Am I the Only One Talking About Outsourcing?
By: Brendan Fitzpatrick
20 years ago I was concerned for the safety of the Information Technology (IT) industry. Not too long before, the manufacturing industry went overseas to various countries. The IT industry was on the same path but what made it so easy no matter how transparent the process was – was the fact that there was no union to put up a fight. Now, there was never really a chance to unionize the IT industry but at least at one point there were talks or a desire of some groups on Wall Street which at least spawned some conversations of the idea.
The IT movement overseas (ie. outsourcing) has been surprisingly slow compared to other industries, especially considering that it’s all about computers and automation. Int he last 20 year or so I was surprised to see certain industries completely outsourced overseas before at a faster rate than the IT industry. Financial back office and the medical field both come to mind. Someone very close to me (ie. related) worked for a very large financial industry in New York, they managed an entire back office team for a very large retirement fund for a Union. It was well known within the company that they worked for that they had to keep it secret that they were moving their entire team to India. The Union would have pulled it’s multi-billion dollar account on the spot. The person I’m speaking about was responsible for transferring all functions to the team in India which although was a tough process – the kinks worked themselves out over time.
The second thing that comes to mind is in the medical field. Look up ‘zocdoc.com’ on Google and you’ll see that they were expected to be the next billion dollar startup company. The fastest rising startup in a long time – the idea behind them was that you would use your webcam to have a face to fact ‘appointment’ with a doctor overseas an they could write you basic subscriptions. Now, this could be an extremely amazing ‘technology’ it becomes amazingly disturbing the more you think about it.
I won’t even go into the accounting industry which is also being unwillingly outsourced overseas but what I will leave you with is a question and a thought – “is there anything that the American people won’t sell out on?” To answer this question you have to define “American People who drive these industries”. These are primarily the multi-billionaire investors that drive Capitalism.. I’ve always said that “the principles that have built America” (ie. Capitalism) are the very same principles that are tearing it down. Investors are too greedy to make an extra dime instead of re-investing into America.