Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I would much prefer you take my words at face value rather than trying to put
your own words in my mouth. Thanks.
I was simply implying that much like how "paperless" systems actually tend to generate more
paper, "automated" systems always seem to need a whole host of people to support them.
Just because there's nobody asking you; "paper or plastic?" doesn't mean there aren't people involved
in the sale.
I'll leave the xenophobic, socio-political outsourcing issue for others to debate.
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There is nothing xenophobic about being critical of the race to the bottom generated by global capitalism. While the nationality of the worker is of no concern to me (Indians, Americans, Venezuealans all have the same intrinsic worth) the fact that the drive to relocate jobs abroad is in fact an attempt to increase profits by drastically reducing labor costs does concern me. While there certainly is job relocation, the notion that these changes create as many jobs as they eliminate is empirically false. Jobs will be lost permanently and the at least some of the new jobs that are created
will be lower paying. Increased productivity combined with the search for increased profit margins ensures that this will be so. Whether the money allocated to the worker is spent in India or Nebraska is morally neutral. What is problematic is the fact that the relocation will involve a siphoning off of
the money from the sale of goods from the locality in which they are sold up the corporate (and social latter) to the Executive class and the absentee landlords (i.e. shareholders) in the form of increased profits. This enriches neither the average American or the average Indian. Being married to an Indian and having developed an interest in the country, I can assure you that while globalization has certainly helped a small segment of the population who have access to jobs they otherwise would not, these
benefits have not trickled down to the bulk of the population, who are either being exploited in new ways by the multi-nationals or else are subject to the traditional forms of exploitation endemic in Indian society: the bunya (money-lender), rampent caste-ism, indentured servitude, gender discrimination.