Category Archives: America

An outsourcing vision about the Lakota people

March 4, 2017 by 123outsource
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Watching the news about Standing Rock has depressed me. Watching uranium companies devastate the land in South Dakota in the 1970’s and now watching oil companies do even worse things is really hard to take. Why can’t we just go solar and respect our land? But, I digress.

The Lakota people are spiritual descendants of the buffalos and used to live in harmony with this magnificent animal. The minute the buffalos were wiped out, so were the Lakota people. Their whole culture revolved around buffalos and nature. Due to generations of children being sent to boarding schools, few of the Lakota people know how to be natives any more or speak their language.

Reverse Boarding Schools.
The solution seems to be reverse boarding schools. For the Lakota nations to create their own language schools for children 3-7 to live and speak only the Lakota language and learn only the Lakota culture. They could even invite white kids to come to school with them which would be a reversal of “Nazi nuns” forcing their sterile white Christian culture on Indian kids. After that, there needs to be an economic structure where people could have jobs where they could speak the language. The problem is that there are hardly any jobs in the reservations these days regardless of language. But, I had a positive vision.

Planting Seeds
If the Lakota people want to get together and quit complaining about the past, and start doing something about the future, good things could happen. The buffalos can be revived if there is a seed population. Buffalos can be bred. The linguistic loss can also be rebred. There are about 2000 speakers of Lakota, so if those people were used exclusively to spread the language to children, then the language could grow from that seed. However, if the seed is lost, then the language will become extinct forever! Maybe it is God’s plan to unify the human species by reducing the number of languages spoken and having many or most of us know English. Maybe it is God’s plan to unify the races by having us all live together in big cities througout the world. It certainly looks like this. But, if the Lakota want to preserve their cultural heritage which matters to me (not convinced it matters to them), then they will have to start planting seeds.

My Vision
The vision I saw was a huge expanse of land going for miles filled with buffalos roaming freely. There were clusters of teepees with people doing tasks. Then, there was an underground tunnel that went to an undergound compound. A guy was there watching surveylance cameras. The buffalos were mostly killed off in the 1800’s by white people who didn’t live in harmony with nature. The lesson learned is that what is not protected will be lost or stolen. So, fences around this vast expanse of grassy land were built with cameras to keep poachers out. Next, I saw a building near the edge of this huge field with a call center. The agents were mostly Lakota, but they were speaking Ethiopian, Hebrew and Chinese. Apparently, after World War 3, most of the cultures of the world were wiped off the globe permanently. Most Africans died, but through a miracle of God, the Ethiopians survived and became a thriving spiritual culture. Israel suffered a devastating invasion and lost most of its population too, but rebuilt and populated to become a thriving spiritual nation as well. China also suffered terrible population losses, but got their act together and decided to live without polluting their rivers and air anymore. All of these cultures thrived and needed additional labor to help them deal with their businesses. So, they hired Lakota Call Centers in South Dakota which was now an independent country.

The Lakota people decided there was safety in numbers, so they decided to have at least six children per family. They also decided not only to make sure all of their children were fluent speakers of their language, but they also decided to have cultural tests once a year to make sure that all of their tribal members were experts at the culture.

0% unemployment
In traditional Native American societies there was zero percent unemployment. Everyone had a job. The women picked berries, gathered wood, and did handicrafts while the men were hunters and warriors. After the buffalo were wiped out and people were run off their traditional lands, the people no longer knew how to make a living. Having their children sent to boarding schools did not help the unemployment problem either. The problem was that they needed to adapt to find new ways of employment and the chiefs were not helping.

Paying Tax on the Land
The biggest issue here is that in real life in America, if you own land, you have to pay tax. Native folks don’t see why they should pay tax on land that belongs to them. There is always a price you pay for land. In tribal times, people paid with the lives of their male children to protect the land. Many boys would die in tribal wars to maintain control of hunting grounds and territory. In the modern world, people pay for land and pay taxes on land. American Indians never liked this idea because they figured the land inherently belonged to them just because their ancestors had lived there. Under a nation, if you own a parcel of land and pay taxes on it, you can maintain ownership. But, for nations, there is no intrinsic ownership other than your ability and willingness to defend the land. So, after the U.S. took over, native people no longer “owned” or controlled the land. But, in my vision, the Native Americans got over their hang ups about resisting playing by the new rules and decided that paying taxes on land and paying for land was better than being wiped out — so they did.

A gradual expansion
The Lakotas in my vision decided that they needed industries. Their traditional industry was handicrafts and buffalo hunting. So, they decided to continue this tradition by saving money, and buying land in South Dakota. They used the land to raise buffalos. The more money they made, the more land they bought. Land was not that expensive out there, so they quickly acquired miles and miles of land. After a few generations, they got back all of the land they had lost many generations previously. Since in my vision South Dakota becomes an independent nation, and the Lakota population grew to be huge, the Lakota population controlled the whole country. However, the Lakota people decided to become more hospitable to outsiders and let them stay in their land providing they would play by Lakota rules which meant living in harmony with nature, knowing some of the Lakota language, and passing a cultural test. The joke is that if there were such a cultural test given in 2016, not only would the whites all fail it, but most of the native kids would fail miserably as well.

A relationship with God
I don’t claim to know what the spiritual conditions are in Native Reservations throughout America. However, without God’s graces, evil forces like Uranium mining, buffalo genocides, heroin, child abuse, and many others will creep in. In my opinion, the entire tribe should have regular prayers to have God protect the land from abusers and have God heal the land that has been abused through natural forces. Without God, no positive growth is possible. The tribe also needs to understand that gifts from God come with Tything. Without giving to charity, not many blessings will come your way.

The Solution
The solution to the problem of cultural iradication of the Lakota people is:

1. Language incubation projects
2. An economic culture with industries that thrive in the Dakotas involving buffalo harvesting, handicrafts, and remote outsourcing businesses. An economic structure where the tribe makes sure that all are employed no matter what.
3. Repopulating the tribe
4. Cultural education for tribal members as well as guests from other communities
5. A willingness to pay tax on land and purchase land for environmentally sustainable use
6. A relationship with God is necessary otherwise all else will crumble.

My letter to Trump about the environment

February 26, 2017 by 123outsource
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Donald Trump is a very thoughtful guy who has everything in common with mother nature. Let me elaborate.

Donald Trump has impeccable taste and can build beautiful buildings in two or three years;
Mother Nature also has equally good taste and can build beautiful mountains in two or three hundred million years;

Donald Trump can create complicated organizations that serve humanity such as large business with intricate internal structures;
Mother Nature also creates complicated organizations, but in the form of organisms and ecosystems;

Donald Trump knows how to harness the right resources to get very large and complicated business jobs done;
Mother Nature also knows how to harness forces of nature to get ocean waves to wave, winds to blow, and landscapes to form;

Donald Trump gives people a few chances over six or seven weeks and then says, “YOU’RE FIRED.” if the worker continues to screw up or talk back. In such a case, the worker can just find another job;

Mother Nature gives humans a chance over six or seven decades to trash the planet, drill holes in her skin, and pollute her air and then says, “YOU’RE FIRED.” In such a case, the human population can just find another planet;

Donald Trump needs to realize that global climate change is not something that people merely talk about, but there is meterological data to support the idea that temperatures are not what they used to be on the poles, or in Scotland, Denmark, etc. Additionally, hurricanes are more frequent, earthquakes are being reported more often, and other natural disasters are happening at a greater pace. Basically, Mother Nature is in the process of warning us that we are going to get fired. The problem is, that once we come to our senses it will be too late.

My guru says that another planet has been assigned to us earthlings for after we destroy it. But, the only way to get there is to die and get reincarnated in the planet. Donald Trump needs to realize that the price we pay for our fracking, offshore drilling and general environmental wrecklessness is simply not worth the price to humanity. We are all affected and there is nowhere to run or hide, even for the rich. It is easier to “go solar” and find clean ways of living. It will not kill us or our businesses to stay clean and grean. And besides, for those of us who brag about being “conservative,” what could be more critical to conserve but the sanctity of our planet? As a species, we need to find a global organization to monitor our environmental activities otherwise we’re all fired!

Trump will bring jobs back to the US when there is nobody to do those jobs

February 8, 2017 by 123outsource
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Trump is going to create new tax laws that will make it expensive to outsource jobs or move plants overseas. This seems wonderful for the American worker. But, unemployment is so low in the United States, how will you find quality people to do those jobs which are being brought back here — or jobs that are being prevented or discouraged from leaving here? When I try to get anyone to do anything in the United States I run into road blocks. The people who don’t have jobs are normally lazy, unproductive, argumentative, or just plain picky about what they do. The people who will work are normally extremely sluggish about getting anything done and expensive.

I am all in favor of making America great again and punishing China for currency manipulation. However, with low unemployment here, it will be difficult to find people. Personally, I feel our government should help people find jobs and ensure zero percent unemployment. You might have a job you don’t like, but at least you would have a job in an ideal society.

The next serious problem with America (besides lazy people who argue all the time) is that our local skill sets are not adequate to do the jobs of the future. People need to know computer programming, robotics, and other high tech skills. Americans are weak at these skills and without Asian immigration we would have an even more severe shortage of tech workers. Bringing back jobs won’t do us any good unless we have Americans to do those jobs. And Trump wants to make it harder for Indians and Chinese to come to America — those are the only people who can do the high tech jobs he is bringing back. And the Mexicans he wants to keep out are the only people who will do the low paid manufacturing jobs.

The moral of the story is that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want low paid manufacturing in the USA, the only way to do that is to turn the US into Latin America which has already happened in my neighborhood — but, the papusas are good so I won’t complain!

Native American Marketers (could) use Visions to determine strategy

February 2, 2017 by 123outsource
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Vision Quests vs. Hindu Meditation
I’ve been watching a lot of movies about Native Americans on youtube. Apparantly they are not so different from us Raja Yogis in many ways. In Raja Yoga it is common to have visions during meditation when we are in a deeply meditative state of mind. But, we don’t seek the visions, we just have them and then write about them in our journals and forget about them. Raja Yoga is too much about forgetting — otherwise you get attached which is bad.

But, in Native American culture, to become a man you have to go out into nature with no food and water in some cases for a few days. The idea is to conquer your fear, and also to be in so much pain that your body chemistry and brain chemistry changes to the point where it is hypnotic. Under these conditions, it is more possible to have a vision. Part of the assignment for the children is often to have a vision in addition to dealing with fear and dealing with being alone.

You can imagine how it would be even for an adult being out in nature with not enough clothes, no food, no friends, and trying to survive out there for a few days. In tribal culture, they might send someone to check on you once or twice per day as a courtesy. Also, the spirits would probably bother you if you were afraid and out in the middle of nowhere. They bother me, so they will undoubtedly bother you.

Visions are a big part of Native American life as well as the culture of most indiginous cultures in one way shape or form. We all have visions, particularly when we are dreaming, half asleep, daydreaming, or sometimes even during full consciousness. Muslims do not distinguish visions from dreams. The truth of visions is that they are messages from deep in our subconscious. Some of us are better at accessing our subconscious than others. It is an art actually to gracefully access information from deep within.

Hallucinogens were part of all indiginous cultures
Hallucinogens were common in many tribes. Some had magic mushrooms, somes use leaves from trees to create Iowaska, some used Paeote from cactuses, while some tribes had grasses that produced the same result. The Hallucinations are induced partly because of a chemical or drug that natually occurs in these plants. In ancient times, shamans had to have visions for the survival of their tribe in order to find food far away. If they goofed, the whole tribe would die. God put these plants in one form or another throughout the world for native peoples to use, survive and develop a culture of visions.

Visions for Marketing
I am a business man. I grew up in Anglo society here in America. But, I am deeply spiritual and meditate on business issues in addition to doing general mediation. The others who do meditation in our Raja Yoga group do not use spirituality as a tool to succeed. They just zone out and meditate and don’t care about anything. I have many past lives as a shaman, so I realize that spirituality is not only a nice thing to do, but can be a tool for survival looking for food, or looking for business. Over the years I have had many visions about my business. Some came to me in my sleep, others in meditation, and others during trips to the underworld. But, can you meditate and get visions that will help you with your business? If you are a Native American, this should be a standard part of your routine. But, regular folks can do it too. The question is, can you interpret your visions in a way that is accurate and helpful?

Standing Rock: Energy independence vs. environmental safety

January 24, 2017 by 123outsource
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Wars over oil replaced by drilling at home
America got involved in a huge war in Iraq primarily over control of oil. America also wanted the dollar to still be used by Iraq instead of the Euro, so the war was in essence a bullying session at great expense to both nations. Third, the war cmbined with the Afghanistan invasion also was about improving our military position near Iran. All three of these political objectives make logical sense. But, fighting huge wars for such small goals seems corrupt and not worth it. The solution is to create our own energy at home. And since our nation is so large, especially when you include Alaska, there are lots of energy opportunities.

Drilling at home weakens the Arabs
America and Canada started finding new and improved ways to drill for oil in our own lands without depending on the Middle-Easterners which was a great idea. Many of the Gulf countries are going under financially now that America is in competition with them for oil production as the cost of oil has gone down. Weakening countries engaged in terrorism or engaged in supporting others do terrorism seems like a reasonable national goal.

But, fracking & offshore drilling are bad for mother earth
The problem is that America doesn’t know when to stop exploiting the land for resources. Moderate drilling for oil in safe places makes sense. But, what about offshore drilling? That can create spills that are impossible to completely clean up that are devastating to the environment. And fracking is much worse as it pollutes ground water and does long term damage to whatever region it is done in. Many people claim that fracking increases the rate of cancer many times over. I personally don’t know what the truth is, but creating environmentally unsafe conditions for temporary profit are extremely bad in the long run. America needs to find clean and safe ways to lead the world of energy.

Standing Rock Protests
Right now, the native folks at Standing Rock are protesting a pipeline that is going to go over a river. They know that if there is damage to the pipe sometime in the future, that the environmental consequences will be hard to control. Additionally, since the rivers from North Dakota feed into the Mississippi river, if you pollute one river, you pollute the entire network of rivers. The claims about long-term environmental risk made at Standing Rock make sense — and our government should start listening if they want a planet that their children can inherit.

Worldwide environmental standards are necessary
The solution to the problem seems to be three-fold. First as a nation and as a planet, we need clearly defined environmental standards and goals. There should ideally be a worldwide government in charge of environmental safety to regulate countries like… well… all of us. Brazil is cutting down their rainforest, America is fracking, and China is polluting. We all need to wake up and regulate.

The second solution is to find alternatives to drilling. Solar energy is currently more expensive than oil, but doesn’t have to continue to be. If more research was put into the efficient construction of solar energy farms, it would be more cost effective, and with no damage to the environment. Additionally, energy from corn based ethanol are also solutions. The problem is that the price of food is so high, that ethanol can not be a competitive alternative to oil. The only way to reduce the price of food staples is to reduce the population of the planet — but, reducing the population would also create a reduction in oil prices. Do we have to wait until the oil is almost all used up before we find alternative energy resources?

Last, having more efficient ways of using fuel seems to make sense. Hybrid cars are helping people save energy. Van-pooling and ride sharing are becoming more popular these days as well. More efficient models for distributing goods nationwide would be yet another way to save on fuel. More efficient train and truck systems of transportation would be part of that solution.

I hope we can meet our energy needs without destroying our planet. The bigger issue is getting the people in power as well as regular folks to see that our environment is one of the most important issues of the day — and if it doesn’t get solved, we’ll all be very very sorry.

Will there be an outsourcing tax with Trump?

January 14, 2017 by 123outsource
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Trump is such an interesting character. On the one hand he does business around the world. On the other hand, he caters to frustrated lower-middle class white guys in America who want to keep jobs in America! Can we have it both ways? And what does Trump really believe beneath the hype?

I believe that Trump is likely to increase or create import taxes from certain countries. China is going to be at the top of the list. GM is a company popular with American workers who say the word, “aMERican” with the emphasis on the “MER.” The irony is that GM is all over China getting rock bottom prices on infrastructure and labor during China’s economic recession. Meanwhile Apple who is all over the world taking advantage of regional tax breaks is going to pay big time when Trump clamps down on their manufacturing which is heavily in China. An import tax will harm both these companies in a huge way. I would not be surprised if stocks go down by 25% for both of them.

Meanwhile, the outsourcing business is unique as it is a service. It is harder to track who is doing outsourcing when you look at smaller companies unless the government monitors their Paypal accounts (and it does for tax purposes.) You can see which Paypal payment goes overseas. If the government puts a tax on outsourcing, it might not be so bad. A 20% tax would mean that providers would have to lower their rates by 10-15% to stay in business. Some would go out of business, while others would lower their rates. The customer on the American front would not have to pay that much more after all is said and done.

Personally, I prefer a free and open market. That way the world can capitalize on labor wherever and whenever it can be found. Land for manufacturing might be cheaper in Mozambique than Minneapolis and companies can take advantage of that. But, Trump is sure to fight for some outsourcing taxes. So, don’t cry. You won’t be out of business if it happens — it will only hurt!

On a brighter note, unemployment is so low in America, that prices for services here are bound to rise making it easier for overseas competitors to stay afloat until we have a bad recession.

2020 to 2030 — will outsourcing survive a period of war and depression?

January 12, 2017 by 123outsource
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I have always been worried about the future, prophesies, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and wars. Revelation warns of this, my spiritual Master warns of the same. Most religions say something bad is going to happen in the world to make room for a new society that is spiritually based. The problem is that most of the world has to get wiped out in the mean time. I run a business and if you read my blog chances are you do too. We need to stay afloat in good times as well as bad.

The world is sort of falling apart. Europe is flailing with a huge influx of Middle-Eastern immigrants who have caused a lot of grief to the locals. Russia is ready to take over neighboring countries that used to be part of its empire. Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are going broke and selling oil dirt cheap just to prolong their demise. China is drowning in its own pollution and having a bad economic downturn. The only country doing well these days seems to be The USA, and to some extent perhaps Brazil, Australia and a few others. Some of the African nations are becoming more economically strong which is nice, but they have a long way to go.

Additionaly, we are looking at world-wide bankruptcies that will be simultaneous. Too many countries have borrowed more than they can ever pay back, and when these countries crash all at once, the future of the world economy is unsure. We might create a system to forgive debts or create a world-wide currency. But, in reality, if someone lent you money, you have to pay them back in one form or another.

The question is, how will outsourcing companies survive a global depression or war. If you are in Hyderabad and the world goes to hell, will you still be able to sell your programming and call center services? And what about us here in the states? Will we be safe hiring someone in India when the Pakistanis will eventually invade and kill everybody? What will happen to my code if my programmer Praveen gets his head cut off by invading Mahmood? What if the economy in the states gets so bad we actually do our own programming work? Then India will be out of business! Or worse, what if I hire a nice Indian Muslim in the United States, and then our government cracks down on Muslims and he gets sent back to Delhi? What happens to my code?

As you can see, I think of the worst. Hope for the best, plan for the worst are words of wisdom. None of us can control the outcome of the world, but we can prepare by having savings. That way if we have to work for far less than we are used to, we still survive.

If the Lakota people would network with those outside their tribe and outsource!

January 10, 2017 by 123outsource
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We normally think of India and the Philipines when we think of outsourcing. But, we have local people who suffer from horrible unemployment. Native American tribes normally live out in the middle of nowhere. They are far from cities, far from work, and just don’t have a lot to do.

What if someone created a call center in or near the Lakota nation? The cost of labor is not high, and lots of people are willing to work. The problem is that their level of experience has not been developed.

People who live in the middle of nowhere need businesses that thrive in the condition of being nowhere. Remote is the keyword here. Call centers, data entry facilities, farming, RV camps, and internet businesses can do quite well while being nowhere. In fact, call centers do better when nowhere because the cost of land is low. Another interesting factor is that the stress level at a call center would be less if people worked near the ocean or in the middle of nowhere. It is more relaxing there and the relaxing attributes of the landscape counteract the stress of the job.

Cottage industries should be encouraged for those living in or near native reservations. It is not easy or cost-effective to get outside capital. But, creating mini-industries at home or in a small office space or industrial space doing basic tasks for a low price make perfect sense to get a business off the ground.

But, what about networking? In a greater sense, Native Americans are isolated partly because of their geography. But, also do to a lack of social networking. You could live near others, but if there is no way to connect to them, you would be socially isolated. Lakota people are regaining their culture these days as they came close to losing their language. They need to network with people from their tribe or other tribes living outside of the reservation for cultural and business activities. They also need to network with mixed-race people who probably feel left out. Additionally, Native Americans need to network with people who used to be Native American in a past life but were reincarnated into Hindus, whites, or some other community. The more connected you are, the more ideas will flow, and the more opportunities have the chance to be offered to you. By living in isolation, you can’t receive anything because nobody even knows you are there.

The Lakota language also needs to recover which is an entirely different topic. But, I’ll include it here since it is sentimental to me even though I only know one word of the language. Language is learned best by people who are three or four years old. Since so few people speak the Lakota language, those few thousand linguistic human assets should be allocated to spending lots of time with the 3-7 year old folks and speak only the Lakota language. Then, to maintain the language, work environments on the reservation need to be set up where only that language is spoken. But, that is the whole problem that I have been addressing in this article. There isn’t a strong work culture. Two hundred years ago, there was 100% employment in the Lakota tribe as men, women, and children all were assigned a task. After the buffalo were killed off and the US government took over most of the land, the Lakota traditional way of life was demolished, and the people were not able to adapt to other types of lifestyles.

My recommendation — adapt!
Culture never stays the same, and neither do languages, souls, or anthing else. The only thing that is constant is change. As living organisms, we adapt or die out. Since native culture is so sentimental to many of us, it is very sad to see their culture die out. So, the solution is to adapt!

The old way of life involved living in connection to buffalo. Food, clothing, shelter, and tools all came from parts of the buffalo. In older times when human populations were lower and more natural, buffalos roamed wild. Those days are over, but buffalos can still be farmed in free-range style farming. I feel that the Lakota people should focus on being ranchers and breeding their sacred animal that they feel they descended from (perhaps they mean spiritually descended from.)

I feel that cottage industries in outsoucing specialties could save the Lakota people too. After all, Lakotas speak English as their first language, and that is something call centers in foreign countries cannot capitalize on as their English is not native!

Next, traditional arts are very popular world-wide, yet Native Americans don’t normally have good marketing skills. The skills of production are there, but there is always some Lebanese guy who makes a killing on marketing native goods. Why can’t native people learn to sell their own goods in an efficient way? Good marketing skills could open up huge markets for pottery, beads, paintings, and other native art which could create tremendous employment opportunities. Additionally, adaptations on traditional arts such as native mouse pads, sofas with Native Americna apolstery, website development using native art, and anything else you can think of.

Finally, there are other businesses that would work well out in the middle of nowhere. RV Parks, tortilla factories, cultural classes, clothing manufacturing, solar panel manufacturing, wind power manufacturing, and more. I discourage the casino business as it is not holistic and leads to addition and unhealthy outcomes which reflect poorly spiritually on the community.

Do we still have freedom of speech?

November 8, 2016 by 123outsource
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America was founded based on people having certain freedoms, one of which being freedom of speech. But, our freedom of speech is so inhibited, that we kind of don’t have freedom of speech.

If you talk about anything religious or political, people might tell you to be quiet, or accuse you of being sexist, racing or politically incorrect just for mentioning certain religions names or expressing any type of idea.

The next issue I have is that there are different rules for black people than there are for whites. Black people can use offensive racial (racist) language and get away with it while whites cannot say anything without being accused. Is it fair? Whites are always accused of being racist whether they are racist or not while Asians and Hispanics can disciminate all day long and nobody bats an eyelash. So, not only do we not have freedom of speech, but whites are held to very high and unfair standards while other rates don’t seem to be held to any standard.

In China on the other hand, people have big mouths. They make all types of remarks about anything and everything that would be very offensive if translated into English. They just blurt out what they think since nobody is antagonizing them for opening their mouths. The irony behind the iron curtain is that they have more freedom of speech than we do simply because their people are more tolerant than “freedom loving” Americans.

You can say what you like in China — just don’t criticize the government too much or they will strike back.

So, we are fighting for freedom in Iraq when we don’t have freedom here at home. How pathetic. If I decide I want to live in a country with freedom of speech, I’m moving to China.

Going to India was good preparation for what the USA became

July 5, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: America, India | Leave a comment

My Maiden Voyage to India
I went to India several times in the last thirteen years. My maiden voyage was back in 2002. I had some bizarre experiences with people who kept asking the same question again and again and again. I kept saying no, no, no, no, no. It was like dealing with people who had part of their brain shut down. What I came to realize is that India is a land of extremes. There are people who are extremely smart, and many who are completely clueless. There are very moral people, and others who don’t have any morals. There are many different religions and castes who normally have almost nothing to do with each other. We see India as having “a culture” while in reality it is more like a patchwork of opposite societies forced to live with each other.

Sorry, Meter Broken
What bothered me most about India was that there was so much negligence and backwardsness almost everywhere. I have never been to Punjab, however, I understand that is the most organized part of India. This is because there are many Sikhs there, and the Sikhs are a very meticulous people who also have a very military attitude. 90% of the Indian army consists of Sikhs who are local to Haryana and Punjab. But, in the rest of India there are leaky faucets, piles of bricks left for months by the side of the road, police who take bribes, broken things of all descriptions, potholes, people who don’t drive in lanes, rickshaw drivers who have rigged or broken meters, and other types of nonsense.

What the U.S. Became
America has never been a perfect country, and we have never been as meticulous as the Japanese about keeping things clean or fixed. However, I have noticed that things have gone downhill in the last twenty years. There is more negligence and Unreliability here. When I hire American programmers, not one is able to meet simple deadlines or get back to me. In my apartment complex, the cement used to repair the sidewalk seems to break within a few weeks of its installation. We have to make multiple requests for the sink to be fixed. When I had my car repaired at Toyota for a noise, they fixed one noise and then didn’t double check the car for additional noises which resulted in me having to bring the car back and get yet another free rental car from them for a few days. We both lost a lot of time and money because they didn’t check their work — which reminds me of most of the programmers I hire.

India in 2002 Prepared Me for America in 2015
Since India prepared me for what I term “abject negligence,” I am more tolerant of it. However, if you run a business, you should make sure that you don’t do anything negligent and that you tolerate very little negligence on the part of your workers, especially those higher up. If you choose to not do certain tasks which are less valuable in your priority list, that is fine. However, if you neglect critical tasks, the consciousness of neglect will mirror itself into the others who you deal with. I have seen this spiritual principle manifest itself in real life so many times that I look for it to happen and try to analyze how the other person’s behavior is similar to mine. In my opinion, India is on its way slowly up and America is on its way down. I am not convinced that America will ever become as backwards as India and I doubt that India will ever become as nice as America. In the long run I believe that China will run the world and the rest of us will be their servants!

America should capitalize on its attractiveness

June 14, 2015 by 123outsource
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America is a country with a defective immigration system. We are too tight about letting people in our country, yet too incompetent about controlling illegal immigration. We have a porous border with Mexico that lets in illegal workers, drug dealers, kidnappers, and even ISIS members! What America doesn’t understand is that we cannot compete internationally without having a very flexible labor force. That means we need a large supply of people who are willing to work here and we need to let them get quick work visas on an as-needed basis. That way we control who comes in rather than being flooded with whomever happens to be desperate at that point in time. We need to optimize by hiring the best workers for particular tasks out of huge pools of applicants rather than just taking what the cat dragged in.

The thing America forgets is that many people want to come to America — and that is a huge asset. Can you imagine what America would be like if it were not so attractive? Nobody would want to come here. If we were short of programmers, we wouldn’t be able to get any. If we were short of farm laborers, nobody would come. America is a beautiful place, yet we don’t take advantage of what we have. We are analogous to a hot girl who makes it impossible for rich guys to meet her without filling out endless forms. Sure, the girl ends up with a boyfriend, but not the best one she could get. If she would spend a little more time analyzing the opportunities and make it a little easier for those opportune people to meet her, she could get a much better boyfriend.

America lets immigrants in and then after a long time offers them citizenship. I feel this is the wrong idea. We give citizenship to people who are here to work, and who are not here to be Americans. I feel that citizenship should be exclusively for people who want to be American for richer or for poorer while the others should come on renewable 5 year work visas perhaps without their families. The minute their kids get used to America, if there is a problem, it is no longer easy to send them back!

If parts of America could be designed specifically to entice foreigners to come and work, that might really stimulate the economy. We’d have the high tech staff needed for our big technical companies to grow, and we’d have the cheap labor to be able to compete with China and El Salvador! I’m very in favor of special economic zones to be created in America which would not only be beautiful, but cater to the cultural and linguistic needs of people from particular other countries.

Since America makes importing workers such a headache, many companies are heading overseas. That makes sense. If Donald Trump runs for president, perhaps he will put a 35% tax on outsourcing, but maybe he will let foreign workers come here to work. That would be a wonderful twist on fate. We’ll wait and see.

Unions — good for the American worker, or not!

January 8, 2015 by 123outsource
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In the old days in America, there were mean company bosses who forced people to work overtime. People were not given paid sick leave, and were not given medical insurance. Workers had to work in dangerous and unpleasant conditions. Sounds like today’s China, but with a different accent.

The solution to this problem was the creation of unions. Unions hit their peak membership in 1954 with almost 35% of the labor force as members. Many felt this was “good” for American labor as it got people “fair” wages. I feel otherwise. I feel that unions helped particular groups of workers get higher than market value wages. They were able to do this by virtually holding expensive and immobile (not movable) infrastructure hostage. It would be too expensive to relocate, so companies were forced to negotiate with very angry, destructive and unreasonable unions. Throughout history, many union workers provoked many arguments and disputes with management, often when it was not useful or practical to do so. The Japanese philosophy of work is for management and labor to be in harmony. Americans wanted no such part of this harmony. So, what is the result of an unwillingness to develop harmony and balance?

The unions in America were strongest in the Northeast, Midwest and California. The Northeast lost a lot of manufacturing, but retained its economy by excelling in other sectors such as hi-tech. California also did well in hi-tech, but also in agriculture, movie business, and much more. But, the Midwest was not able to recover from a huge blow to its manufacturing sector. The fact was that the inflated union wages were just far more than what companies would have to pay down South or in foreign countries. So, many manufacturers with union contracts just packed up and left which meant a huge expense of creating new factories in new places.

Additionally, it seems that unions never really had the interests of workers as a whole at heart, but only some workers. Puerto Ricans and blacks were often left out of unions. Younger workers were not always given immediate membership in unions either. Since there were limited unionized jobs at above market rates, there were more people who wanted to be part of unions than there were jobs.

As with life, power seems to come and go, especially to those who abuse it. The workers in the Midwest abused their power by asking for more than a market wage. They were enjoying a lavish lifestyle while other workers doing similar work in America and overseas were working for peanuts. The result of this abuse of the power they created is evident if you drive through the Midwest and see all of the abandoned buildings.

On a brighter note, due to technological advances, and lower labor costs due to increased immigration, America can now once again compete with China for manufacturing. China’s increasing land and labor costs also make it easier for us to compete.

The bottom line is that unions never helped the American worker, but temporarily helped a few who had mafia type control of overpriced jobs. For the rest of the workers, their lives were horrible. I will say that our government did somewhat of a good job creating labor standards that protected workers from dangerous or abusive situations. On the other hand, the government made it so hard on businesses by forcing them to provide health insurance and other benefits that many companies are forced to go overseas where laws are more relaxed. The old story is told again, that when you push too hard, there is a devastating reaction. And that reaction is called outsourcing. But, it’s a blessing if you live in a country called India. So, look at it from the other side of the coin.

I think the point of this article besides how great outsourcing is (if you are in Asia) is that when you push markets out of balance by force, they will bounce back one way or another. And when that bouncing happens, it can be a disaster leaving bombed out buildings that used to be plants, millions unemployed, and worse! Until next time!