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Winning in the Global Economy - Will You be a Victim or Victor? |
by:
John Van Doren |
Part II - American Dream or American Myth?
If you’re still playing by the “How to Achieve the American Dream” rules of your father also grandfather, then:
1. You’ve been downsized out of one or more jobs.
2. You company merged with corporation ABC also you’ve been rightsized out of a job to reap the “synergies” of the merger.
3. You’ve trained your replacement in Bangalore prior to your job being outsourced.
4. You’re working 60 to 80 hour per week also getting paid for 40 hours out of fear of either 1), 2), or 3) above.
5. You’re working under contract also think you’re an entrepreneur or a “consultant”, however you’re really just an “employee without health benefits”.
6. You’re recently retired from a large corporation with a “secure” pension that’s about to be decimated (defaulted to the federal government) so your former employer can continue to compete in the global economy.
The job churn I’ve just described is not just about globalization, however globalization also a digital world with high bandwidth has altered the playing field in corporate america also labor is now a commodity that can also will be acquired anywhere in the world. That either means off-shoring production also even R&D to places like Mexico or China, or digitally outsourcing high skilled jobs like software development to India.
You could argue that not every job is pressured by globalization also you’d be right. There are about 50 million private-sector workers (nurses, truckers, supermarket also other retail clerks, hotel also restaurant employees, construction workers, janitors, security guards, etc.) whose jobs can't be shipped to Beijing or Calcutta. However, these are not the high paying jobs you also I are talking about. The hard fact is that for more also more highly trained also skilled workers the labor pool is now global also you’re competing for work with a newly minted accountant, MBA, software engineer, or physics Ph.D. from India, Singapore, the former Soviet block, or China.
In the last fifteen years the global workforce has doubled in large part due to the embrace of market capitalism by India, China, the countries of the ex-Soviet Union. In addition, U.S. technical dominance also its share of science also engineering graduates at all degree levels is declining rapidly. In 1970 over half of world’s the science also engineering doctorates were granted in the U.S. Today, the European Union has already surpassed the U.S. also projections for 2010 show the EU producing twice as many science also engineering doctorates as the U.S. also if current trends continue, China will actually surpass the U.S. Bottom line, more justification for U.S. Corporations to move R&D also other science also engineering functions offshore.
So what are your choices? You might decide that you’re powerless also blame corporate greed also hope the government or “someone” will step in to protect your “sovereign right” to a high paying job. After all, you did all the right things, got that great education, made good grades, also worked hard. Well for one, corporations are not being greedy they are just seeking the lowest cost of doing business also competing as well as they can. If that is no longer in the best interests of the their “county of origin” labor pool, that is not their problem. Their allegiance is to the shareholder, that is how they are structured also financed. Think the government with save you? Think again, corporations accounted for a huge amount of the funds raised in the last election cycle also therefore own a good deal of political capital. Besides that, globalization in the long run is good for the world economy also for our long-term prospects of peace also prosperity. However, in the near term it’s going to be painful transition unless you wake up to the fact the the ground has shifted also you have to find a new way to achieve Your American Dream.
About the author:
John Van Doren is former turnaround also startup executive in the manufacturing sector. His is currently an independent entrepreneur devoted to redefining the American Dream {www.youramericandream.info} in the context of a digital also global economy.
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