Monday, June 1, 2015
TWIF Flattener #5 - Outsourcing
Use one of the current events sources linked at http://svhs-hwc-fall2015.blogspot.com/2015/06/approved-sources-for-twif-current.html to find a recent news article that relates to, supports, or refutes Friedman's assertion that outsourcing was a "flattener." Your comment should include the title of the news article, a link to the article, and a summary of the article including an explanation of how the article relates to this point. Don't forget to check your rubric for evaluation criteria!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Title: No Comment Necessary: Proud of Outsourcing
ReplyDeleteLink: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/no-comment-necessary-proud-of-outsourcing/
Summary:
David Perdue, a Republican nominee for Senate says that he is proud of outsourcing from his experiences as CEO of a failed textile company. In numerous quotes he says that outsourcing is part of all businesses and is essential. He also states that people are confused about the loss of jobs, when in fact the government policies are the problem, not the outsourcing.
This article relates to Friedman’s belief that outsourcing is a flattener, considering his standpoint consists of the fact that large companies contract work to third parties, usually in India if it is an American company. In the article, a Republican nominee for the Senate expresses his views on whether or not outsourcing is beneficial to America, relating to Friedman’s flattener.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTitle: Why Wal-Mart's Labor Issues Run Deeper Than Too Much Justin Bieber
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Eliza Barclay
Link: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/06/05/411978638/why-wal-marts-labor-issues-run-deeper-than-too-much-justin-bieber
Summary:
This article discusses the issues that Wal-Mart deals with regarding their company. The one issue is that they play too much Justin Bieber in their distribution centers. One of these issues is outsourcing, and the fact that they do not do a lot of it, Friedman states that outsourcing, has brought the global community closer together as a whole, although outsourcing limits income for their host country, by way of taxes, so while yes outsourcing does flatten the world it also limits some growth.
Author: Victoria Burnett
ReplyDeleteTitle: Cuba’s Web Entrepreneurs Search for U.S. Clients, and Reliable Wi-Fi
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/world/americas/cubas-web-entrepreneurs-search-for-us-clients-and-reliable-wi-fi.html
Summary:
After the United States began setting up relations with Cuba, many Cubans decided they would like to try their hand at outsourcing. With limited and sometimes no internet access, Cubans have to rent time on other people's internet. They use their time on the internet to run businesses they control by their computers. These businesses range from website design to translating books. One man by the name Oquel Llanes translates history books for five dollars a page. In other words workers from other countries think of outsourcing as an opportunity to make a living for themselves, even if the pay is not a very large amount.
This connects to the flattener #5 of outsourcing because work that companies in other countries wish to get done for a cheap price can find these ambitious young workers who are more than willing to do this tedious work. In this section Friedman talks about how India used the Y2K bug in order to become a global competitor and now after relations have been set up with Cuba this could be their big break as well. Which in the long-run could become another flattener for the world.
Title: In A Twist, Tech Companies Are Outsourcing Computer Work To… Humans
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.npr.org/2015/07/04/420097029/in-a-twist-tech-companies-are-outsourcing-computer-work-to-humans
Summary:
Instead of innovating technology that can compute algorithms and program for a business, tech companies are focusing more towards work completed by humans. The managers of these widely-known companies stated that there is some work that computers cannot do that only a human can. For example, while an algorithm is perfect for filtering through large quantities of information, it cannot factor in emotion to find a relevant answer. Therefore, companies are hiring individuals to complete these tasks that the machines are unable to. As a result, the future may consist of machines working alongside humanity.
In TWIF, Friedman described how American companies are outsourcing to India, meaning that Indian workers are providing a specific service, such as fixing technology or other practices. This article fits into this flattener because if the world is hiring people over computers, there needs to be a group of people that do the work. According to Friedman, this group of people is located in India.
Author: The Associated Press
ReplyDeleteTitle: Economists Dump on Trump Boast to Bring Jobs Back From China
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/05/business/ap-us-gop-2016-trump-jobs.html
Summary: In this article, Donald Trump makes an ultimatum with the public, vote him into office for President of the United States and he will get all of the American jobs back that were lost to outsourcing. Many economists are highly doubtful of this because bringing back jobs that were outsourced would result in negative results in unemployment. Trump promises that he will get the jobs back for Americans that were lost in the battle with the Chinese workers. This article does not relate to, support, or refute Friedman’s assertions but it does involve the elimination of Chinese outsourcing in America.
Title: List of Outsourced Companies
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.ehow.com/list_5854931_list-outsourced-companies.html
Summary:
AOL otherwise known as America Online is one of the many largest internet services as well as media companies acknowledged in the United States. AOL is not only recognized as a internet service, but also controls more than 80 online websites. Since the year 2004, AOL has been outsourcing software engineering jobs to India. These example relates to how “…American companies started to discover they could draw on India’s brainpower in India”(Friedman 128). This example of outsource relates to India’s outsource of AOL’s software engineering jobs. Basically, India is obtaining a job opportunity from a foreign supplier which in this case is America Online.
Title: Why we are outsourcing at the National Gallery
ReplyDeleteLink: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/aug/09/why-we-are-outsourcing-at-the-national-gallery
Summary: Some of the Visitor services have been outsourced. The executive would have preferred in these commodities stayed at the gallery. The outsourced employees will continue getting the wages of their country.
Title: Workers Betrayed by Visa Loopholes
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/15/opinion/workers-betrayed-by-visa-loopholes.html
Summary:
The article, by the New York Times, is about how companies like Disney are outsourcing technological jobs to Indian workers for lower wages and faster production. I chose this article because it perfectly captures Friedman's thought that more and more companies are moving work to foreign workers, just to increase profits.