Outsourcing

As I've said before, there must be a balance between labor and the capitalists. If the capitalists have too much power, the workers get exploited. If labor has too much power, nothing gets done.

Currently in America, it's tipped heavily on the side of the capitalists. Capitalists have found an old tool, just with slightly different looks -
outsourcing. What capitalists don't realize is this time, it will come to bite them in the a**, as it already has.

I had my job outsourced to India in 2002. I loved that job, gladly averaging 45 hours a week. In the early days before we went public, I worked around 50-55 hours a week. According to my former boss, my work ethic, my performance, and my jokes to this day are sorely missed there.

We got bought out by some other company and that company's CEO retired, and he got replaced by some hot shot CEO from another company. We literally would have been better managed by a pack of monkeys than this guy, who watched our profits turn to losses as our stock quickly dipped from over $100/share to under a dollar a share.

So we went through three rounds of layoffs as the laid off people had their jobs sent to India. I survived round one and got hit round two.

Before I got that job, I was making x amount of money and spending y amount of money. Afterwards, I made 4x and spent 3.5y. I bought my first new car ever. Money ended up everywhere, in restaurants, barbershops, G-strings, hotels, resorts, clothing places (I had formerly worn hand-me-downs or shopped at Goodwill), etc. A lot of it went to Canada and Mexico too, because I loved visiting our neighbors to the North and to the South.

After getting laid off, I stopped spending. But it wasn't just me, it was everyone else who got their jobs outsourced. The economy crashed and the S&P 500 has yet to recover from what it was five years ago.

I now make 2x and spent y, so money no longer goes into local people's pockets. It's not that I'm now cheap, it's because I fear it happening again and we want to have a safety net. I no longer invest in stock, so it's hurting the stock market as well (the capitalists).

As for those outsourced jobs, they spend money in their own country. They pay their mortgages or rent there. They buy their food from there. They buy local clothing, etc. It does not help us in any way and people who say outsourcing benefits us are either misled idealists or plain out liars. Every time Lou Dobbs has debated pro-outsourcing people, he has shown again and again that they have no facts to back up their beliefs. Dobbs has facts to prove outsourcing stinks. The best they can do is say the benefits will come. When?

The point I'm trying to make here is not only does outsourcing not benefit us, it hurts you as well. If you're a restaurant owner, I'm no longer your customer. If you were my waiter or waitress, I was the guy who tipped you 20% for average service and 25% for good service. If you were my barber, not anymore. Mrs. Zombieslayer now cuts my hair. I no longer have a masseuse. I vacation locally now. It's back to hand-me-downs and Goodwill for clothes. General Motor's and Ford's performance for the past few years is proof that nobody is buying new cars anymore.

I shop at garage sales for clothes and furniture instead of buying new stuff now. We used to buy lots of books, but now bug the local librarian to purchase such and such book if the library doesn't have it, so it affects authors and publishing houses as well. I also pay substantially less in taxes than I did when I made money. Hint hint to any government guy reading this. And believe me, it's not just me. I'm using me as an example of many good, hard-working folks who got laid off and are currently underemployed.

Oh, and don't worry about us. We're doing fine financially. We're still on track to get that anti-zombie compound built within a few years. I'm not b*tching, I'm just saying that I spend considerably less and because of this, we're not helping the economy like we used to. And by us not spending, it's hurting you (if you're a North American).

There is a solution though and it's very simple. Tax outsourcing. Tax it enough that the government will get its lost revenue and some of us will get the good jobs again. The US is in heavy debt. People are making less money so they're paying less tax. It's so simple, even a guy like me with only high school economics could figure this out.