Outsourcing/Seduction

I do not know how I really feel about outsourcing. A few years back, the company my mother worked for moved to India. She was informed that if she wanted to keep her job, she would have to move to India too, however her salary would be doubled for moving. Her personal choice was to quit her job. The primary reason the company moved to India is that they could get workers over there for a cheaper rate. My mother was somewhat a victim to outsourcing, since her company probably figured most of its workers would not move to India and most likely would quit. Only one of her co-workers actually agreed to move to India, however he was from India and all his family lived there. After reading the sections of outsourcing, I do not know if I am totally against it. Many of the statistics about people losing their jobs to outsourcing are rather unclear since the book clearly states that many jobs are also lost due to technological advances. The benefits companies reap from outsourcing are also helpful. They save money in one particular field to spend it in another. The book also states that not only is the United States outsourcing, so we too benefit from outsourcing. I think outsourcing is a little bit of give and take, but it appears to be benefitting us all.

Jay Heinrichs is brilliant in Thank You for Arguing. I especially like the section titled “How to Seduce a Cop”. The section on seduction shows how powerful of a tool it can be in arguments by sometimes even being seduced without even knowing it and seducing a cop out of writing you a ticket. I also enjoyed how he distinguished the difference between a fight and argument. I guess I do not argue a lot, but fight. I enjoy in this textbook how he presents his arguments making them applicable for everyone.

The Art of Seduction...I Mean, Rhetoric

First off, I'm digging the new layout of the blog. That's a pretty neat picture up there. Where was it taken, and what's the story behind it?

Okay, back to rhetoric. I have to say, Jay Heinrichs is hilarious. In these two chapters alone, he manages to tie in George Foreman, Cicero, Homer Simpson, Mariah Carey, Aristotle and a variety of other people. The pop culture references paired with his witticisms made for an enjoyable read. I like the fact that he clearly defines what a fight is and what an argument is. I never realized there was that much of a difference. His reference to the "love lab" was a great example of how people who argue can end up happy and people who fight can end up very unhappy. Sometimes, when I "win a fight," I end up more incensed than before! There are a couple more things that I really enjoyed in these chapters, one being Heinrichs' interpretation of seducing a cop. I've never been pulled over before, but I'll keep it mind just in case. The other is his explanation of future-tense or deliberative argumentation. I agree that it is the best kind of approach to take in order to solve a problem or persuade an audience to make a choice.

Moving on to offshore outsourcing. Initially, I was rather against it, because I have an uncle who graduated a few years ago with a bachelors in computer science, and it took him so long to find a suitable job. However, after reading Drezner's piece in particular, I wonder if outsourcing is as bad as some people make it seem. I appreciate how he presents the opposition's perspectives first before refuting them and presenting his own evidence and information to back-up his argument. In his closing paragraphs, he states that the challenge is to "defend it during the lean years of a business cycle." I can understand what he means and agree that people tend to denounce something once it doesn't run as smoothly as before. However, I remain undecided as to whether or not offshore outsourcing is a good thing. Maybe it's one of those things that has to get worse before it gets better...but how long until things are all better?

Argue!

So I just finished reading the 2nd and 3rd chapgers of Thank You For Arguing. Looks like I don't actually do much arguing. Basically, all of my 'arguing' is what Heinrichs considers 'fighting'. But maybe he's right about lots of that stuff. It is completely more useful to argue by means of Cicero's three goals of persuasion than to simply win a fight. I do notice that when arguments (or fights) are won with brute force, one party wins and one party loses, but one, if not both, of the parties end up unhappy. I've probably used each of the three goals on their own, but never have tried our thought about combining them...actually I probably never even realized what I was doing. I guess now I can try to use these ideas in conjunction, even though it might take a bit of thought and focus.

The subject of outsourcing jobs seems like one of those ideas that may be interesting or super cool to know about, but what difference does it make? No one can stop companies from doing it and they aren't ogoing to stop it. I find it quite strange though, that in India, America's geeks and nerds are the popular guys. I can't really picture anything like that. Super weird.

I just don't find outsourcing very exciting. I don't know if I ever will. Unless maybe I have som job and then I lose it because it's given to cheap workers in India or something...

Outsourcing?

Even after reading all the information and differing viewpoints about outsourcing, I still don't know quite what to think. I mean I realize that many people are losing their jobs in this country, and many blame it to outsourcing. But after reading Drezner's paper "The Outsourcing Bogeyman", he really gets me thinking. Maybe outsourcing isin't as big of a deal as we thought it was. Drezner brought up some really persuasuve statistical data that showed that even though many companies are outsourcing, the money that they are saving by outsourcing is allowing them to create even more jobs than before. And he also points out that the decrease in manufacturing jobs is due to the increase in technology, not outsourcing. If the true cause of the decrease was outsourcing, then the countries that we outsource to would have an increase in manufacturing jobs which just isin't the case. In fact, those countries have seen a decrease in manufacturing jobs as well. And what about all those benefits that outsourcing has brought to underdeveloped countries that have lived in poverty for so long. I mean, we are morally obligated to help them too right? I may not be sure about my stance on outsourcing because it can bring a lot of good to countries, but also has the possibility of bringing harm. But I do agree with Drezner when he says that we need to rework the TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) program so that it can help workers that have actually been affected by outsourcing.

The Price of Low Prices

I have never in my life come across an article defending Walmart and it's somewhat questionable practice of provinding the lowest possible prices. Although my opinion about Walmart remains unchanged, I found the Article "The New Colossus" by Jay Nordlinger extremely enlightening. I never considered the good Walmart does: it is the largest employer in both the United States and Mexico, providing jobs to those who need it. One aspect of the Walmart corporation that I'd never considered was that even though they provide rock bottom prices for Americans at the cost paying pennies an hour for foreign labor, they "are the store for countless people who live paycheck to paycheck, wanting an needing decent products at decent prices". What I found interesting about this article was that although it talked about how good low prices are for Americans and their standard of living, Nordlinger failed to even touch on what horrible conditions people work in to make these low prices happen. As a college student, I do appreciate a low prices but, but I definately don't appreciate my money going towards something I don't support. I felt this article was extremely one-sided and didn't even bother to mention the other, uglier, side of things.
I found "Harnessing the Power of Consumers" extremely intersting and more comforting. Although I was aware of the fact that we as consumers have the most power in controlling sweatshop labor by not supporting it, I'd wondered what boycotting sweatshop products would do to those working in a sweatshop. Like the "Help is on the Way,Dude" cartoon illustrated, I feared that taking away demand for their jobs would lead to their demise, I didn't know what would happen after that. I love Ed Finn's theroy that even though it's going to get worse before it gets better, it will get better. The only thing I wonder is: how long will it take to get better? How many people will starve before conditions improve? It's easy for us, several continents away from it all to look the other way while this happens, but will they be willing to go through this process for years before the light at the end of the tunnel appears?

"Walmart is it good or bad"

I never realize that people in the world have such a problem with Walmart. Yesterday i went to three different stores looking for USB cord for my printer. The three stores were Walmart, office Depot, and BestBy. Guess who had the cheapest USB cord for less then half the price."Walmart". It was suprising that a store like Walmart works so hard to save money in our pockets but take advantage of so many people by buying goods from sweatshops.Does Walmart really create problems in rural area? As you really look at by opening a Walmart in a rural area, help others small business there closed down. People would rather go to Walmart because of low prices and logos that encourage millions of people to shop there.I think Walmart is really just a money-hungry corporations that like to take advantage of people and trick many American into supporting them.But Walmart does really have low prices, but in order to get the low prices what is being sacrificed? Thats the real question.

The Long Term Effect of Buying Sweatshop Products

I could only see the short term effect of buying the products of child labor and sweatshop labor until now which is saving $. However, I just learned that there is also the long term effect of refusing to buy those products - "it could save our jobs and prevent our wages from plummeting further," as Ed Finn says. I have always thought that "as long as I can get a decent quality product for the lowest price, that's all that matters to me." Now I'm going to try to think about the long term effect when I purchase a product. Although I don't think I'm going to be doing jobs in which I earn wages, if more and more Americans keep losing their jobs, it's somehow going to affect me and everyone else in such ways that the economy could go into the recession and the stock prices will tank. 

It's hard to find anything on the market that is actually made in U.S.A. Most electronics are manufactured in China, although few are actually made in Japan, which is not domestic. Most clothes I buy are also made overseas. I haven't purchased many clothes recently, but I plan to stop buying from the Big 3 brands which are American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister plus Gap. I never really liked any of these brands anyway. Instead, I will start buying more from American Apparel. True to its name, all clothes sold at American Apparel retail stores are made in downtown Los Angeles, and I don't think there are any sweatshops in the United States, so I will be gladly wearing AA clothes knowing that my clothes are made with qualities by my fellow Californians.