“30 Little Turtles” by Thomas Friedman is about the controversies of outsourcing, and how he believes there are more favorable positives then negatives.
Companies want to reduce all costs by as much as possible in order to gain a high profit, which is why they look at setting up bases in third world countries. I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for people who would make less money in other jobs in their country to have a better future for their families, instead of having to lead lives of drug dealing, stealing, and prostitution. The people in the countries of “India and Pakistan, view these jobs as high-wage and high-prestige jobs” (Friedman, 170), compared to North American people where these jobs are considered to be in the lower career opportunity category.
I can see how setting up companies somewhere else is disagreeable when it is argued that there are barely any jobs in our own country, and we should keep companies solely where they have started. I found it alarming that they’re teaching people with accents to hide them so when a Canadian calls, we can understand them and know that they aren’t located in North America. “The instructor was teaching the would-be Indian call center operators to suppress their native Indian accents and speak with a Canadian one” (Friedman, 176). I think its North Americanizing people too much, and it seems like they have no choice in the matter because they are presented with a job that can lead their families to a better life.
Friedman wants the reader to be open to ideas about outsourcing through examples of the proud people he has encountered excited about their jobs. He believes that this is the right way in order to “not only to be a more prosperous world, but a safer world” (Friedman, 177). Do you believe Friedman has the right idea that outsourcing is valuable to the world?
