Outsourced

So, I watched a film yesterday called Outsourced. It was about a guy whose job is outsourced to India. He is then charged with training the people that are going to be replacing his fellow employers. In going to India to "teach America" to the new workers, he also learns a great deal about India. At the end of the movie, his boss tells him that the Indian workers' jobs are going to be outsourced again to China, and that he'll be heading there to train them in the same way that he trained the Indians. He quits his job and goes back to the US.

There were several things that were very obvious about the message of this movie. One point was that while economic globalization may seem very easy to orchestrate, cultural globalization is trailing behind, and also slowing down economic globalization at least a little bit. Another point was that economic globalization does not necessarily care about cultural globalization beyond how it effects the financial end of things. And the last bit I pulled out was that economic globalization is not benefiting everyone.

Clearly, this movie was not created by globalists. They portrayed outsourcing as semi-absurd, emphasizing how culture can get in the way by basing the movie on a company that sells patriotic American kitch. They showed further personal culture clashes for the main character through his hunt for a cheeseburger, his lack awareness of the celebration of Holi, and further ignorance of marriage and social customs. And they painted the face of globalism as a money-mad boss, looking to get 22 heads for the price of 1, no matter who they are and what hours they will have to work to cooperate with the USA.

Beyond the actual message of the movie, I found it interesting to think that globalization has grown into such a big issue as to become the theme of a comedy for the entertainment industry. I think this is probably due to the popularity of globalism in the past, which is ironic given the stand that the movie producers took.

Not much more to say on that, this was just a casual curiosity and commentary.