[antimedia] antimedia: Overseas outsourcing is a hot topic these days....

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Posted by antimedia:
Overseas outsourcing is a hot topic these days....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1168315312.shtml


   ....and the very mention of it gets some people irrationally angry.
   [1]A Dallas Morning News article discusses the topic from a broader
   view and makes some very interesting observations. The first
   industrial revolution moved people from the farm to the city. The
   second moved people from manufacturing jobs to the service sector. In
   each case, the economy grew, people adjusted and the country
   prospered.
   What will the overseas outsourcing (or "offshoring") movement do? Will
   it destroy America?

     That said, we should not view the coming wave of offshoring as an
     impending catastrophe. Nor should we try to stop it. The normal
     gains from trade mean that the world as a whole cannot lose from
     increases in productivity, and the United States and other
     industrial countries have not only weathered but also benefited
     from comparable changes in the past.
     But in order to do so again, the governments and societies of the
     developed world must face up to the massive, complex, and
     multifaceted challenges that offshoring will bring. National data
     systems, trade policies, educational systems, social welfare
     programs and politics all must adapt to new realities.
     Unfortunately, none of this is happening now.

   There are some professions that have already been affected by
   offshoring, computer programming being one of the hardest hit, but
   many professionals think they won't be affected. Think twice.
   Robotics will make it possible to have routine surgery done over the
   internet, employing a physician from Poland to work on a patient in
   Ohio, for example. Personal physicians, however, will probably remain
   a local service, because they have to see, touch and talk to a patient
   for best results. Interns will still be needed in hospitals but
   specialists can probably work from anywhere. Perhaps the third
   industrial revolution will move people from the cities back to the
   country, completing the circle.
   The writer points out that the real distinction between what can be
   offshored and what cannot be is the need to be face to face with a
   customer or client.

     Think of the coming labor market reality like this. Services that
     cannot be delivered electronically, or that are notably inferior
     when so delivered, have one essential characteristic: Personal,
     face-to-face contact is imperative or highly desirable. Think of
     the waiter who serves you dinner, or the cop on the beat. But such
     face-to-face human contact is not necessary in the relationship you
     have with the operator who arranges your conference call or the
     clerk who takes your airline reservation over the phone.
     The first group of tasks can be called personally delivered
     services, or simply personal services, and the second group
     impersonally delivered services, or impersonal services. In the
     brave new world of globalized electronic commerce, impersonal
     services have more in common with manufactured goods that can be
     put in boxes than they do with personal services. Thus, many
     impersonal services are destined to become tradable and therefore
     vulnerable to offshoring.
     By contrast, most personal services have attributes that cannot be
     transmitted through a wire. Some require face-to-face contact
     (child care), some are inherently "high-touch" (nursing), some
     involve high levels of personal trust (psychotherapy), and some
     depend on location-specific attributes (lobbying).
     However, the dividing line between personal and impersonal services
     will move over time. As information technology improves, more and
     more personal services will become impersonal services. No one
     knows how far this process will go, or exactly what technological
     changes the future will bring.

   One element the writer, a professor at Princeton, doesn't address is
   the need for stability.
   Offshoring won't work if a country is unstable, if its laws aren't
   enforced uniformly or if contractural "fairness" doesn't exist. There
   would, therefore, be a strong impetus for politicians to pass laws
   that can be relied upon, to enforce contracts fairly and to ensure
   national stability or their country would fall behind in the battle
   for offshoring business.
   Whether this incentive can overcome man's natural greed or his desire
   to take advantage of his fellow man remains to be seen. The countries
   that curb those urges most successfully will win the battle for
   business and their economies will prosper. Democracies, then, would
   seem to have a natural advantage in the battle for business.

References

   1. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-blinder_07edi.ART1.State.Edition1.3d5b131.html