doing the same work in the U.S. Even though there is scant evidence that Romney has shipped jobs overseas, it accuses him of doing so, which would only save money. Which is why several companies use the method of outsourcing.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/new-obama-ad-renews-outsourcing-attack/
The article, "Outsourcing Plan Stirs Fears at Texas A&M" explains how outsourcing can be negative. Many people who work on campus are worried about their jobs. Since the school will be outsourcing for many things such as it's landscaping and building maintenance some are worried that they will be layed off. Though outsourcing can be an efficient way to run a school or business in this case it may not be that way for everyone.
ReplyDeleteThis article relates to the fifth flattener in Friedman's, "The World is Flat." The relation comes from the connection spoke about America and India in the book. Friedman explains how workers in India can work while Americans are sleeping and when they wake up the file is there all ready to go. This form of outsourcing can be very helpful to businesses, but if looked at in a different perspective, such as in the article, it could be harmful to American employee's jobs.
Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/us/outsourcing-plan-stirs-fears-among-texas-am-workers.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.economist.com/node/21556094
ReplyDeleteIn this article titled "Outsourcing is so passé", it first talks about how "Outsourcing" is known for solving any computer, or other technical problem a user may come by. However, recently, a new form of electronic assistance has stolen the spotlight. "Unsourcing" allows for customers to interact not only with professionls, but other users with the same product, to help solve problems. They can do so through online chat sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which is only more efficient because millions use these sites. Not only is this new assistance better, but it is less expensive than outsourcing. According to the article, a company saved a total of $150,000 in just one month.
This article relates to the fifth flattener "Outsourcing" for several reasons. For one thing, it starts out by stating how much help is has offered the world. Users could easily use it to solve any electronic glitch. Secondly, outsourcing is credited for the newest form of electronic assistance "Unsourcing", which means companies liked it so much, that they simply found ways to improve it, making it even more appealing to customers.
In the article "Police outsourcing proposed for East of England forces," the author talks of the plan to outsource the finance and HR side of the police force. This action would save the company a great sum of money, but it would affect almost 1,100 jobs. Also, some worry that after they go ahead and outsource, more and more positions will be outsourced until there are none left for the citizens of East England.
ReplyDeleteThis relates back to the fifth flattener in "The World is Flat" because it discusses the plan for outsourcing. It displays the spread of outsourcing to new grounds such as police forces. This supports Friedman's idea because many jobs are still being outsourced and the fields that are leaving are expanding.
Article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18642225
In the article "Obama Calls Romney ‘an Outsourcing Pioneer’" talks about how President canidate Romney has outsourced to lower wage countries with his business. President Obama is saying that he will continue to do this if he became president and that it needs to be stopped. The entire country is outsourcing because it cost less money than i does to hire more workers here in the United States.
ReplyDeleteThis article does belive in the same flattening of the world because it talks about outsourcing like it was an every day thing instead of only a couple times. Even if President Obama is against it he really can not stop the progression that the companies are needing to take in order for them to keep their companies aflot and still make the product that they where producing or to be able to help with said product.
Article:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/obama-calls-romney-an-outsourcing-pioneer/
In the article "Outsourced Call Centers Return, to U.S Homes" it talks about how the jobs of American companies overseas (mostly call centers) are now returning back to the U.S. For a while, outsourcing has been popular for American companies. Usually their call centers would be moved to India, because in India, call center jobs are considered excellent high-wage jobs, but in America, they were low wage jobs. Companies have recently been rethinking the overseas outsourcing idea, because the cost of labor in India is increasing, while US costs are decreasing.
ReplyDeleteThis article relates to the fifth flattener, because it talks about how American companies were transferring their low-wage jobs overseas to India. As I mentioned earlier, American companies have re-thought the idea of outsourcing, and have been bringing the call center jobs back to America. These jobs are being taken by people who work at home. Working at home call centers were mention in TWIF, with Jet Blue.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129406588
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ReplyDelete"Outsourcing is Not (Always) Evil"
ReplyDeleteIn the article, it talks about outsourcing in the sense that it is not necessarily bad to move jobs from America to overseas. From a global standpoint it provides economic security and safety worldwide. It lowers the crime rate and gives a sense of dignity to those who are employed. The article also says that it helps America companies because the cost to do the jobs that are outsourced to third world countries are much more expensive, it helps the American companies to prosper and to offer more substantial paying jobs to those of us in America. This relates to TWIF because it talks about how jobs are being shifted to Asia because it is much cheaper and efficient to do so there.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/outsourcing-is-not-always-evil/
“Romney Tries To Turn The Outsourcing Table On Obama”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/06/26/155773360/romney-tries-turning-outsourcing-tables-on-obama
This article describes the ongoing battle between Obama and Romney regarding the job frontier. President Obama clearly targeted Mitt Romney by publicizing the fact that he off-shored several American jobs. As a result, the Romney campaign must take a defensive in the midst of these negative allegations. Nevertheless, this Republican candidate not only denied these accusations, he also found a way to make a counterattack. According to Romney, the Obama Administration is the primary cause for numerous jobs created overseas. Pursuing this further, he even claimed that his opponent’s campaign outsourced to both the Philippines and Canada.
This story validates Friedman’s claim that outsourcing is flattening the world. What once stood as a small, efficient procedure, in which companies could ship their grunt work overseas at a low cost, has transformed into a hot-button issue in this year’s election. This comes to show that outsourcing has amplified over the past decade, and with this occurring, societies will take on businesses identical to those in America.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/world/asia/for-india-outsourcing-does-the-job-at-home-too.html?pagewanted=all
ReplyDeleteThis article is entitled, ‘Outsourcing Giant finds it must be Client, too’. This article is about India wanting to use all of the English-speaking people there who will work for very little money, and so they turn to outsourcing. This helps the Indian economy, which was previously failing.
These points were also mentioned in Flattener #5, where Friedman states that after the Y2K, Indians began outsourcing in order to assist with this crisis but at the same time nurse their economic wounds.