Good article about real cost of outsourcing

[ITWhore]

www.businessweek.com/maga...tion=link1

The Real Cost Of Offshoring

U.S. data show that moving jobs overseas hasn't hurt the economy. Here's why those stats are wrong

(registration is free)

[pm4hire]

where I am at today includes raparound costs I assume.  So,
the offshore company is billing less than $50 p/h.

[I D Shukhov]

How those deceptive numbers creep in:

www.businessweek.com/maga...039006.htm

It's difficult to understand, but it underpins the article.  

Apparently we're being mislead about our supposed productivity growth.

Where's the damned channel changer?  

[I D Shukhov]

[David Cressey]

IDS,

It sure was difficult ffor me to follow.  I'll have to try reading it again.  But it illustrates a real problem for statisticians who want to know the "real value"  of anything.

In a free market,  goods and services have no intrinsic "real value".  The value in exchange can be determined by knowing the sale price.  But that doesn't really tell you what the "real value" of the product is to either the buyer or the seller.  

In another thread,  the comment was,  "I think those perverts charge whatever they think they can get away with."

 

[I D Shukhov]

I think that production is gotten at by tracking consumption  and prices over the years.  

Foreign-made items show up costing less -- they're consumed, but have no relevance to what is produced domestically.
 
What I didn't get is why the BLS can't separate out consumption of foreign items and domestic.  Surely they know that no consumer electronics are made in the U.S. so production of these has to be zero.

I've been thinking lately about when you hear on the news: "consumer spending is up".  So what?  It just means that more debt is being incurred and more money being transferred to Asia.

[pm4hire]

these are typically administrative costs for managing the
vendor, so that the invoice from the vendor may read $40
p/h but the amount that gets charged back to the
department for the actual work done is $50 p/h in this case.

[David Randolph]

No matter what the "goods" or "services" are, none of them have a true intrinsic value. They have only a commonly accepted value for today. As a technical person, that was a hard concept for me to accept. I wanted fixed values for things.

The proof? Try to sell those goods or services in a market place that was just bombed. The values suddenly changed.

That means that how I market things affect the value.

[David Cressey]

Quote:I've been thinking lately about when you hear on the news: "consumer spending is up". So what? It just means that more debt is being incurred and more money being transferred to Asia.

I've been thinking lately about another thing you hear on the news:  "consumer confidence is up".  I translate that as meaning that people are more willing to borrow money in order to spend.  I don't believe it's really based on expectations of rising income.  

[The Original Dinosaur]

The price of crude is up, which raises the costs of producing and transporting to market all commodities.

Then the 535 brain donors mandate huge increases in ethanol output, so the price of corn is through the roof, which raises the costs of commodities which feed on corn, like corn syrup, chickens and beef cattle.

[TRexx]

Quote:I've been thinking lately about another thing you hear on the news: "consumer confidence is up". I translate that as meaning that people are more willing to borrow money in order to spend. I don't believe it's really based on expectations of rising income.

Most of the people I know, especially those I work with, gave up on expectations of a rising income a long time ago.  Now they are betting on the odds of keeping their current job or their ability to find a replacement job that doesn't require too much of a reduction in their standard of living.