I recently happened onto a topic about which I’d never heard before (ironically, while browsing through the context ads to the right of my first post on this blog): “onshoring”. Evidently, according to one source I found, anyway, it is also referred to as “nearshoring”, although I had always heard of the latter as offshoring to Canada and/or Mexico.
The idea behind the phenomenon is that companies (I’m guessing largely US companies) would be able to outsource their IT work to virtual workers within the US rather than in India, for example, while still cutting costs. One such company, whom you may have seen advertised by Google already, is Onshore Technology Services, based in Missouri.
Onshore’s Mission Statement:
Rural outsourcing offers a cost-effective yet risk-adverse alternative to offshore outsourcing. Using an innovative training program, Onshore is retooling Missouri’s rural workforce in advanced technology professions. Rural Outsourcing is America’s answer to globalization and the preferred method of containing software development costs, improving technology throughput, and creating American jobs.
Now that’s a company thinking about something other than just the bottom line! Don’t get me wrong — I wholeheartedly disagree with those (primarily on the left) who claim that increasing profit margins is somehow evil, in and of itself. However, when it means selling out one’s own countrymen, we have a problem. There was a day, of course, when the USA did right by its citizen workers through the use of tariffs on foreign goods. In fact, those tariffs went a long way toward funding the federal government, as well, before the infamous (and perhaps never truly ratified) 16th amendment passed and gave Congress permission to penalize the most industrious among us and reward the lazy, but that’s another rant for another day.
These days, however, “American” companies are able to import and/or hire from nations like India, Indonesia, and China; and that, of course, puts immense, Horton-the-elephant-like downward pressure on wages here in the States. Not to mention the fact that China, several times granted most-favored nation trading status going back as far as the Clinton administration, is well known for its human rights atrocities, including, but not limited to, sweat shops “employing” young children for whom the state has predetermined a career path.
I hope companies like Onshore can reverse the trend toward offshoring, at least for IT jobs. Perhaps a similar revolution can transpire in other arenas, as well, although how it would — apart from our throwing out the rotten apples in Congress (and the White House) that allow it today — I do not know. (By the way, “apples” is not the first term that came to mind, but I’d like to keep this a family-friendly forum.)
We still have the right (for now) and duty to vote every 2 years in America. Should we not vote out the beligerant, insubordinate representatives (our employees, after all) who ignore their constituents’ demands that the border be closed and offshoring be taxed appropriately? (Incidentally, didn’t President Obama promise the latter during his campaign? Now that would be a stimulus!)
OK, I’m done for now, but look for more on onshoring soon. I’m pretty psyched about it, and I’m hoping to learn and pass on more and more.
Until next time…
SC
