Does Outsourcing Jobs Affect the Traditional Way of Life in Developing Countries?

Long gone are the days of our grandparents when one could get a "good" job, with a solid company, stay there until retirement, collect a decent pension, and receive life-long medical benefits. Gone are the days where you knew that your company was not going to let you go, at a moment's notice, and replace you with someone else half-way around the globe. Gone are the days where doing well at your job was enough to keep your job securely yours until you were ready to retire.

With the "global economy" U.S. workers must compete with people in countries where with very little income one can support themselves and their family. It is impossible for someone in the U.S. to compete with this low cost of living; it just plain costs more to live here than in other parts of the world.

From a corporate perspective, I can completely understand what makes companies want to outsource to countries like India. The company doesn't have to deal with all of the employment laws here in the U.S., there is no need to pay taxes, Social Security, medical insurance, or even a decent wage (decent by U.S. standards) to these workers. When a company moves it's operations into a country such as India they have a seemingly limitless supply of highly educated people who are both willing and can afford to work for much less compensation. Where the bottom-line is concerned, outsourcing looks pretty good on paper and we can't really blame the U.S. companies for attempting to make it work.

We see the effect on the global economy here in the U.S. We see more low paying jobs being created and many of our more traditional middle class type jobs being outsourced. We buy cheap goods that come from countries like China, where the cost to produce them is very low.

The one thing that we don't generally stop and think about though is what this global economy looks like from the other side of the equation. If I am a citizen in India, is that job really a good thing for my life, for my family, for my country?

I understand there is a growing concern in developing countries where people are working for U.S. companies. When it is the normal nine-to-five workday here in the states, it is the middle of the night in India. This means that if you work for a U.S. call center in India you work all night. You may also be forced to work weekends and holidays where a more traditional "local" job would not have required you to. This can, and clearly does, lead to a break-down in the traditional way of life.

As more and more people go into the workforce it seems like the cost of living and standard of living rises. This causes people to work more and tends to make two-income families more of a necessity than a choice. This has clearly led to a decline in the way of life and family values here in the U.S. I can't help but wonder if we are perpetuating our own negative lifestyle changes in other countries by moving jobs there?