So by now everybody knows American businesses have exported a lot of jobs in places like call centers to relatively low-wage countries. They call it “offshoring,” and over 1,600,000 people are employed that way in India alone. The companies who employ these workers freely admit that these jobs are sent overseas to save money — not to insure that work is done at hours that it would be difficult to find American workers to do it. While these jobs pay less than they would in the United States, the workers still receive a wage that is competitive if not high by local standards.
In addition to sending 1.6 million American jobs to India, we have sent the stress and dysfunctional work environment that goes with those jobs. As a result, many of the workers are experiencing increased rates of “sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord”. These problems cost an “estimated $9 billion in lost productivity in 2005” which “could grow to a staggering $200 billion over the next 10 years”.
I wonder how this will effect the bottom line. mmYeah.
In closing: one man’s idea of how to fund Medicare For All — and please don’t forget his consulting fee; canned goods and a blood pressure check; Forbes’s A Short History of Pigging Out is 9 pages long; Krugman on Unions; maybe I should stop being ad-free, as some bloggers are making money; An interesting analysis of “free” trade; the FBI is planning the world’s biggest biometric database despite the fact that biometrics is a not-ready-for-prime-time science, promising to only use it for good; heaven knows that database could never experience a security breach — thanks to Bruce Schneier for pointing out the top 10 data breaches of 2007; and more Schneier-ific items, where should airport security begin and don’t be terrified.