| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"rj" |
| Date: |
11 Apr 2005 07:11:17 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Socio-Political - results of actions |
I was bored on Saturday so I went to the garage to play with
my router table. One of my hobbies is making sawdust.
One of my test piece of wood was stamped with the name
"Owens & Hurst". I deided to find out where that particular
stick of lumber came from. It came from Montana and there
are a fair number of mills in Montana as well. Well, there used
to be.
What I discoverd was that Owens and Hurst is going to close
next month and all the assets sold off. Why? They cannot
get raw lumber. Why? Because Clinton and Gore closed the
forest where the got their lumber and have been getting their
lumber for over 40 years. The federal govermment was selling
the trees off to lumber mills until bill and al closed down the
forest. That isn't all bad, but now to aid the people that worked
at these mills (22 mills have closed with at least 100 people
at each) the govorment is paying over 1 million per year to
retrain these people for other jobs. An additional 1/2 million
was just approved to help these people some more. Owens & Hurst
employed 170 people in the late 1990's.
What is interesting is that the Goverment turned an asset into a
money pit overnight by closing a forest. So far this year the
govt has spent over 1.5 million to help the people laid off.
The spent just under 1 million last year.
That is the bad news and good news.
Here is some good news...well kinda.
I was reading an article in one of the trade mags this week and apparantly
companies are moving away from outsourcing to countries like India,
Mexico, etc. Although the call centeres are cheap, they are almost
worthless. Tamking to the helpdesk is little more than talking to
a robot and a badly programmed one with a accent so thick yo can't
understand them and they cant understand you. So these people are
creating virtual call centers in rural america where the labor is
cheap. This is called "farm-sourcing". There was one article
that was against farm-sourcing.
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/outsourcing/story/0,10801,100623,00.html
"So I'm not arguing for a nanosecond that there's no legitimate business
case for farmsourcing. What I will say is that a company that opts
for rural sourcing over offshore outsourcing stands to lose out on
the opportunity to learn and benefit and grow from the exposure to
other cultures -- and markets -- that the offshore connection
affords. And that's a shame."
My response to the article is as follows:
Don Tennant, you are an idiot.
Want to experience social diversity, hire those from different cultures
that live here. You don't have to go to india to eat authentic indian food.
That attitude is exactly what is wrong with society today - The
tail waggeth the dog.
The social wants are dictating the needs of companies.
My second thought after reading the article was just how similar that
attitude was to certain characters in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged".
If you haven't read the book, you must.
There is just too much to gain from farm-sourcing. From a business perspective
the gains are tremendous. Low costs, reasonably intelligent people willing to
work and the wages that need to be paid are low. Great for the people on the farm,
great for telcos to install 2nd phone lines, great for almost everyone that is here
in the US.
I just don't see any downside.
Tennant should have his job outsourced to Bangldesh. I'll bet he
would change his mind about the need for "cultural diversity".
rj
--
"I'm an atheist, thank God." - Dave Allen
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