Igniting a fire with gas while Washington fiddles
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Igniting a fire with gas while Washington fiddles
Some days you can turn on "Morning Joe" and just conclude there's no connection between our so-called grand political debate and the real slow drip-drip-drip that is killing the American economy -- and our kids' future in the process. Some days the slow drip is from gasoline:
Sunoco Inc., the Philadelphia-based oil company, says it's paying EquaTerra Inc., a Houston consulting firm, to recommend whether Sunoco should "outsource" information technology, accounting, personnel, and procurement jobs from its Center City headquarters, home to 750 of Sunoco's 10,000 employees.
"We have hired EquaTerra to advise us as we explore potentially outsourcing some functions," Sunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski told me yesterday. Workers learned Friday of the possible job moves. EquaTerra didn't return calls for comment late yesterday.
Sunoco expects EquaTerra to report later this year on which jobs could be profitably outsourced to cheap labor markets in Asia or elsewhere. If Sunoco decides to outsource these jobs, it will seek proposals from contractors, Golembeski said.
First of all...uh, Sunoco, could you please explain to me what you've been doing with the wads of extra cash that I've been forced to dole out at your service stations these last few years? Surely you didn't lose that much on those discount cards from the Acme. And so now this is your gratitude for sevcral years of record profits -- inflicting a hurting on the Philadelphia economy, and not just the people who'll lose their office jobs in Center City but the guy who sold them coffee in the morning, and, yes, the service station owner who use to fuel up their morning commute to a job that's about to disappear forever.
Second of all, isn't this the real problem in America today, and one that no one in Washington -- or anywhere else -- has a clue on how to solve? Free-market solutions? Give me a break -- this is the free market in action. There's not a Republican tax break in the world that would stop Sunoco from shipping those jobs to India or China or wherever, given the huge disparity in wages. We could shut off the Internet -- we did pay for this microphone, after all -- and go back to a non-flat-world economy like we had in the prosperous 1950s, but that seems counterproductive and unpractical, doesn't it. I still think the best alternative would be to invest both more and more wisely in education as well as infrastructure -- what China is doing,
But the inevitable return of conservatives to power, at least until they screw things up for the fourth time in my lifetime, is probably going to lead to a new world order of ill-targeted austerity (money for tanks instead of classrooms) that will destroy my children's future in the name of saving it. God bless America.
You know, RG and db, I'm only a young man, but I can remember when our government had surpluses...— Billy Ray Winthorpe- "You know, RG and db, I'm only a young man, but I can remember when our government had surpluses..." What kind of surpluses? Accounting fictions like we had during the 1990s, where the so-called Social Security Trust Fund was spent and counted against the deficit instead of invested like with CALPERS? I agree the GOP was wrong to cut taxes and not cut spending, and TARP became a sham in that it was executed vastly different than how it was sold. But the Dems have been far worse since they have assumed full power. And few are willing to even make an honest evaluation of all the entitlement shortfalls staring us in the face - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and government pensions - instead, the GOP made it worse with the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and the Dems are now trying their turn at making it worse with health care 'reform'.— db_cooper
- RG, I wasn't promoting surpluses - I think any surplus should be held at one or two percent to fill up a modest rainy day fund. I was just pointing out that the neo-Keynesians forget the second part of Keynes' equation - to have a surplus to fund stimuli during a downturn to remove the need for massive borrowing and/or printing money.— db_cooper
- z— James TL
- "Apologies, db, I'm not up on my immigration terminology. " Nolo problemo. All you need to know about H1-B visas is that 312,000 were issued in 2002 during the depths of that year's IT slump.— db_cooper
- db, generally anytime someone gives me a factoid and tells me that it's "all I need to know" about a given situation, I reach for my magnifying glass and deerstalker cap. But right now I'd actually like to compare notes with you about the state of business education in this country. I majored in history and business back in college and I can tell you that I learned a lot more about how things actually work in the former program than in the latter. Case in point: on my first day on the job at an auto insurer, my new boss asked me if I knew the difference between statutory and regulatory requirements. Piece of cake, but I think I might have struggled more with the question if I'd only studied business.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
- I think you were quite wise to take history classes. Most of what I've learned about business I learned on the job. In my mid twenties, I went back to school for a couple of business courses - and the VP of my department looked at what I was taking and said "don't waste your time, you already know more than what they are teaching at that level". I actually think that someone should have to work for at least three years in the private sector before enrolling in an MBA program. If I were in your position, I would beef up in the following areas - understand business/technical writing concepts, probably the most useful coursework I took in college. Learn QA concepts such as incremental improvement (Japanese kaizen is an example) - QA is not just testing, but constantly evaluating and improving processes. Pick up tech skills that are useful to your line of work. Learn cultural business norms in other countries.— db_cooper
- "I thought everyone here was freaking out about deficits?" - it is really very simple. If all of the taxes a business must pay (whatever type they are)are too much, no job is created. Revenue to the government = 0. Reduce taxes, a business can afford to higher someone, Revenue to the government magically increases!— Mirror
- Too simple by half, Mirror. The logical extension of your position is to eliminate taxes entirely. Lots of jobs are created, revenue to the government = 0. After a decade or so, the Chinese launch an invasion, push aside our ill-trained and poorly-armed militias, introduce a stimulus plan to put us all to work repairing our collapsed infrastructure, and send any dissenters to reeducation camps in Alaska. Or they keep it clean and just call in our debts to them, which by that time would be about, oh, $50 trillion or so. Or, we accept that there's a balance to be observed between taxation and government spending on the one side and the supply of capital to private enterprise on the other.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
- Actually, db, I liked the history stuff so much that I decided to become a historian. Strangely enough, though, I found that I wouldn't be half the historian that I hope I am without my business experience. You'd be surprised how many Excel spreadsheets I've created in my new job.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
- "After a decade or so, the Chinese launch an invasion, push aside our ill-trained and poorly-armed militias," That didn't work out so well for England.— RG
- RG: In the words of General Pershing, "Lafayette, we are here!" Discuss.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
- Well, I never said the US didn't have any help, if thats what you are referring to.— RG
- Fair enough, but in the no-tax scenario I'm spinning out here, we're not too likely to get help from the French. I guess we could just outsource national defense to Blackwater. But I think you get what my real point is, which is that some level of taxation is legitimate and necessary. I know that you and I would never in a million years agree on what that level is, but I am interested to see if you would concede even that modest point.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
- "But I think you get what my real point is, which is that some level of taxation is legitimate and necessary." I'm a minarchist, so I'd say that there are some services the government should provide. I'd like alot of it done on the local or state levels as well. The power of exit is easier if your local government goes bonkers.— RG
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