| A recent headline from NBC Los Angeles read "Can't | | | | world." Doctors too can be outsourced 8000 miles |
| We Build Cars the Way We Make Chips?" The | | | | away. |
| premise of the article was that we could hire a few | | | | In China, people play for money the on-line games of |
| computer aided draftsmen to put automobile designs | | | | "World of Warcraft" and "Magic Land" so that affluent |
| onto a computer, and then have the car manufactured | | | | online gamers, who lack the skill, don't have to earn |
| overseas, and this would result in a healthy domestic | | | | their way into the upper levels of the games. The |
| auto industry. | | | | locals call this occupation "gold farming". We have |
| Outsourcing manufacturing is how much of the chip | | | | even outsourced our play. |
| industry operates, and in addition, much of the | | | | Whitacre to Lead GM |
| engineering is also being outsourced overseas. | | | | President Obama recently hired Ed Whitacre, the |
| Companies like AT&T, LSI Logic, Hewlett-Packard | | | | former head of AT&T, to take over General |
| and others no longer manufacture anything. They are | | | | Motors (GM). Whitacre was chairman and CEO of |
| "fabless", meaning they hire a third party foundry | | | | AT&T from 1990 to 2007. During his tenure, |
| overseas to manufacture something for them, and | | | | Whitacre led the company through several acquisitions |
| then they put their name on the item. | | | | and sales, and earned the moniker "Mr. Outsource", by |
| We now outsource almost anything. In a bizarre | | | | eliminating all of AT&T's manufacturing, and |
| example last year, some Jack-in-the-Box franchises | | | | outsourcing as much as possible of the operation. |
| tested a process where the order was taken at the | | | | Does this move mean that President Obama wants |
| drive-through window by an operator located more | | | | the auto industry to become "fabless" while subsidizing |
| than 8000 miles away in India. The customers were | | | | the operation by an estimated $20 billion? GM's |
| never aware, except for a few complaints about the | | | | reorganization plan calls for the closing of 16 |
| operator's non-southern accent (the test was in | | | | manufacturing facilities in the U.S., including four |
| Charlotte, North Carolina). With a little automation, a | | | | assembly plants. |
| fast food store could conceivably be staffed locally by | | | | According to the Detroit News, "General Motors Corp. |
| as few as two people, with the support of order entry | | | | will shift more production of vehicles bound for the U.S. |
| from low-wage locales. One advantage of a | | | | market to China, Mexico, South Korea and Japan, but |
| centralized order processing system: it becomes | | | | will keep total imports at roughly one-third of all sales |
| easier to provide multi-lingual services. | | | | here. |
| An estimated 80% of tech support calls to AT&T | | | | In a confidential 12-page presentation to members of |
| are now answered in India and the Philippines. The | | | | Congress, obtained by The Detroit News on Friday, |
| Academy Award movie "Slumdog Millionaire" was | | | | GM said it will boost U.S. sales of vehicles built in those |
| about these tech support sweatshops . Dell | | | | four countries by 98 percent -- or about 365,000 |
| Computers charges an additional fee if the customer | | | | vehicles -- while shrinking production in Canada, |
| wants tech support from a "North American" tech | | | | Australia and European countries by about 130,000 |
| support person. | | | | vehicles. |
| Doctors can now diagnose patients over the Internet. | | | | GM also disclosed it will start importing vehicles made |
| This is useful for people who live in areas too remote | | | | in China in 2011, reaching 51,546 vehicles in 2014. |
| to support a local physician. Even remotely controlled | | | | Imports from South Korea to the United States will |
| surgery (also known as telesurgery) has been | | | | jump from 36,967 vehicles in 2010 to 157,126 in 2014." |
| demonstrated through the use of robotics. One of the | | | | The list of jobs that will ultimately prove difficult to |
| earliest remote surgeries was conducted in 2001, with | | | | outsource overseas includes: policemen, firemen, |
| a surgeon in New York performing a gallbladder | | | | paramedics, plumbers, electricians, nurses, child-care, |
| operation on a patient in France. Dr. Jacques | | | | farmers, and landscapers. However some of these |
| Marescaux, who led the team, said the operation | | | | jobs could be filled by permitting more guest workers |
| demonstrated "the third revolution we've seen in the | | | | into the country legally. The H-2A visa program has |
| field of surgery in the past 10 years". "It lays the | | | | been updated to make it easier to hire foreign workers |
| foundations for the globalization of surgical procedures, | | | | for this purpose. |
| making it possible to imagine that a surgeon could | | | | What is wrong with this picture? |
| perform an operation on a patient anywhere in the | | | | |