America’s economic engine is compromised. Forces at work over the last 30 years have sapped our nation’s vitality. How did it happen?

Who are these managers, so eager to move work, eliminate jobs and close U.S. facilities? They are not the inventors, product designers, engineers and production specialists whose collective efforts built America’s economic base. Nor are they the investors who provided the capital.

It appears that our economy is in the grip of the “Me” generation. Men and women who are conditioned to manipulate the system and navigate their way to positions of influence. Accountants, salesmen and deal makers; very far removed from the factory floor.

Show a profit; short term will do, and move up. Keep the plates spinning, and move up. When something goes wrong, keep your head down, and move up. Keep moving up and up, and don’t look down. Work moved, and jobs and homes lost. Who cares? When the bubble bursts, bail out and hope for a soft landing. And, by today’s standards, that is what is called a job well done!

[Post 13 of 21]

America’s economic engine is compromised. Forces at work over the last 30 years have sapped our nation’s vitality. How did it happen?

The frenzy of activity to source products from foreign factories gained mass and velocity through the 1990s and into the 2000s. First no-tech and low-tech products, then services, and finally high-tech products and services. The practice of outsourcing gained respectability and attracted legions of global sourcing specialists.

Today global sourcing is thought of by its practitioners as an “industry” unto itself. There are the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, the Sourcing Interests Group and the Global Sourcing Council, to name a few of the organizations whose mission is to promote the movement of work from the United States to other countries.

It is an industry that works hard, every day, to take work and jobs out of America’s economic base. And yet, these global sourcing specialists are not solely to blame. They are merely agents of change; complicit with the managers of the clients they serve.

[Post 12 of 21]

America’s economic engine is compromised. Forces at work over the last 30 years have sapped our nation’s vitality. How did it happen?

“Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match . . . .”

America’s infatuation with global outsourcing was not love at first sight. It began as if a few scattered drops of rain . . . and then more and more, and then everywhere. At first a trickle, then streams and finally rivers flowing toward the sea . . . creating an outgoing tide toward foreign lands.

It started with a wholesale distributor looking for a less expensive product to sell, who found K. Bo Sang in So. Korea, who found a manufacturer eager to add a new product technology to their factory.

It started with a manufacturer wanting to add a product at the low end of its range, who found Joe N. in Chicago, who contacted a manufacturer in Taiwan.

It started with a manufacturer looking for products to broaden its product line, who found Richard R., an expatriate American, in Hong Kong, who contacted a manufacturer in Kowloon.

BS, Joe and Richard did quite well, putting U.S. companies in touch with foreign suppliers. They helped customers transfer technology and arranged logistics. They booked the orders and were paid . . . perhaps on both ends of the transaction.

They were not alone . . . and soon there was blood in the water. Long hours, but it was easy work . . . everyone wanted help in finding lower cost sources for what they themselves were making. And foreign companies and foreign governments were equally eager to sell at any price; so long as they got the business.

[Post 11 of 21]