Comparing Two Essays from The Reader by James McDonald

Thesis Statement

An innovative composition of rhetoric and readings in a magazine format, The Reader urges students to ask questions as they read, write, and research about timeless topics and contemporary perspectives presented in a wide range of genres.

Synthesis of High-tech Jobs are Going Abroad but that's ok

Not so good is the news that high-tech jobs have not come back, at least not so far. Jobs in America's sprawling information-technology (or IT, as it known in the info world) sector -- including everything from software research, design and development to computer engineering -- are down 20 percent from late 2000. The ostensible reason: to make sure more high-tech jobs go to Americans. Bills are pending in several state legislatures barring state government projects from using offshore high-tech workers (McDonalds, 310). High-tech workers are organizing against foreign outsourcing.

By the end of 2004, 10 percent of all information-technology jobs at American IT companies and 5 percent in non-IT companies will move offshore, according to Gartner Co., a research and analysis firm that specializes in high- technology trends. American companies are under intense pressure to reduce costs, and foreigners can do a lot of high-tech jobs more cheaply than they can be done here. First, the number of high-tech jobs outsourced abroad still accounts for a tiny proportion of America's 10-million-strong IT workforce.

Second, even as the number of outsourced jobs increases, the overall percent of high-tech jobs going abroad is likely to remain relatively small. Outsourcing also poses quality-control problems. As smart U.S. companies outsource their more standard high-tech work, they're simultaneously shifting their in-house IT employees to more innovative, higher value-added functions, such as invention, creation, integration, key R&D and basic architecture. The third and most basic reason why high-tech work won't shift abroad is that high technology isn't a sector like manufacturing or an industry like telecommunications. High-tech work entails the process of innovating. There's no necessary limit to the number of high-tech jobs around the world because there's no finite limit to the ingenuity of the human mind.

Why the New Jobs to Immigrants

Ever think about what happens to people when they loose their job? Where do they go? What do they do? How do they provide for their family? These are everyday facts about unemployment, one of the largest measuring sticks for an economy. Before you can answer any of these questions we ...