26scarab

Lately I have been really stressed about my job and the future of it. And when I say future I mean future of the proffesion.
I'm a Product Designer for plastic injection molded automotive components. I've done underhood parts and currently interior and exterior parts.
I love my job and would like to do it until I retire but lately alot of companies have been outsourcing work overseas because it is cheaper. My company currently outsources 30% of our work to India. Well the product we get back is garbage and usually has to be redone BUT to the suits it looks like it was a cost save. More and more companies are doing this , well it doesn't make sense. Send the work overseas and layoff the current staff . Well aren't the people that are jobless the very people that the companies intend on selling these products to ? How can you buy a new car when your layed off ? It doesn't make sense.
The thing I'm worried about is when these overseas companies actually can produce a quality part then what happens to the job market here?
I think I'm going to go back to school and try to learn something else although I don't know what.
I'm just sick of the roller coaster ride of the auto industry. Sometimes I wish I wouldn't have learned a skilled trade. My friend works at UPS and pretty much never has to worry about if he will lose his job.
Does anyone else feel this way or am I just panicing (sp) because the economy is down?
I'm done ranting now ,it's time to start looking at what programs are offered at the local college.

rws

iTrader: (3)

I work for what used to be a high end cookware manufacturer now since were were sold out to a big holding company.It is China made goods at high end American Made prices!Outsource is the buzz word of choice .Hell they created a whole new department just to do that.I think that once consumers figure it out sales will plumet and that will be it.Like you said who is going to buy all of this imported stuff?If they can sell an equal amount of American goods back to China and India then great .But I dont think that is going to happen.

26scarab

Gottahaveit,

Yes ,us Americans want high wages but the cost of living has become so high, it is a viscious circle that really can't end.
There has to be some way to control these out of hand companies, I just read the article on the demise of Detroit Center Tool. A direct quote from one of there accountants " when it came time to pay a vendor we told them we will give you this much or nothing" Basically they expected to steal from these vendors and if they went out of business then on to the next one.
Now if I told my mortage company that they would kick me out of the F^%king house !
We are eventually going to lose the middle class person and we will be just like all the other third world coutries, were there are the rich and the poor.
sorry for all the doom and gloom !

Chart

GottaHaveIt:

I respectfully disagree with you. I don't want the govt. trying to fix this. They don't have a real good track record. Consumers can vote with their dollars. If this is important enough to enough consumers, then we can make our venders (the businesses) respect our wishes. Let's not ask the government to fix what we should be fixing ourselves. That is not what made America great.

Chart

Budman

Don't go into the computer software industry. The same thing is happening here. I have been a contractor for Ford for six years now. In the last three years, almost all of the contractors that have been hired were from India. India is becoming the software counterpart to Japan in the auto industry. I personally don't have anything against the Indians with whom I work - most of them are very friendly, and they're just trying to make a better life for themselves like everyone else. But they are also willing to work for a fraction of the traditional hourly rate, which drives the wages down for everyone. Most of the permanent Ford employees whom I work with started out as agency employees, and were eventually hired on permanently by Ford. Today the chances of an agency employee being hired on permanently is pretty slim. Ford was actually considering outsourcing their entire IS department. A lot of "old timers" left, and when they left they took their business knowledge with them. Since then, there has been a trend to try to reverse that line of thinking and try to retain their knowledge base, but it may be too little-too late.

In some ways, middle class America can share some of the blame for the outsourcing. Since the stock market boom, many middle class Americans have invested in stocks through mutual funds, 401K's, etc. We all expect our investments to earn healthy returns, and this puts pressure on corporations to earn more profits, which leads to cost cutting to support the bottom line. It is a never-ending viscous cycle.

No easy solutons here.

Coddigtion

WalMart and Home Depot have been doing this for years. The Home Depot people used to have a sign in their purchasing departmant stating a target number of small companies to put out of buisness this year!

It is sad that some companies get the way that WalMart and Home Depot do, but that is how they do buisness. Just ask any of the vendors for either. We were doing buisness with WalMart a few years ago, after they our product won the functionality test, they took it apart and figured out what it cost to build it and told us that they would pay x, this amount was almost exactly what they figured it cost us to build it. And they were wrong wtih that!

Cheers

SummerObsession

Chart:
AMEN! I am in the agriculture business (cattle feeding) as well as farming. It is painfully obvious to look at the two businesses and see the results of government intervention. The cattle business is (so far) still free market based. The price of cattle has risen steadily on the average over the last twenty years just as everything else has, although not always to the same degree. However is is still a supply/demand driven price discovery system.
Farm markets have virtually stood still. Why? Our U.S. government is paying millionjs of dollars every year to subsidize our prices, therefore basically establishing a flat market.
This is of course, the very abridged version, but the point is, never let the government replace a free market system, it may be painful short term, but in the long run, the free market will always prevail.
Sorrry for rambling.

vtec

26scarab:

I'm a contract product designer in warren, so I understand your pain. Hopefully the marketplace will turnaround soon.


vtec

Rambunctious

26scarab

you are doing the right thing by controlling your destiny....and considering what you have to do for yourself. Many in the Detroit area have the mentality that the man Owes them, next thing they know, they are out of a job with no skills.

I worked in Detroit area for 6 years and then moved back to the great west michigan.

do you work for a contract house now? or direct.
how about take a job with Plastech and and have lots of work to do here in west michigan where i work ( the "Prince" Culture still exists here if you know the interiors industry.... you know what i am talking about)

leave the 12foot deep swamp of lake siltclare and ride the rough water with me, waterfoul, and donzimitch to name afew.

32fever

UH????????????????????

White man is razy?

and wants outlandish money to do a job.....and my new Dodge Truck and Yukon aren't made in the US that I bought using my $.05 per hour job like the Chinese make?

Bottom line is this folks. Stuff will keep being moved overseas because companies cut costs so those that own them or make those decisions can make more (don't blame them) to buy toys like boats, new trucks, etc. cause those costskeep going up faster than wages. The only thing that will stop things going overseas is when the people in those countries revolt and form unions and demand higher wages, or the govt uses tariffs, which I doubt, cause it won't help the growth of a global economy. And once big corporate players get in it, it's hard to change, they have lots of influence.

My advice 26scarab? Start a business using what you know now and broaden your horizons into more than just the auto industry.

Make us a 900hp reliable marine engine that gets 50 mpg.

Mark