Guest guest Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 To me everything is related, so if someone complains about the price of bananas, a rant about the ill-effects of globalisation is perfectly relevant. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 Neil Gardner wrote: > To me everything is related, so if someone complains about the price > of bananas, a rant about the ill-effects of globalisation is > perfectly relevant. Without globalization, would you even have bananas in Scotland? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 Re: Semantic Drift > Neil Gardner wrote: > > > To me everything is related, so if someone complains about the price > > of bananas, a rant about the ill-effects of globalisation is > > perfectly relevant. > > Without globalization, would you even have bananas in Scotland? > > Good point, but in a fair world we'd conduct fair trade. By the same logic how can a country get away that makes up 1/21 of the world's population consume 1/3 of the world's oil and import nearly 2/3 of its needs? To take another example Scotland manufacturing sector has been declining rapidly over the last 20 years. Steelworks and shipyards gave way to semiconductors and hard drives, but now Silicon Glen (named after the more lucrative Valley) is a sick joke. Scotland had until recently the highest density of call centres anywhere in the world. I should know I worked in one answering calls from all over Europe and North America. Guess where those jobs are going? India! Sure, I'm all for letting Indians enjoy a decent standard of living, but ideally helping other indians, not selling life-insurance or double-glazing to social care workers in the UK. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 What is even worse is that a lot of I.T. jobs are also being shipped to India. This should be a real concern considering how many of the more sucessful aspies and auties tend to have jobs in the I.T. sector. My husband is also employed in this sector and has been watching this trend worrying quite a bit that he may have to find a new career as more and more I.T. jobs are shipped to India. It has been in the newspapers and in online news but people do not seem to be taking it very seriously yet. People think that if they have professional jobs, their jobs are safe, but all those people that telecommute to work can just as easily be telecommuting from India as from a few hours' drive away, and labor is cheaper in India. Although I am glad for India that they are becoming more technologically advanced, I am worried for the Western nations that are shipping high-tech jobs overseas...what will be left if we keep shipping jobs to developing nations? First manufacturing jobs...then telephone-related job...and now computer related jobs. Where does this end? Obviously, some professions will never be shipped overseas, such as veterinarians, doctors, food service people...it just has me really concerned. I don't think it's a trend that is going to go away but rather one that will get worse and worse over time, and I worry about my husband's job, but even more about all those people on the spectrum who may not be able to switch careers as easily as an NT can...my husband is an NT so I'm sure he could find some other field to work in but many people on the spectrum cannot adapt like that and so I have a lot of concern. I think I am rambling now and being too repetitive so I will go ahead and post this. Neil Gardner wrote: Re: Semantic Drift > Neil Gardner wrote: > > > To me everything is related, so if someone complains about the price > > of bananas, a rant about the ill-effects of globalisation is > > perfectly relevant. > > Without globalization, would you even have bananas in Scotland? > > Good point, but in a fair world we'd conduct fair trade. By the same logic how can a country get away that makes up 1/21 of the world's population consume 1/3 of the world's oil and import nearly 2/3 of its needs? To take another example Scotland manufacturing sector has been declining rapidly over the last 20 years. Steelworks and shipyards gave way to semiconductors and hard drives, but now Silicon Glen (named after the more lucrative Valley) is a sick joke. Scotland had until recently the highest density of call centres anywhere in the world. I should know I worked in one answering calls from all over Europe and North America. Guess where those jobs are going? India! Sure, I'm all for letting Indians enjoy a decent standard of living, but ideally helping other indians, not selling life-insurance or double-glazing to social care workers in the UK. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 nah wrote: > What is even worse is that a lot of I.T. jobs are also being shipped > to India. This should be a real concern considering how many of the > more sucessful aspies and auties tend to have jobs in the I.T. > sector. My husband is also employed in this sector and has been > watching this trend worrying quite a bit that he may have to find a > new career as more and more I.T. jobs are shipped to India. It has > been in the newspapers and in online news but people do not seem to > be taking it very seriously yet. When I was in computer science in the early and mid 1990s, there was a lot of talk about how cheap Indian programmers were, and what a problem that might be eventually. It was something that all of us computer science guys were aware of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 My husband has been rather surprised by it, as it was not talked about at all when he was in school. Most of his credit hours are in music, as he majored in music for five years, before switching to M.I.S. (Managment Information Systems), and he took all his major requirments after January, 1999. I would say he probably never heard about it because he was not in CS but MIS, and because by 1999-2000 (the years he completed the MIS program...he gradated in December 2000) they were no longer talking about it, but his twin brother has a CS degree and that was (I believe) his original major. He was in college during the early and mid-90s (from about 1993 until about 1997) and he had never heard about it, either. They both went to the same university and apparently no one there talked about it in either of their computer degree programs (Computer Science and M.I.S.). It sort of came out of nowhere for both of them during this past year. Klein wrote:nah wrote: > What is even worse is that a lot of I.T. jobs are also being shipped > to India. This should be a real concern considering how many of the > more sucessful aspies and auties tend to have jobs in the I.T. > sector. My husband is also employed in this sector and has been > watching this trend worrying quite a bit that he may have to find a > new career as more and more I.T. jobs are shipped to India. It has > been in the newspapers and in online news but people do not seem to > be taking it very seriously yet. When I was in computer science in the early and mid 1990s, there was a lot of talk about how cheap Indian programmers were, and what a problem that might be eventually. It was something that all of us computer science guys were aware of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 The sad fact is there is only so much to go around, i.e. the aggregate level of consumption is limited by the environment (and that included demographics) and technology. I think we have long exceeded a long-term sustainable level of consumption and further increases or redistribution will be to someone's elese detriment. The very nature of the global economy encourage outsourcing, which may work in the short term, but when demand falls over here, it'll backfire and Indian workers will be laid off. The fact is the vast majority of Indians are still desperately poor and IT and other service sector jobs mainly go to the educated middle classes. I've heard that an Indian customer care executive earns around $3000 per annum. Employing a European would work out over 10 times more expensive. Indeed Scotland was until recently the cheapest labour market in Western Europe, bar Portugal. Have you heard the saying, when America (i.e. that bit of it called the USA) sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. That's what happens when you outsource everything... We all become dependent on multinationals wjo override local governments. Neil Re: Semantic Drift > > > > Neil Gardner wrote: > > > > > To me everything is related, so if someone complains about the price > > > of bananas, a rant about the ill-effects of globalisation is > > > perfectly relevant. > > > > Without globalization, would you even have bananas in Scotland? > > > > > > Good point, but in a fair world we'd conduct fair trade. By the same logic > how can a country get away that makes up 1/21 of the world's population > consume 1/3 of the world's oil and import nearly 2/3 of its needs? > To take another example Scotland manufacturing sector has been declining > rapidly over the last 20 years. Steelworks and shipyards gave way to > semiconductors and hard drives, but now Silicon Glen (named after the more > lucrative Valley) is a sick joke. Scotland had until recently the highest > density of call centres anywhere in the world. I should know I worked in one > answering calls from all over Europe and North America. Guess where those > jobs are going? India! Sure, I'm all for letting Indians enjoy a decent > standard of living, but ideally helping other indians, not selling > life-insurance or double-glazing to social care workers in the UK. > > Neil > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 nah wrote: >What is even worse is that a lot of I.T. jobs are also being shipped to India. This should be a real concern considering how many of the more sucessful aspies and auties tend to have jobs in the I.T. sector. My husband is also employed in this sector and has been watching this trend worrying quite a bit that he may have to find a new career as more and more I.T. jobs are shipped to India. It has been in the newspapers and in online news but people do not seem to be taking it very seriously yet. People think that if they have professional jobs, their jobs are safe, but all those people that telecommute to work can just as easily be telecommuting from India as from a few hours' drive away, and labor is cheaper in India. > >Although I am glad for India that they are becoming more technologically advanced, I am worried for the Western nations that are shipping high-tech jobs overseas...what will be left if we keep shipping jobs to developing nations? First manufacturing jobs...then telephone-related job...and now computer related jobs. Where does this end?.... > The Bush administration has no interest whatsoever in improving the job market. They like it just fine the way it is. They intend for as many of us as possible to be " employed " by the Army as cannon fodder for all these wars we seem to be having nowadays. Their plan is to invade and occupy the entire Middle East. That will take a lot more troops. They'll bring back the draft after the 2004 (s)election, and muddle through with stop-loss orders on the reserves until then. If there is another major terrorist incident or something that looks like one, the draft will be put into effect immediately. Those of draft age who need medical deferments should have the relevent diagnoses in place as soon as possible, since there will certainly be a run on the doctors when a draft is announced! At least I'm far too old this time around. Ride the Music AndyTiedye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 AndyTiedye wrote: > The Bush administration has no interest whatsoever in improving the > job market. They like it just fine the way it is. > > They intend for as many of us as possible to be " employed " by the > Army as cannon fodder for all these wars we seem to be having > nowadays. Their plan is to invade and occupy the entire Middle East. > That will take a lot more troops. They'll bring back the draft after > the 2004 (s)election, and muddle through with stop-loss orders on the > reserves until then. If there is another major terrorist incident or > something that looks like one, the draft will be put into effect > immediately. Those of draft age who need medical deferments should > have the relevent diagnoses in place as soon as possible, since there > will certainly be a run on the doctors when a draft is announced! What evidence do you have for any of this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 I'm safe from any draft. I also found out they do not take people who have food allergies, people that have ever had clinical depression, or anything like that. I have lots of food allergies, and my back problems really limit my mobility. I can't run because of my joint problems. I've been clinically depressed plus I've had several other diagnoses (my diagnoses for Tourette's Syndrome and ADHD are still current as I have yet to be evaluated for autism). I am slightly worried about what would happen to my husband if there were a draft. He has some food allergies but they were not documented, and he also was clinically depressed for a long period of time (over a year) but he did not see a psychiatrist or take any medications so it's not in his records. He does not have any major physical problems and is probably at around the maximum age for being drafted (he is 28). Although it does concern me that a draft COULD be placed in effect, I am not actively worried about it. Fortunately, all the people I am close to are in fairly poor health or are too old, with the exception of my husband. I had something else to say but I've forgotten it. If someone else gets voted into the office of the President, things may be quite different in the near future, provided whoever else may get elected will actually be better than Bush, which I am somewhat skeptical about. AndyTiedye wrote: The Bush administration has no interest whatsoever in improving the job market. They like it just fine the way it is. They intend for as many of us as possible to be " employed " by the Army as cannon fodder for all these wars we seem to be having nowadays. Their plan is to invade and occupy the entire Middle East. That will take a lot more troops. They'll bring back the draft after the 2004 (s)election, and muddle through with stop-loss orders on the reserves until then. If there is another major terrorist incident or something that looks like one, the draft will be put into effect immediately. Those of draft age who need medical deferments should have the relevent diagnoses in place as soon as possible, since there will certainly be a run on the doctors when a draft is announced! At least I'm far too old this time around. Ride the Music AndyTiedye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 Re: Semantic Drift > I'm safe from any draft. I also found out they do not take people who have food allergies, people that have ever had clinical depression, Would this requirement lead to a rapid turnover of personnel... Think I'd last about 5 minutes in the British army. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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