Outwardly, these companies appeal to our sense of patriotism. Inside the company, however, there seems to be a drastically different attitude. A glimpse of that attitude came to light today when General Motors announced that it will spend about $15 billion over the next 5 years outsourcing its Information Technology work.
Arguably, a generous portion of that work will continue to be done by Americans. Eight hundred million of those bucks (that's $800,000,000, or eight tenths of a billion dollars), however will go to two foreign companies: Cap Gemini, and Wipro.
Wipro Technologies, India's 3rd largest software exporter whose Website title reads "Offshore Outsourcing | IT Services", will get a $300 million piece of the pie. So what do you buy with $300 million? An article in the Hindu News Update Services described it this way:
"As part of the contract, Wipro would be providing application development and maintenance and data integration and migration services to GM."Whew! I'm sure glad I don't know anyone who does "application development and maintenance". Hey! Wait a minute -- that's my job! So basically, GM wants me to buy their over-priced cars, and in exchange for this, they send my job to India. Outrageous!
How can GM expect people to "buy American" when the company itself doesn't practice what it preaches?
In fairness, GM isn't the only company who does this. Indeed, Wipro has quite an interesting customer list, including a number of "proud to be American" companies. Still, the automakers have been quite vocal in trying to dissuade consumers from purchasing the fruits of foreign labor. Hypocrisy in action. When will people learn?
2 comments:
Just a few days ago CNN informed us that Ford employees who do not drive a Ford car to work cannot park on the Ford parking lot! Gotta love those double standards....
You have to be able to separate marketing propoganda from the truth. The truth is that the US imports more than it exports. We simply cannot produce everything ourselves at a price that is competitive. One way around that issue is to ignore all outside markets and pay more for domestic products. Unfortunately, this will lead to stagnation or a shrinking of our economy. Something akin to what Russia went through towards the end of their communist regime. The other extreme would be to only produce goods in America that we can sell at a competitive price. This would be the best economic situation, but would create a very harsh climate for the America worker. Therefore, most companies try to have a blend of the two strategies, create goods in the US with some outsourcing to lower total cost. The percentage blend varies based on economy, company, and politics but there is always a blend. Whether we buy resources from other countries or finished goods, our money will end up there. As far as employment, I haven't seen any evidence that our jobs are going oversees. Those who want to work seem to be able to find a job (if you believe the unemployment figures).
That whole "Buy American" thing is just a silly marketing slogan. I don't buy that any more than "Built Ford Tough."
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