Are American workers vulnerable? I think so and what follows is an outline of one of our most worrisome economic problems.

In 2003, in the huge technology company where I worked, we could handle an inbound service call for around $1.10 per minute. If the same call was handled by our technicians in India, it cost the company about $.27 per minute. However, if our outsourcers in the Philippians or Indonesia handled the call it costs about $.17 per minute. Our American technicians made about $1500 to $2000 per month. In India the pay was about $250 per month and the workers were happy to get that. And, even though the working conditions there are extremely crowded and poor, the technicians there provided almost the same quality service that we were famous for here at home.

These cost differences were caused by a burgeoning worldwide labor glut. It is this worldwide labor supply glut in relation to worldwide labor demand that is causing deflation in wages and economic hardships worldwide. There are approximately 1.4 Billion Chinese and over 1 billion Indians who are hungry and desperate and willing to work for starvation wages. And, this is putting much pressure on American wages.

Advances in technology easily accommodate relocation of much of the huge US service oriented labor and manufacturing markets to other countries. It would be fiscally irresponsible if CEOs here did not take advantage of the comparative labor costs advantages they find in other countries. By moving jobs to those low cost labor markets, they maximize shareholder profit and drive competition. And, unless they look for these opportunities for their stockholders, their own jobs could be in jeopardy. If company managers were negligent in their fiscal responsibility, they would soon be out looking for another job (with many of us).

As world populations' increase and competition for jobs gets tight, the problem (especially for American workers) will get worse. American workers are vulnerable because they don't understand exactly what they are facing. Companies are scrambling to export American jobs overseas, because if they don't they won't be able to compete or continue to exist.

Manufacturing is shutting down here, because goods can be produced in India and China, etc. for a fraction of the cost that they can be produced here. So, all those blue collar factory workers that were making $20 pre hour + benefits here have found that their jobs have been lost forever to some

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