[gameprogrammer] Re: PC game Outsourcing
- From: Bob Pendleton <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Gameprogrammer Mailing List <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 07:49:13 -0500
On Wed, 2004-04-28 at 00:48, Alexander Whaley wrote:
> regarding the main thread...
>
> Looks like we have a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue here... Yep, would
> be nie if all good jobs were inthe US and UK, etc but, that would mean
> that other countries would not be able to buy the products, not only
> because they are relatively (here used in terms of exchange rates and
> salaries) expensive, but also because as long as all the jobs are in a
> relative minority, the majority of the world will not be able to afford
> them (ie no job, no money, no sales, more people get retrenched, no job,
> no money, etc).
Exactly!
>
> Apart from that, rather than using a limited set of arguments to make a
> point, perhaps, the correct thing to do would be to vote for the US
> candidate who wishes to slash the subsidies (or related perks) to
> American companies who outsource their workforce to other countries.
> That makes sense doesn't it? Can't play both sides of the fence.
> (apologies if my understanding of the politics is a bit off, I haven't
> seen any US news in 3 weeks as we had our own election to cover).
It would make sense. And I plan to do just that. But, the US is a member
of the WTO and NAFTA and both of those treaties restrict what we can do
along those lines. Removing subsidies and tax laws that help companies
move jobs to other countries are legal. Penalizing companies for doing
it are not.
Living in Texas I get to see how outsourcing first helped, and now is
killing, Mexico. (Mexico is Texas's largest trading partner.) First,
because of NAFTA, a lot of US jobs moved to Mexico. Now those jobs are
moving across the pacific. I'm pretty sure it is hurting them more than
it is hurting us.
>
> Seriously, this was bound to happen, just look at
> Bollywood/Hollywood.... The one is best known in the West, the other on
> has more viewers (according to the local news). So, what does a good
> movie producer need nowadays? A lot of special effects, done by
> computers, so we need to have programers, local is always better, so we
> now will have a big computer industry in India.... Nice, now they can
> make games too because they know how.
Exactly!
>
> Byb the way, is Nintendo an American company? I thought that it came out
> of the East? (could be a mistake on my part). But if so, does it mean
> that it cannot hire companies based in the East to make their games? And
> if so, should those companies be limited to only those games?
IIRC: No, and Yes. It is a Japanese company that does business in the US
through a subsidiary US corporation. They do content deals with anyone
anywere.
>
> Another way to look at it is: some companies are based in a US state (eg
> Nevada) because their company-taxes are better. BUT, the actual plant is
> in another state (eg Texas) because the workforce is slightly cheaper
> and/or the land-taxes are better. Is it right? Or should each state now
> complain about outsourcing?
They can and they do! Most major use corporations are actually
incorporated in Delaware because it has the friendliest corporate laws.
The difference between US states and sovereign nations is that only the
US federal government is allowed to create laws governing interstate
commerce. So, the states can compete by creating good environments for
business, but not by setting up tariffs. It works pretty well.
The WTO is set up to do pretty much the same thing for sovereign
nations. It is starting to work, and that is one of the reasons we see
so many jobs moving out of the US.
Considering that the US pushed so hard for the WTO and NAFTA we haven't
shown much interest in actually obeying those treaties. Ask Mexico and
Canada about how well the US has kept its promises about Interstate
Highway 35, the so called "NAFTA Highway". The slow action, inaction, is
mostly the results of the I35 states fighting to keep I35 from actually
carrying trucks from Mexico to Canada.
>
> Ok that is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but for a country that boasts of
> freedom, democracy and capitalism, now you don't want CEOs to make money
> or to have the right to choose where to send the work?
HeHe... Alexander, there is a lot of difference between believing
something and going hungry.
A lot of people in the US who were making a good living are now lining
up for handouts. And, since the US has no public health insurance a lot
of people are not only starting to go hungry, they are dying from lack
of health care.
It is always this way.
Anyway, there are a lot of people in the US who do *not* support extreme
capitalism and never have. Not to mention that the US is not, has never
been, and with any luck will never be a democracy. We are and always
have been a republic. And not just a republic, but one that has
representation for the states as well as for the people.
>
> Besides all of this, I am happy to report that South Africa has at least
> 2 game companies (that I know of). They are running several magazine
> based tutorials on how to make games (platform based). One of the 2
> studios has even released a game called: "The tainted". It seemed to do
> OK here. But that could have been the pricing.... But now what happens
> if they want to sell in Europe or the US? Can they approach a bigger
> company to sell their software, ie Atari? Or is that bad?
Or, they can just sell it here. We can't legally stop them. At least not
if South Africa is a member of the WTO.
>
> By the way, from an environmental analytical chemist the statement of
> "relatively low pollution" is fascinating. It all depends on how you
> look at the data.
Yeah, that is a good one. Texas gets a bad rap for the amount of
pollution generated in the state. But, then Texas is the second biggest
state in land area and second by population so when you compare
pollution per square area or pollution per capita we have very low
pollution.
All in the way you look at the data.
Bob Pendleton
--
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+ Bob Pendleton: writer and programmer +
+ email: Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx +
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