To the editor:
Numbers can be so instructive, yet they do not always register on everyday lives, as most individuals are concerned with their personal survival and their family’s well-being. Then, along comes a newspaper headline that reads “Unum may outsource hundreds of tech jobs.”
The article further describes the probability that this, a “disability insurance provider,” will be laying off over 200 American internet technology workers in Portland alone. To the company, that algorithm represents only 7 percent of its Portland workforce, but to the employees earning $60,000-$80,000, it’s devastating and no different than the 500 laid off at the Bucksport paper mill.
Such layoff tactics by big companies fall within our capitalist way of doing business, which is to maximize profits, as employees are considered “costs” or expenses. The industrial model is all about reducing costs by employing cheaper IT labor from India or some other country. The other option is to just move the whole company to another country with cheap labor. Why? Because companies must compete on the international market to increase profits and satisfy their stockholders by increasing dividends.
Capitalism and profit motive systems have a developing problem, however, and it is the vast divide between employees who make $20,000 a year (McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, etc.) and the employee who makes $50,000 a week, usually the company CEO or president. Kudos to the CEO, but shame on the political system and mostly the political leaders who have allowed capitalism to get out of control. Profits are a good thing, but replacing hundreds of American workers with cheap labor from outsourced countries must be checked and that most hated word, regulated. Perhaps, in order to retain our own workers, it is time to rethink tax structures and foreign trade agreements.
A growing concern in our country is the dearth of STEM-educated students (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), as we recognize the need for such skills to maintain our position on the world stage and in the competitive market.
How cynical is it when we lay off our own, home-grown STEM employees, while at the same time encouraging our bright students to get trained in STEM courses, only to find that those jobs are not available due to maximizing profits, reducing costs, and hiring foreign-trained scientists for less wages?
For the record, this is not xenophobia, as my own children are an amalgam of Irish, Russian, Swedish, English, and German. How great is that?
