It appears that Earthlink is also subscribing to the overseas shipping
mentality. They have announced a 39% reduction in workforce.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/0104/07earthlink.html

<snip>
Employees were notified of the job cuts in a letter from the company's chief
executive, Garry Betty, and through individual and group meetings.

Betty said cutting jobs is "the toughest decision that any executive has to
make."

<snip>

I m sure that it didnt bother him too much; after all, I fairly sure he
still gets to keep his job and will get a bonus to boot.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Hula" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: NYTimes.com Article: Op-Ed Contributor: Second
Thoughts on Free Trade


> The real problem is that these people running American businesses truly
> think
> that they can hire these cheaper foreign workers and do just as well or
even
> better than with trained experienced American technical workers. If that
is
> so,
> then why is it that when I call technical services for ____________ (fill
in
> the
> blank) and get an obviously Indian worker, they are almost never able to
> help
> me with my problem. After repeated phone calls, by chance, I will happen
to
> get
> someone who is obviously American who can solve my problem in a moment.
> I have had this experience over and over again. Most recently with D-Link.
> American companies are obviously letting go or not hiring qualified
workers
> (along with some who are not, of course) and then they are getting what
they
> pay
> for at these wonderful low rates. Only, their customers are the ones who
are
> paying,
> not the bean-counters.
>     Tom Hula
>
> Mark Wonsil wrote:
> || John Lee wrote:
> ||| This article from NYTimes.com
> ||| has been sent to you by [log in to unmask]
> |||
> |||
> ||| Interesting and it affects our industry
> || ...
> |||
> ||| Op-Ed Contributor: Second Thoughts on Free Trade
> |||
> ||| January 6, 2004
> |||  By CHARLES SCHUMER and PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
> |||
> ||
> || There's an Editorial in the WSJ today that seems to be a response to
> || Mr. Schumer and Mr. Roberts.  I can't post the whole piece but
> || here's some fair-use snippets:
> ||
> || We Are the World
> ||
> || By HARVEY GOLUB.  (Mr. Golub, retired chairman and CEO of American
> || Express, is currently chairman of TH Lee Putnam Ventures and
> || ClientLogic. He is also a senior adviser to Lazard and serves on the
> || boards of Campbell Soup and Dow Jones, publisher of this newspaper.)
> ||
> || One of the big issues shaping up for the 2004 election is
> || "globalization," or more specifically, why globalization is bad for
> || American workers. Almost every day there is an article or a speech
> || somewhere about the U.S. "jobless recovery." In many cases, they are
> || accompanied by expressions of concern about "exporting" jobs to
> || India, the negative trade balance with China, unfair trade practices
> || on the part of other countries, and the like. They normally include
> || suggestions that we need to do something -- usually couched in terms
> || of making these other countries adhere to U.S. rules and
> || regulations, but really aimed at making them less competitive. ...
> || U.S. businesses rightly seek ways of increasing their economic
> || flexibility, converting fixed costs to variable, and focusing more
> || on core strengths and capabilities. All of these efforts are geared
> || toward making U.S. companies economically competitive on a world
> || scale -- because they compete on a world scale and because customers
> || demand continuously lower costs. This has led to outsourcing
> || manufacturing, outsourcing services, outsourcing servicing and
> || outsourcing business processes. It has also led to a high level of
> || capital expenditures, a cleaner environment and huge increases in
> || productivity. Moreover, it has resulted in lower costs for
> || consumers, which in turn has helped the consumer engine drive the
> || U.S. economy for decades. These shifts have been enabled by low-cost
> || communications, computer technology and rising educational levels
> || around the world.
> ||
> || Almost all sensible economists and business people believe that this
> || is a generally wealth-enhancing transfer, and good for our nation
> || and the world. Many also believe that this is a good thing
> || generally, but that their industry or their company is different and
> || ought to be protected. Others, however, are concerned: Will the lost
> || jobs be replaced by others of equal or increased value? Will the
> || displaced workers find new jobs? Will these shifts result in a
> || hollowed out U.S. economy? Their policy prescriptions are to make it
> || harder for U.S. companies to move work where it can be done more
> || cheaply and/or with better quality, or to impose on foreign nations
> || our labor or environmental standards, which they believe would have
> || the same effect.
> ||
> || ...If a policy prescription for this "problem" is needed, and I'm
> || not sure one is, then wouldn't it be better to improve our
> || "product," so that businesses will choose to create jobs here
> || because the product is better, rather than them being forced to do
> || so?
> ||
> || ...
> ||
> || By all means strive for a fair trading system globally. But do
> || nothing at the governmental level aimed at creating barriers to the
> || mobility of capital or labor. To ensure that we maintain a
> || competitive advantage, we should adhere to the policies that have
> || worked for more than two centuries: Reduce the unnecessary
> || intrusiveness of government in the choices people make, improve the
> || effectiveness and reduce the costs of needed government services,
> || fundamentally eliminate governmental price controls, and restore
> || equity in our legal system.
> ||
> || Even with these actions, some jobs will move overseas. I certainly
> || hope so. Our policy goals ought to be to improve the environment for
> || growth. By remaining flexible, we will create more jobs here in
> || numbers large enough to require us to export even more jobs or to
> || import more people. Either way, both we and the rest of the world
> || benefit.
> ||
> || * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
> || * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
>
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