Posted by
Bruce Bishop on Sunday, March 30, 2008 10:02:14 PM
My First Career Went to China
I worked for large manufacturers for twenty years, then realized that the large companies were outsourcing their manufacturing to China. The future, I was told, was in small and mid-sized companies. For several years, I worked as a consultant to small manufacturers, but then they started to outsource their jobs, too.
The "smart people" were saying, "Don't worry. We don't need manufacturing. We are going to be a service economy."
I left manufacturing and took a job with a service company. It was a call center supporting a major credit card company. I started at the bottom and was promoted twice in two years. Unfortunately, I was still only earning what I had been earning 25 years before in manufacturing, and less than one third of what I had been earning as a manufacturing consultant.
What you earn is based on the value you add. In manufacturing, we could take a few dollars worth of raw material and, by applying labor, greatly increase its value. For instance, a car might begin as $2000 worth of raw materials and end up being worth $20,000. This added value is wealth. Manufacturing creates wealth and can reward its workers very well. Service jobs do not create wealth, thus, service jobs pay a lot less than manufacturing jobs.
My Second Career Went to India
After settling into a new career with the call center, I could see growth opportunities that might bring me up to half of what I had been earning in manufacturing. I enjoyed the work and felt good about the company and the people I worked with. Then, I read Thomas Friedman's book, "The World is Flat." When he told his story about playing golf in Bangalore, India, and how his host told him to aim his ball between the Microsoft Tower and the American Express Tower, I realized that my career in services was over. While the manufacturing jobs had gone to China, the service jobs were going to India. I read that Microsoft was hiring highly skilled programmers for $12,000 in India, while their American counterparts were earning $75,000. I also read about an MBA in India who was working in a call center for about one tenth of what we were paying our high school graduates here at home.
My Third Career is Going Nowhere
I decided that it was time to make another career move before my job got outsourced to India. I left the call center and took a job with a small retail chain. Retail was my first love, having grown up in my parents' store. I loved the interaction with the customers and the variety of tasks suited my strong work ethic.
Now, I am putting in about 80 hours a week. Days off are rare. I have worked every weekend and every holiday for the past year and I am on call 24/7. I get a knot in my stomach every time the phone rings in case it is Suzy calling out and I have to go in and work her shift. In one week, I had to go in for three of my employees who called out. This added 24 hours to my usual 80 hours. There is no extra pay for extra hours. I am on a fixed salary, earning what I was earning 25 years ago in manufacturing.
Still, I am not an isolationist. I accept the fact that markets seek equilibrium and that jobs go to where they can be done the cheapest. Globalization is a natural process which cannot be stopped. What bothers me, though, is that we are not recognizing the full cost of the "cheap goods from China." The purpose of this blog will be to discuss the huge, unrecognized costs to this country of shipping our jobs, our manufacturing base and our tax base overseas.
I look forward to any and all comments, suggestions and criticisms. Thanks for reading.