Outsourcing

-Roberto Cai

I found an article at Time Magazine about outsourcing that really caught my attention. this article doesn't centers on economic problems or "benefits." More than that, it talks about how people are used as "lab rats" because those companies believe it is cheaper to test drugs on Indians (actually it is) or any other country.
Since the article is too long to post is here, I´ll post the first 2 paragraphs and the link at the end.

Should Clinica Trials be Outsourced?

India's vast skilled workforce gets western companies' jobs done cheaper and faster. Much has been written about the outsourced back-office services — in IT, finance, telecom — that have helped propel the country's growth to more than 8% a year (and elicited backlash in the countries that buy them). Now a lesser-known western industry has begun tapping India's outsourcing pool, prompting concerns not about jobs, but about the health and safety of the Indian population: Big Pharma.

The price of bringing a new drug to market is, on average, $1 billion. The bulk of that cost is devoted to human clinical trials — the most crucial and time-consuming phase of drug development. Faced with tight regulations at home and shrinking profits due to expiring drug patents, western drug makers are looking to expedite the process by outsourcing safety and efficacy studies to developing countries, a large proportion of them to India. An amendment proposed last year by the technical advisory committee of India's Health Ministry would further allow drug companies to test their products widely on patients in India before they're proved safe at home, which is causing alarm among sections of civil society. It would be a dangerous situation even in developed countries, but potentially devastating in a country that lacks the medical infrastructure to care for people harmed by untested drugs.

Link: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1830334,00.html

-Manuel Trejo

I was reading a lot of articles about outsourcing, and I noticed most of the companies choose India over other countries. Maybe because of the high number of engineers and proffesional workers that graduate in there, being the cheaper to cost. Anyways, my article talks about "outsourcing" education, written by an american teacher; U.S. is seeking high-level teachers and engineers to teach to their students on this side of the world, and because of the recent educationalconomy growth in India, it is the best alternative in matters of education too. I'll put a few pharagraphs and the link at the end.

Outsourcing Education by James D. Miller

Outsourcing hasn't gone far enough: the U.S. should start using Indian-based teachers. Smart, inexpensive, English-speaking Indians already help Americans with software design, computer support and tax preparation. Through satellites and the Internet workers in India can be connected, with mere millisecond delays, to Americans in need. Outsourcing jobs to India has saved Americans billions while actually increasing the quality and competitiveness of many of our industries. We should now apply outsourcing to education, the American industry most in need of improvement.

I suspect that Indians would do a far better job grading than U.S. teachers currently do. Because of their much lower average standard of living, earning a few dollars an hour grading American school assignments would be a fantastic job for many talented Indians. Indians would therefore bring an enthusiasm to grading that most American teachers, including myself, lack.

Link: www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052705A

-Roxana Serrano

The article that I found shows us how far outsourcing can go, even in things so simple like breast-feeding babies. I don’t think that its necessary doing this, because I see breastfeeding like a bond that get mother & son closer & not something that other women can do it, or that we can buy it that kind of milk in the stores. Almost all the articles that I found were about how the economics situation now in days is affecting outsourcing activities, so I choose this. I just put a part here the link is the end of the article.

Outsourcing Breast Milk

The say breast milk is the perfect food for baby's mind and body. Studies show that children who nurse may be healthier and happier and, if they breast-feed for longer than seven months, have a higher IQ. Equally important, many believe, is the intense bond that develops between mother and child.

Which is one reason most American moms don't want to share the experience with anyone else. Yet wet-nursing (hiring a woman to breast-feed your baby), which most of the Western world abandoned in the 19th century, is making a minor comeback among young moms. So is cross-nursing, in which mothers breast-feed one another's babies. Both reflect several cultural trends: more U.S. babies--upwards of 70%--are breast-fed than at any time in at least 50 years, more women work outside the home, and more young women undergo breast surgery. Advocates argue that milk sharing lets women be good moms while fulfilling other goals. Says Natalia Chang, 29, who has cross-nursed with her San Jose, Calif., neighbor: Breast milk is "a communal commodity around here."

Link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1612710,00.html

-Angel Maya

LINK : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/07/AR2009010703430.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Well i found a article about a printed error in letters from the army, the article that i found don´t talk directly about outsourcing; but is caused by outsourcing.

Why?, because thsi printed errors where made from a "contractor" of other country, well the point in here is that the letter where made for the family of dead soldiers. The letter was addressed simply as dear John Doe, and no one was able to see this problem because the letters where made in other country.

-"There are no words to adequately apologize for this mistake or for the hurt it may have caused," Brig. Gen. Reuben D. Jones

-This would never have happened if the military had retained control of this function, I don't think. Even the worst military bureaucrats still "get it" when it comes to dealing with the honored dead, more or less. It's time for the military to start recapturing functions for dedicated civil (or military) servants rather than outsourcing them to contractors for the cheapest rates.

-Alan Velazquez

This is my article on outsourcing, i think its important to think about not just articles on outsourcing examples, but also on understanding it, this articles fragment tells us a little bit about this, and it helped me understand it a little bit better, i must say that this is a worthy article to read, so carry on... i left a link to the full one on the bottom...

Austin, Texas (January 29, 2009) — Tusker Group LLC, the leader in offshore document review, is growing its attorney review staff and adding additional infrastructure to meet increased demand for its legal process outsourcing services. The firm has added eight new clients in the past 12 months as a result of new cases and interest in decreasing costs associated with litigation.
"The legal outsourcing industry is currently experiencing the upside of the down economy," said John Thickett, CFO of Tusker Group. "We are seeing an increasing demand for offshore document review. Corporations, driven to cut costs during this recession, are turning to offshore document review as a way to decrease expenditures, without compromising their legal strategies."
In the last 12 months, Tusker Group has grown overall by over 100 percent and added sixty new attorney staff members in both its India and U.S.-based offices.
Key trends driving the demand for offshore document review services include a greater acceptance of the unbundling of document review from law firm services to reduce costs associated with document-intensive lawsuits.

http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/n090129a.asp

-Ruben Zamora

Well what i read about outsourcing leads me to think that for some people its good and for other people is bad. Of course always the richest people win in terms of economical situations. Lets use this example: Me, (the rich guy with lots of buisnesses) decide to expand my businesses. If I pay lots of money to my employees here at the U.S. then why not move to another place where I will pay them less for the same work? Of course, the employee working for example in Mexico, will recieve much less compared to the the american employee. I think thats not fair. But well, we are not important to the rich people. Unless we're making money for them.

I cant post comments so I'm gonna post it here.

I think outsourcing may be good to help our economy but is like..wrong when you pay less to people for the same amount of work.