Public Blowback

Let's face it, most people just do not like the idea of cutthroat capitalism. While believing that there is a need to be competitive and to be efficient and cost-effective producers, we don't really subscribe to the cutthroat competition that seeks to undercut competitors.

That, of course, is how we think and believe expresses our values on the theoretical side. It does not necessarily result in our thinking through to the reality of how competitive pricing of finished goods or services for example, are effected to meet our expectations of lower consumer costs.

But when the issue is put up front and centre as it has been with the revelation that RBC has prepared to lower its costs and make even greater financial gains thereby, by the expedient of moving jobs offshore, then we begin to understand the process. And we do not, emphatically DO NOT appreciate the process.

It is, in its larger sense, not usefully practical to the larger element of employment within the country that uses the goods and services. In this instance, services. Of course, those loyal customers and long-time clients of RBC have the option of informing its shareholders of their umbrage by leaving its services and heading elsewhere.

If enough people took that action in reflection of their dudgeon at the newly-released information that the financial institution plans to cut Canadian jobs and hand them over to lower-wage Indian workers whom the Canadian workers set to lose those positions will be training, the message would come through loud and clear.

Some people have obviously taken that track, to register their disappointment and regret at this action.

It's not as though RBC, as has been pointed out, is in dire financial straits. Canadian banks, and this one in particular, have realized whopping huge profits and earnings for their shareholders. The riveting need to lower costs and produce even greater profits eludes most reasonable people, ordinary people, not the shareholders and economists who are applauding the move as a good business venture.

Aside from the unfairness of abandoning even greater numbers of Canadian employees to the unemployment rolls, there is the issue of customer irritation when calls are automatically plugged through to respondents whose command of English is less than stellar, resulting in monumental irritation on the part of those attempting to retrieve needed information.

Canadians obviously do not begrudge India the prospect of increased employment. But when that increased employment for Indian workers depends on decreased opportunities to maintain employment for Canadian workers, and the standards of services suffer as well, then the formula clearly is not workable.