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Drooling on the Pillow

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

You Want Nan With That? 

Garth, at America's Outback, muses on a proposed hike in New Mexico's minimum wage that would jump labor costs for some businesses as much as 40%.

Here's what caught my eye, though:

Did you know that at an increasing number of fast food
joints, when you drive up to the microphone to place your
order, it has become cheaper to send your voice elsewhere
and then send the order back, than to have someone
actually take the order there on the spot? They already
send some from some parts of the country to Colorado:
How long before we send them to India? Wouldn’t it be
a hoot if this bill sent our Sonic orders over to, say, Texas
for processing?
It's true.

Which sort of poses the question, are there nooks and cranies of the service industry which are, for cultural reasons, so inaccessible to your average Indian as to render outsourcing impossible? The information hot-line for the Brahma Bull Riding Association might be one. I'd say suicide hot lines, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone's tried it. They tried outsourcing the word processing department at my law firm to India and, I'm pleased to say, it was a complete disaster.

Read the whole thing, though. It's an intelligent and, to my mind, even-handed discussion of the minimum wage issue.
Posted by: Sluggo / 11:20 AM
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