It’s the city not the animal. Buffalo is a city in upstate New York. I have been there and it is quite a nice place to live. So if you are thinking that it would be different from Bangalore, then don’t worry. Because it will not be. May be a little colder. Instead of traveling to Chennai or Coorg, you can go see Niagara falls or slip in to Canada. Start packing.
No wait. That’s not what Obama meant ! He actually meant stopping jobs going to Bangalore. Now that’s a real problem. Nasscom realizes it. But, Infosys as usual played the it doesn’t affect me card. Well, nothing affects Infosys not the Satyam scandal and not even the recession. But, I am not that naive.
I think it affects me directly. In fact it affects the 2.2. million IT population, the real estate developers who have insane valuations for the flats they built, the cab drivers who ferry the employees, the AC buses who ferry the employees, the house owners who charge exorbitant rents to pay their own EMI’s and the groom’s who are betting high on the dowry package. May be even a greater population but, you get the point.
“We will stop letting American companies that create jobs overseas take deductions on their expenses when they do not pay any American taxes on their profits,” Obama said at White House announcing the international tax policy reform.
“We will use the savings to give tax cuts to companies that are investing in research and development here at home so that we can jump start job creation, foster innovation, and enhance America’s competitiveness,” Obama said. (PTI)
Isn’t it ironic that the it is called as a tax policy reform instead of just tax policy. This is the biggest oxymoron I have heard since “Microsoft Works” which dwarfs Google’s slogan of “Do No Evil”.
Will Obama have his way?
He works for the government or he is the government so he will have his way. Remember George W. Bush and Iraq War? This actually makes a sense from an American economy perspective in 2 ways. Two things. It creates jobs in America and Obama has kept his election promise – which gives a second term to Obama. (Habits of highly effective people alert – Begin with the end in mind)
Companies most effected : IBM, Accenture, HP et.al.
Is this discouraging and divisive? Absolutely.
What is your optimistic view about it?
I am glad you asked. This can be counter-productive. The penalty chosen by Obama is monetary. So if the companies have to pay more tax, they will look for ways to avoid it or look for ways to increase the revenue. Avoiding tax is not something which a resolute Obama will allow.
The companies in question might outsource more to earn more to counter the new tax regime. Or as Obama likes it “International tax regime”. If the companies chose to outsource more after crunching their numbers, that would actually be counter-productive. Wouldn’t it?
PS : In this story Boy George is Barack Obama not Joy Battacharya.
Comments
Shedding a tear man? I can see those big droplets falling off your face. What the heck did you expect? That we could continue taking jobs away from people and they would let their governments do it? No way! This was inevitable, and it has actually happened later than I expected, and you know what, you haven’t seen the worse of it yet.
So what do you do except shedding a tear? Don’t worry man. Work hard. Be at it. If you wanna make it in this world you don’t need to be the cheapest, you need to the best and that’s what Indians will do next.
So keep watching, and don’t shed no tears.
Dear Trackin readers,
One who qualifies for the job should get the job, no matter one is in China or India or US. If a company does not get the required task force in her nation then it should definitely outsource. But what if people are available in house? If a US company on US soil gets qualified people in US then it owes them a job first and not any outsourcing because it is called a ‘US company’, not Chinese or Indian. In fact it should be done by every nation. No Indian jobs for US people and no US jobs for Chinese unless the ‘qualified bank’ runs out. How fair it is to ask Indian share in US cake when already ‘qualified’ US people remain deprived of it!! Is it because they do not raise family’s like Indians or Chinese do?
Let us not be that selfish, it is not a question if the Obama tax regime will help or not, it is a question should we eat into one nation’s employment cake keeping that nations people unemployed? Think what will you feel as an Indian if Indian jobs are sent overseas by an Indian company just because overseas the company has to pay fewer salaries. This can be OK if Indians kick that company out of their country and let it do whatever it wishes to do on any other land. If IBM finds India more useful then why not to plant whole of the IBM in India for Indians and throw it out of US because it is of no use to US ‘qualified bank’.
Let us not think that now India has been over populated with billions and trillions people so India has right for outsourced jobs from US because India cannot generate enough IT employment in house for 2.2 million ITians. India should have thought about population explosion and its consequences 30-40 years ago!! But it did not as it remained busy in making laws and forgot implementing them. And now if Obama is standing out for his unemployed people and their economy, we are calling his actions discouraging and divisive.
Let us stop stealing other’s shares. Ask Indian Govt. to stop fighting over useless and selfish issues and create more jobs and stop depending upon this outsourcing. Give a JK youth employment in JK, keep a UPian folk in UP, then there will be no need for a local Maharashtarian to go to broad just for a couple bucks!! No one wants to see the causes because effects keep us so busy that we do not get time to think of causes and keep saying right things as discouraging and divisive!!
Why doesn’t this affect companies like infy? I didn’t understand that…
Fundamentally this will nullify some of the gains outsourcing gives to US giants…effectively pressurizing margins of companies like infy…right?
Arbitrage based on wages between countries is unsustainable and based on accountants doing spreadsheets. Most people in business know that outsourcing core functions does not work. On day, India will outsource to Australia when wages tip the other way.
Comments