The US is the lamest country EVER

They're outsourcing it to another state, you moron. It's called interstate commerce.
 
Outsourcing is an fundemental cornerstone of any Industrial or post-Industrial economy. Hell, the Industrial revolution happened because cotton and other raw materials where availible outside of Europe.

Remember the "Buy American" campaigns a few years ago?
 
Question is, when every country in the world is highly developed, where will we outsource jobs? To the alien civilization that undoubtly exists on Alpha Centauri?
 
Aye, the rich countries will always find a way to keep others in poverty, to further exploit them with nike shoe factories. Tsk. See the violence inherent in the system!
 
Ratty said:
Question is, when every country in the world is highly developed, where will we outsource jobs? To the alien civilization that undoubtly exists on Alpha Centauri?
Click to expand...

One word:

Robots!
 
Wooz69 said:
Aye, the rich countries will always find a way to keep others in poverty, to further exploit them with nike shoe factories. Tsk. See the violence inherent in the system!
Click to expand...

I think Marx was pretty brilliant in some respects (first person to apply economics to history, was somewhat correct in his evalutaion of pre-industrial society, commentary on the Civil War was accurate), but I just think this is shit.

Look at what outscourcing has done to India or Japan or Korea. It has improved economies and helped create economys that facilitiate democracy.
 
But of course, don't take the post so seriously.

But then again, you have to remember that outsourcing doesn't have only positive effects, and may be even severely detrimental to a place's economy by a superpower.

Just look at what the Venetians did to Crete, to cite an example I've recently seen: they turned a highly forested area into a wasteland, because the lack of regulations on tree harvest.

The current WTO legislation is kinda shaky, too. I can't stop thinking everything since the GATT, in international economy was bending the laws to allow more power into corporations.
 
:D
Always nice to see someone studying Byzantine studies.

Yes, it can. However compare this to the relitively socialistic Ottomans; Crete became a home of commerce because the Osmanlis where morons and hated commerce unlike the other big Muslim empires.

Thus Crete can serve as two examples of outscorcing.

I hate the WTO, but probably for diffirent reasons then you.
 
ConstipatedCraprunner said:
I think Marx was pretty brilliant in some respects (first person to apply economics to history, was somewhat correct in his evalutaion of pre-industrial society, commentary on the Civil War was accurate),
Click to expand...


Be carefull about Marx and history though.

Like many "great thinkers", he hadn't all that much empiric or unclouded historical knowledge...
Scholasticism to the extreme, really. Just look at all the bullsh*t he wrote about Indian (as in Asian sub-continent) history...
 
Outsourcing spreads American influence, the one major reason why it's good for us. To the companies, it's just cheaper to exploit a poor nation.
 
Be carefull about Marx and history though.
Click to expand...
Oh, duh. The idea that alll of history proves one thing or leads up to one thing is fundementally absurd.

He was flawed in alot of ways; his economics where bullshit, his judgement on the Capitalist Industrial revolution was completely wrong and his faith in some kind of Dictatorship is skary, but he was the first to apply economic understanding to history.
 
The main problem with these kind of opinions is that people always believe that exploitation is always negative for somebody. 10 cents an hour is better than none. If it weren't for American companies outsourcing manufacturing jobs to poor nations thousands of people would starve to death.

Coca-Cola, for instance is the second largest employer in Sub-Saharan Africa due to a bottling plant. That companies aren't taking advantage of such a large work base is a waste of manpower.

The positive effects of outsourcing can be seen in India, where the outsourcing of Tech jobs have led to an increase in the cost of living.

The most negative aspect of this is that it's forcing workers in developed nations to educate themselves.
 
It's only a short-term employment, people in Africa don't learn shit from that kind of jobs, they can be pushed around and exploited shamelessly, as there are no such things as workers' rights in Africa. "You don't like it? Fine, there's a hundred stiffs like you waiting to be a whore to our company, get the fuck out!"

And what happens when the workforce is no longer the cheapest around? That's right: Fuck you, you worked your asses off at our factories, didn't learn jack shit, and now we move to another country.

Capitalist pig. Your feet will not touch the ground when the Revolution comes :twisted:
 
Africans would'nt be learning anything without the coca-cola bottling plant in the first place. Poor nations are poor due to authoritarian regimes, and limitations on free enterprise.

Africans aren't educated because they can't get educated, not because American companies pay them.
 
Africans would'nt be learning anything without the coca-cola bottling plant in the first place. Poor nations are poor due to authoritarian regimes, and limitations on free enterprise.
Click to expand...
BWAHAHAHAHA!
Stupidest.notion.ever.
 
Bradylama said:
Africans would'nt be learning anything without the coca-cola bottling plant in the first place
Click to expand...

What?

Africans aren't educated because they can't get educated, not because American companies pay them.
Click to expand...

What I mean is they don't have any abilities to expand, develop after they've finished that job. Workers in rich countries get a "qualified worker" degree.
 
Africans are also poor and uneducated due to geography and history. Geopgraphy is there enemy because it is so damn hot and either bone dry or crushingly humid. Then colonialism left them with a giant power vaccum that they haven't been able to get out of.

Outsourcing, in the final analysis, brings foreign investment to a country. This means that money is, if not flowing, at least trickling in, which is a good thing. An example of what outsourcing of manufactuing can do just look to the Asian tigers of Thailand, Indonesia and China. Their standard of living rose and made products cheaper for the consumers, mainly us (as in the US in my case). If goods are cheaper, then theoretically at least, you don't need to earn as much for the same standard of living either.

With a rising standard of living the need to produce dozens of kids to support you in your old age lessens, dropping the birth rate.

With rising standard of living comes more free time for education, the ultimate engine of self-sustaining prosperity.

And if the factories should shift out of the country when it becomes to expensive, remember, that they need somewhere cheaper to go. Can you think of a place in the world with cheaper labor than Africa anymore?

In the end, globalization and outsourcing hurt everyone in the short term, but in the long term they provide a more equitable distribution of wealth and therefore less disparity, economic poverty and general inequality. Does that mean I think its not ridiculous that I'm talking to someone in Bangladesh when I call tech support? Of course not. But if it means the products I need are cheaper and that Mpola over in Angola can afford to send her kids to school, then so be it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top