Chickens Coming Home to Roost

I feel reality impacting here!
--Tune in Tomorrow (1990)

Ask not what America can do for you,
but what together we can do
for the freedom of man
--John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address
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In Wild, Wild Midwest (5.25.11), RAW opined on the imminent slide of the U.S. towards Third World status. That piece looked at how German production giant BMW is using Americans as cheaper workers in their factories.

Today, Indian companies are outsourcing their call center help stations to the U.S. for the same reason: cheap labor (As Indian companies grow in the U.S., outsourcing comes home). It is the perfect Möbius strip in a world marching towards a leveling beat. It will be a rude wake-up for a profligate U.S.

The WaPo article featured Mumbai-based company Aegis Communications' practice of “near-sourcing,” sometimes called “diverse shoring” or the politically dodgy, “cross-shoring”. Aegis offers some workers the opportunity to train in Goa or Bangalore, India, for a stint:

"Essar and Aegis, however, want to step up the cross-sharing this year, shuffling dozens of U.S. Aegis employees to Goa and Bangalore in India to help handle large U.S. government contracts. Aegis executives say the cross-continent exchange will help India’s call centers keep up during peak Medicare enrollment season and aid the company’s cross-cultural efforts."

"One Indian-born manager said he thinks that the U.S. standard of living has spoiled Americans and that they take less pride in their work. In other words, he says, they are lazy."

Cultural exchange from the perspective of a 2 x 4' cubicle . . . how will the Indians react to our "dress-down" days? Will they begin schlepping to KFC in Hello Kitty pyjama pants? Will a new Dilbert series emerge?

Only the Shadow knows.