Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
I think it's just capitalism. It's not only driven by the profit motive of executives, which it obviously is, but I think equally by consumers demanding lower and lower prices.
I marvel at how the market has changed in the 20 years I've been operating my business. I'm not really a greedy type of guy and I held out years longer than made business sense before outsourcing some of my manufacturing to China, but ultimately, my customers just wanted lower and lower prices and didn't give one. single. fata. about "Canadian-made" "buying local" "supporting Calgary jobs" etc. I don't even blame them...who doesn't want the best price?
There are only so many levers a business can pull to give people what they want at the prices they want. Out-sourcing isn't just about fat cats wanting to enrich themselves; you can stand on your principles for only so long until you're a principled guy with a shuttered business.
On the executive side of things, the cat's out of the bag on outsourcing white-collar jobs. There's no way it isn't already happening and I'm not sure how much it slows down - and it definitely won't stop - if people go back into the office.
Just look at Ducay's sentiments. That's the type of guy in leadership at a lot of these companies. He doesn't give a fata if working from home gives you a better life. Probably is offended at the notion of you throwing in a load of laundry before your Teams meeting starts. Whether you're in the office or not won't make him value you more. If there's a cheaper option for labour they'll gravitate towards it. At first it'll be for a competitive advantage, but once that ball is rolling down the hill (and I think it already is) every company will be outsourcing everything they can just to stay competitive. That is, there will be no advantage to doing it; only disadvantage to not doing it.
As a consumer, are you going to buy widgets from iggie_oi's at a premium because he's paying more in labour for WFH Calgarians, or would you rather buy the same widget from Ducay because they're less expensive due to him outsourcing labour? You'll all buy Ducay's, don't lie.
So in the meantime, I think people should enjoy WFH to the extent they can. You're not going to win this battle either way, so you should get what you can out of it while you can.
|
Individuals going for the cheaper option isn’t a rebuttal to anything I’ve said. You won’t find me blaming an individual for buying what they can afford. Life’s hard.
I don’t understand the almost gleeful mentality of “fine, good luck on the unemployment line! We can find cheap labour overseas!”. Keeping rampant capitalism in check is the job of our governments. Not individual buying decisions.