Thoughts on American Jobs Going Overseas
Received an e-mail this morning lamenting the loss of American jobs due to U.S. employers outsourcing work to foreign countries. I totally disagree with the thrust of the e-mail. What the writer of the e-mail and the laid off workers ought to do is read Thomas L. Friedman’s latest book, The World is Flat. Then they’d realize that they had better upgrade their skills to stay employable in the U.S. Globalization is here and it’s not going away.
My question is: Who do the laid off workers, be they blue collar or professional, think is responsible for their continued employability in today’s market place? Their problem is not American jobs going out of the county. Their problem is their failure to stay employable as the world moved on. It is a pathetic fallacy for American workers to blame anyone other than themselves for not staying employable in the changing marketplace. The introduction of new technology has always changed the workplace.
In the Fourteenth century, the gun put amour makers and castle-builders out of business. In the Nineteenth century, steam-power put wooden ship builders and its infrastructure out of business. More recently, the introduction of the automobile put buggy makers out of business along with entire the horse-drawn infrastructure, such as harness makers and buggy whip makers. In the 1930s, electric home refrigeration destroyed the Ice Mens’ jobs along with the entire natural ice-industry collection, storage, and distribution infrastructure. The PC put pool typists and stenographers out of business. E-mail put the final nail in the telegraphers coffin when Western Union folded. And, as Freidman explains, the Internet is putting thousands of American retail phone-order takers, Call Center personnel, and programmers out work.
So what’s new? Nothing is new. As always, each of us is responsible for maintaining our skill set at an employable level. If you wish to live in an non-evolving, stagnant economy, emigrate to any one of many Muslim countries where your employable skill set is sure to last several life times in a Seventh century society.
My question is: Who do the laid off workers, be they blue collar or professional, think is responsible for their continued employability in today’s market place? Their problem is not American jobs going out of the county. Their problem is their failure to stay employable as the world moved on. It is a pathetic fallacy for American workers to blame anyone other than themselves for not staying employable in the changing marketplace. The introduction of new technology has always changed the workplace.
In the Fourteenth century, the gun put amour makers and castle-builders out of business. In the Nineteenth century, steam-power put wooden ship builders and its infrastructure out of business. More recently, the introduction of the automobile put buggy makers out of business along with entire the horse-drawn infrastructure, such as harness makers and buggy whip makers. In the 1930s, electric home refrigeration destroyed the Ice Mens’ jobs along with the entire natural ice-industry collection, storage, and distribution infrastructure. The PC put pool typists and stenographers out of business. E-mail put the final nail in the telegraphers coffin when Western Union folded. And, as Freidman explains, the Internet is putting thousands of American retail phone-order takers, Call Center personnel, and programmers out work.
So what’s new? Nothing is new. As always, each of us is responsible for maintaining our skill set at an employable level. If you wish to live in an non-evolving, stagnant economy, emigrate to any one of many Muslim countries where your employable skill set is sure to last several life times in a Seventh century society.
posted by Bob Baker at 3:36 AM
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