Independant Offshoring Study
Gee, what a novel idea!
According to this article on the IEEE website, Today’s Engineer, an IEEE member has finally convinced the US Congress to take a somewhat more dispassionate look at the effects of outsourcing. Specifically, the House of Representatives approved a “mandatory” appropriations bill that coughs up $2 million for an “independent study of the effects of offshore outsourcing on the economy and employment” in the US. What’s frightening to me is that this hasn’t been done before. With all the hoopla on both sides, doesn’t it seem obvious to have an independant, unbiased agent of some kind look into what effects off-shoring is having? Um, DUH!?
Of course, I’m a little biased because I know a number of people who have been directly effected by the outsourcing/off-shoring trend of the past few years. Still, while I am willing to admit that it makes sense in some cases, no one has proven that it’s a “good thing”, as Martha Stewart used to say. I certainly don’t think that it’s the cure-all that so many executives seem to have thought it was for the past five years. And, they may be finally waking up to that fact, too. On the other hand, they don’t seem to have snapped to that at my old company. Yet, anyway. Well, at least some folks are starting to do something about it!
It’s an important subject, I think. Especially for our industry.
