From a reader:
I happen to work at a company that layed off a dozen technical support workers and replaced them with an Indian service.
It was most unfortunate that these people lost their jobs, and my heart went out to them. At the same time, however, aggressive cost-cutting helped stabilize our business during a shaky period. Stockholders saw we were serious about increasing profit margins, and bought accordingly. Our stock has risen 60% in the past eight months.
The remaining three thousand employees of the company have benefited greatly. We still have jobs, the company has a very viable future, and most of us are going to have more discretionary income from raises and rising stock prices. Occasionally sacrifices need to be made for the good of the team. As Spock would say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. And as to the people out of work, they have been provided with employment services and job training. It’s not a great situation, but their prospects are better here in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. In the big picture ‘outsourcing’ isn’t necessarily a dirty word. Any CEO that ignores it is in peril of losing their business, period, which would mean a helluva lot more people out of work.