Uncle Sam cries "Who moved My Cheese"'

By
Sonali Banerjee

“Work harder or it will be outsourced to a guy sitting in Bangalore” is what parents, not to mention the President himself, tell their kids in U.S. and quite rightly so, as is evident from the uproar outsourcing created in the US Parliament recently.

Recently, international news was dominated by the US Anti-Outsourcing Bill. The bill, which was proposed and staunchly supported by President Barack Obama himself, proposed that the companies in US which outsource their jobs to other countries were to be taxed extra. It could be seen as a form of negative incentive where companies would have to cut their outsourcing and thereby create or secure jobs for fellow American citizens. Obama presented this bill with a view to boost employment in US, which is yet recover from the hangover of the 2008 demonic recession, and lobbied hard to put an end to the tax breaks enjoyed by all the outsourcing firms. This came soon after the Nasscom delegation representing the crème de-la crème of the IT sector visited the United States.

This proposed idea created quite an atmosphere of tension and uncertainty in India Inc. which holds more than 50 percent of the global outsourcing market. Although it was expressed by Obama that the bill was not aimed at India but applied to all countries equally, none the less,it cannot be denied that the repercussions would have been strongest for our country. It was strongly opposed by the corporate sector and was not very well received by the government as well. Finance Minister Dr. Pranab Mukherjee expressed his disapproval of the bill and went on to state, even in the international media, that “such protectionist moves were unacceptable.”


And quite rightly so, as we are today living in a world of globalization and isolating an economy can prove disastrous for related economies as well. US government’s concern over diminishing employment opportunities is quite understandable but creating jobs at the cost of someone else’s daily bread and butter is not the answer that would solve the problem. Another school of thought also calls the proposition of the bill as more of a populist move on part of Barack Obama who is quickly losing all the support which led to his historic win. The same was expressed by the Republicans who effectively opposed the bill; the 53-45 defeat vote which fell short of the required 60 votes put a seal on the fate of the bill.

It cannot and should not be denied that major part of the US economy is thriving because a large chunk of youngsters in India are working graveyard shifts and doing all the number crunching and software punching which the US companies themselves willingly outsource to us. All the back office work, be it data entry for a financial firm or analyzing an X-Ray report for a medical entity, it is outsourced to India and other developing nations and people there burn the midnight oil in order to match international timings and standards. It seems that the White House is pretty clueless with regard to the reality and the American firms sensed the danger well, because the negative repercussions were as much for the Indian companies as for their American counterparts. Outsourcing is not something exclusive to the American economy, it is worldwide phenomenon practiced by all the countries and has somewhat led to a symbiotic relationship between economies.

If the point put across by US is that the bill was proposed solely with the noble aim of creating jobs for the deprived American citizens, then the Indian counter argument is that outsourcing eats up possible entrepreneurship talent and leading to some version of brain-drain where the Indian youth is expending his hard work and intelligence for foreign development. But, as pointed out earlier, in a globalized world where counties share of a symbiotic relationship and survive and thrive by following the policy of give and take, instead of snatch and keep, it is a good idea that free flow of goods, services and work takes place where there’s prosperity and mutual understanding among nations. In Spencer Johnson’s bestselling book ‘Who Moved My Cheese?, it has been described in a light hearted yet effective way that change happens but one needs to adapt themselves to those changes and go with the flow. Well, there’s no need to dedicate a book to the US government but it would not be a bad idea if US simply accepted this fact and formulated policies accordingly that would benefit its citizens and not in any manner hamper the growth and employment opportunities of the other developing nations as well.

Although the bill was effectively blocked but Democratic backers of the bill claimed that they would make the vote a campaign issue in November 2 Congressional Elections. The Republicans who vehemently opposed the bill cannot be trusted completely as they might not feel shy of playing the patriotic card and reintroduce the anti-outsourcing bill. So the sword is still hanging on the head of India Inc. and needs to keep its eyes open. Did we hear US cry again “who moved my cheese?”!