Have your say at ComputerWeekly.com
On the danger to the UK economy of
outsourcing
In response to Simon Moores who argued that the long-term effects
of outsourcing technology and call centre jobs abroad will mean
economic decline for the UK
Most of those who have been made redundant by outsourcing, and
those of us whose jobs may be threatened directly or indirectly by
future outsourcing, would certainly like to see the government take
some action against the job exporters. How about blacklisting all
the companies that do this?
Removal from government catalogues of approved suppliers will hit
the shareholders just where they think they benefit. How about
making it a condition of being a national or local government IT
supplier that all development and support work must be carried out
in the UK?
After all, it is our taxes that ultimately pay for it. Why doesn't
the government surcharge the salary for each exported job for one
or two years? At least the Treasury will have some cash to pay the
inevitably larger dole bill.
No government has to stick to the market rules. The government
should write the rules of how and with whom it will spend our
taxes, otherwise we do not have a government.
Meanwhile, readers who feel they need to do something can take the
first step by boycotting Tesco (Computer Weekly, 29 July) and
getting their MP to earn his or her keep before they also get
outsourced.
Finally, Computer Weekly can start by boycotting the euphemism
"outsourcing". Lets call it what it is - "exporting jobs".
Toby King
I am not a student of economics, but the main aim of any business
is to make money for its shareholders and one of the ways of doing
this is to cut costs.
One of the ways of cutting costs is to outsource. This is similar
to looking at global sourcing for cheap raw materials.
This makes products cheaper and increases demand, so companies
expand and, as a result, the economy expands.
More profits for UK companies means more tax and national insurance
contributions for the government. This also creates more jobs in
the UK.
The trend of moving call centres to other countries with lower
costs will ultimately lead to cheaper services for the UK consumer
and higher growth for the business and economy of this
country.
I think the market should be used to strike a balance, not state
the controls.
Milind Bhagwat
I have read a lot of comment on offshore outsourcing in recent
weeks. Most of it has been fearful of the effect on this country's
economy, but some claim it to be just another aspect of progress
that will improve Britain's ability to compete in the global
marketplace.
I find that I am one of those who can only see the negative side
and disagree with arguments in favour of outsourcing.
The traditional view of progress has been highlighted by the plight
of the Luddites who fought to prevent their repetitive manual
labour jobs being replaced by mechanisation.
More recently, tedious clerical jobs have been replaced by computer
systems. In each case, relatively expensive manual tasks were
replaced by labour saving devices to the benefit of society in
general.
The current trend in outsourcing seems to be throwing all this in
reverse. Offshore outsourcing is based on the principle of using
the vast cheap labour resources of other countries, thereby
removing the drive for ever more efficient use of our own manual
labour.
Surely we should be trying to raise the productivity of a few
highly skilled individuals, rather than using the sledgehammer of a
billion work hours?
Dave Overall, Redvers Consulting
