미국 문화의 이해
07/09/06 01:27(년/월/일 시:분)
Did you know that even Homer Simpson moved his job to India? His company decided to offshore its business processes to India, instead of hiring expensive domestic workers. (The Simpsons, 2006) As shown on the famous TV show, we can meet many outsourcing businesses in our daily life, such as technical support centers, accounting services, and IT software developing. (Commentary, 2003) On the one hand, some people worried about that this trend is going wrong for increasing local unemployment, lowering job qualitative, causing miscommunication of Indian-English, and threatening the global dominance of the United States. On the other hand, it may also create new high-paying jobs, strengthen the dominant power of English-speaking people, and make American businesses easy to adapt to other countries.
First of all, the most common complaint of outsourcing is increasing unemployment. You may see the same problem in the Simpsons. In the episode of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore, the owner of the nuclear plant fired all employees except Homer Simpsons due to outsourcing to India. Many people experienced similar situation that is replacing their jobs by the people who can do the same jobs only for $200 per month. (Bhatnagar, 2005) They are worried that they might immediately lose their jobs because the price in India is extremely cheap. However, it is just not threatening because this situation is almost the same as blue-collar workers in 1973 to 1985. During that period, many people lost their jobs because China replaced them. (Commentary, 2003) In contrast, nowadays Americans have created new high-paying jobs replacing low-wage workers, while products made in China have became essential part in our daily life. American workers have got higher jobs, and Chinese workers have got good jobs too. (Bongiorni, 2005) Moreover, the unemployment rate for college-educated workers was only 3.0% in 2001, while the rate had been 3.2% in 1992. (Commentary, 2003) For this reason, outsourcing to India does not mean eliminating domestic business, but expanding the business to the international.
Someone has doubt whether Indian workers are really useful for the business. For example, Dell, the famous computer retailer, relocated its technical support center from India to the United States because of complaints of thick accent and poor service from customers. (Stone, 2004) India has the most English-speaking graduates in the world, but their Indian-English has also problems to communicate abroad. It is true Indian-English is not so good for call centers, but they are still attractive as “high-value” outsourcing such as Research and Development (R&D) and software development. In these areas, people use international business or computer tools, so their English skills are not so important unlike call centers. (Bhatnagar, 2005) India and China has more people who got natural science and engineering degrees than America does. This amount is even more than Japanese and German. (Commentary, 2003) Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are great examples, such as Microsoft Windows and HP laptops that can be used without any miscommunication problems such as strong accent.
Some concerns are still remained that outsourcing can threaten the dominant power of the United States in the business world. Now one out of three jobs is at risk of being outsourced. (Commentary, 2003) Moreover, Indian economy is now bypassing traditional industrialization. They did not make factories like China, so they can leap ahead without any pollution problems. (Miliband, 2007) It is just going directly to Information Technology (IT) and entertainment industry as known as Bollywood, which produces more than 1,000 films annually. (Bollywood, 2006) Some thinks that outsourcing to India can be harmful to American industry due to these reasons. However, developing Indian industry may also benefit American industry. It is a win-win situation for both countries because they both expand their economies. According to the study of Information Technology Association of America, outsourcing created 90,000 net new jobs till 2003, and will create 317,000 net new jobs till 2008. (Outsourcing, 2004) If the world economy was considered as a ladder, American industry can climb to the higher rug while Indian industry replaces lower rug. (Commentary, 2003) Furthermore, the United States’ companies can learn how to deal their businesses to other countries, so it can strengthen their power for the future of global business.
The world is getting flat and fair because anyone can do the same jobs wherever he or she lives in due to technical development, so our future will be quite challenging to any worker whether he or she is American or not. (Friedman, 2005) For this reason, the United States faced the brave new future, which is the future of Business Process Outsourcing. (BPO) (Bhatnagar, 2005) It is true that offshoring may threaten its local industry causing unemployment, miscommunication, and incapacitation of America. Meanwhile, this threat is also a chance to create new high-paying jobs, to use English-speaking and college-educated workers at low wage, and to strengthen the business adapting globalization. Outsourcing is not easy to deal with, but is an undeniable choice for cost-cutting in this century, so we need to be proactive to our “brave new world.”
written by Kevin (xacdo)
as an assignment of the ESL writing class
Bibliography
Bhatnagar, P. (2005, August 24). Is India’s outsourcing honeymoon over? CNNMoney.com
Bollywood. (2007). Britannica Encyclopedia.
Bongiorni, S. (2005, December 20). A Year without ‘Made In China’. The Chiristian Science Monitor.
Commentary: Outsourcing Jobs: Is It Bad? (2003, August 25). Businessweek.
Friedman, T. L. (2005, April 3). It’s a Flat World, After All. New York Time Magazine.
The Simpsons, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore (2006, April 9). Wikipedia.
Miliband, D. (2007, February 12). Kyoto Can Be Made to Work. Newsweek.
Outsourcing Creates Jobs, Study Says (2004, March 30). CNNMoney.com
Stone, B. (2004, April 19). Second Thoughts about Outsourcing. Newsweek.