Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Outsourcing: Marital Duties Towards Sexy Wife, Outsourced To Immigrant Groundskeeper

As part of the ongoing trend toward replacing U.S. workers with foreign labor, the marital duties of United Carborundum CEO Howard Reinhardt have been outsourced to his Mexican groundskeeper, industry sources revealed Monday.

“It was time for a change,” said Reinhardt’s wife Melanie, who has been married to the CEO for 17 years and has conducted her sexual business almost exclusively with him since 1984. “While I was generally satisfied with the level of servicing that I received under Howard, it was my feeling that a younger, more aggressive hand on the tiller might bring some new ideas into play. No matter how mutually satisfying the old deal was, its time had passed.”

Although specific terms of the arrangement have not been made public, Melanie allowed that she has been “very pleased” by the new supplier—Jorge Escobedo, a 26-year-old gardener from Sierra Mojada who has been working in the U.S. since February.

“The switchover was seamless, considering how rapidly the deal was closed,” said Melanie, who initiated the informal arrangement with Escobedo on Nov. 20, while he was cleaning the equipment shed. “Well, in truth, I was considering a move in this direction for some time, and looking into possibilities. Then Jorge offered me a very attractive package, and I decided it was in my interest to act. I’ve been very pleased with his initial performance.”

Melanie said Escobedo beats her former provider in availability, reliability, and turnaround. He also requires minimal emotional investment from Melanie, who is the sole receiver of the goods under the new arrangement.

Melanie offered few details on the ins-and-outs of the deal, but she did report that the outsourcing is limited to Reinhardt’s marital duties. All previous supply arrangements with Reinhardt, including those pertaining to housing and finance, are still very much in effect.

“This isn’t some sort of challenge to the American workforce as a whole,” Melanie said. “I’m just sending the jobs where they’re going to be done most efficiently. The acquisition of houses, automobiles, and clothing will all still be in Howard’s wheelhouse, but groundskeeping and plowing are now to be managed by Jorge. It just makes sense.”

Melanie said the outsourcing is a direct response to the expansion of Reinhardt’s duties at United Carborundum.

“Howard is simply too busy to personally keep track of every detail of the marital union,” Melanie said. “As long as he’s available when he’s needed—major Reinhardt-family gatherings and the United Carborundum holiday ball—I’m happy to have someone else’s input day-to-day.”

The Reinhardt household has been moving toward a more modular operation for years now. Laundry duties are handled by a small Chinese concern; child-rearing and education are performed by a live-in salaried Irish employee; and a loosely organized, rotating consortium of Italians, Japanese, and Greeks handles food service. The sexual-services agreement, however, marks the Reinhardts’ first use of highly skilled foreign manpower.

The news of the outsourcing was met with little surprise in the greater Detroit area, where community members are used to seeing hard-won jobs go to foreign labor, and are aware of cooling relations in the Reinhardt household.

“This proposal might not be the win-win situation that Melanie is projecting,” said Philip Johannsen, business writer for the Detroit Free Press. “But it’s going to be tough for Howard to say he didn’t see it coming. When it came time to find a groundskeeper, he delegated the crucial domestic-hiring decision to his wife. He knows she’s a very proactive person, so it shouldn’t surprise him that she took the initiative to shore up areas of the household where she saw standards slipping.”

“If American executives are not willing to shoulder the increased personal investment of time and energy required to keep the jobs in-house, globalization is just something they’re going to have to accept,” Johannsen added.

Howard Reinhardt was unavailable for comment, as he was scouting locations in Oaxaca for a boron-nitride factory.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Migrant Indians helped US more in dollar terms, than total financial aid US gave to India!

India may have provided more in intellectual capital to the US just over the last decade than all of the financial aid the US has given to India over the last 60 years, says an Indian American entrepreneur researcher who has done a study on the immigration issue.

“So one may ask - who’s helping who, here,” said Delhi born Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur currently working as Wertheim Fellow at Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University on the release of the study Wednesday by Kauffman Foundation.

But for the first time in its history, the US faces the prospect of a reverse brain drain because of its flawed immigration policies, says the study, the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants’ contributions to the competitiveness of the US economy.

The US should bring in highly skilled immigrants not as temporary workers but to stay if it does not want to lose them to countries like India and China, the study suggests.

The study is co-authored by Guillermina Jasso, professor of sociology at New York University, Ben Rissing and Gary Gereffi research scholars at Duke University and Richard Freeman, Herbert Asherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University.

Noting that the number of skilled workers waiting for visas is significantly larger than the number that can be admitted to the US, it says this imbalance creates the potential for a sizeable reverse brain-drain from America to the skilled workers’ home countries.

The study estimated “there are more than one million individuals waiting in line for legal permanent resident status. The wait time for visas for countries with the largest populations, like India and China, ranged to four years in June - not counting visa processing time - and may be even higher when visas are again available in October.

This backlog is likely to increase substantially, given the limited number of visas available, it said. Evidence from the “New Immigrant Survey” indicates that approximately one in five new legal immigrants and about one in three employment principals either plan to leave the US or are uncertain about remaining.

Moreover, media reports suggest that increasing numbers of skilled workers have begun to return home to countries like India and China where the economies are booming, the study noted.

“So far, the US has the benefit of attracting the worlds best and brightest. They have typically come here for the freedom and economic opportunities that America offers,” said Wadhwa.

“Now, because of our flawed immigration policies, we have not set the stage for the departure of hundreds of thousands of highly skilled professionals - who we have trained in our technology, techniques and markets and made even more valuable.

“This is lose-lose for the US. Our corporations lose key talent that is contributing to innovation and competitiveness, and we end up creating potential competitors,” he said.

Wadhwa said he was by no means advocating an expansion of the numbers of H-1B visas for skilled workers. “In fact, part of this problem has been created by our expanding the numbers of temporary workers we admit and not increasing the numbers of permanent resident visas.”

Noting that the focus of the immigration debate in US has been on the plight of the unskilled workers who have entered the country illegally, he said If Washington waited five years to reform the immigration system, the illegal and unskilled will still be here as these poor people have few options.

“But the highly educated and skilled - who are fuelling economic growth and contributing significantly to US global competitiveness will be long gone. They are in even more demand in countries like India and China than they are in the US. Our loss will be the gain of their home countries,” Wadhwa said.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Reuters: Sex swingers are serious (fun?) business for firms!

Matt Virtue, who works as a consultant at a Washington law firm, says he spends more than $10,000 a year to attend conventions, hotels and clubs where he and his girlfriend can have sex with other partners.

“Any other hobby that I was into at 40 years old is going to cost me $10,000,” he said from a hot tub he was sharing with his girlfriend and a couple with whom they had been intimate the night before. “Dude, I’m addicted to it, there is no doubt about it.”

Such enthusiasm has turned what were once private passions into a multimillion dollar business. Lifestyles Organization, the nation’s largest swinger services company, has annual sales of about $15 million.

Swingers also bring in millions of dollars to specialty clubs and hotels in the United States as well as Jamaica, Mexico, France and elsewhere.

“We’re talking about a lifestyle, but in reality we are also talking about a business,” Robert McGinley, 73, the president of Lifestyles Organization, said during its annual convention in Las Vegas, which attracts about 900 couples.

Lifestyles Organization caters to a middle-class demographic who want to meet like-minded couples and who typically want to hide their passions from what they call “vanillas” (conventional couples).

Efforts to meet such couples outside those circles often fail, giving tour, club and convention organizers steady business.

Terri, 48, attending the convention from Boise, Idaho — who asked that her last name not be published — said she and her husband of 21 years spend as much as $8,000 a year on several weeks of swinging vacations and club visits.

At this year’s event, Anaheim, California-based Lifestyles Organization contracted out an entire hotel near the Las Vegas Strip and organized seminars and parties for middle-aged couples.

The most exhibitionist of those gathered in open hotel rooms after midnight to have sex as others watched or joined in. Some couples made small talk as they were engaged in sex, including one man who boasted that his son was in medical school.

“The other night I looked up and there were five or six people looking,” said Terri, who retired from the US Air Force two years ago. “I’m glad I was giving them a good show.”

“I’ve had three (lovers) in the past 24 hours.”

Leading sex researchers say they do not know the number of swingers in the United States, so it is difficult to pinpoint how much business the subculture represents overall.

Rick Conner, a swinger and author of an advice book for such couples, estimates there are 100,000 US swingers, of whom 20,000 are particularly active. Other swingers have suggested the number is in the low millions.

PLEASE, NO SEX IN THE RESTAURANT

Despite the unusual focus of the convention, McGinley shares the bottom-line concerns of many businessmen.

“In business there is risk and you have to decide is it a reasonable risk or not,” he said. “Behind the scenes there is a lot of planning that goes into this and a lot of going over financials, financials of the past and what is the current situation.”

He said couples paid a registration fee of $690, out of which $200 covered costs, leaving an overall profit of more than $400,000. Couples pay additionally for hotel rooms and flight costs.

Lifestyles Organization faced a few unusual incidents. His staff had to halt one couple from engaging in a sex act inside the Tuscany Suites restaurant.

Conventions bring Lifestyles $4 million in annual sales; their travel business booking swinging guests into resorts such as Hedonism II in Jamaica or Desire in Mexico bring in another $10 million to $12 million a year, McGinley said.

“We relax our already liberal rules to accommodate the Lifestyles Organization and make the entire resort clothing-optional,” explained Richard Bourke, general manager of Hedonism II.

He said Lifestyles Organization books $2 million of rooms a year over six contracted weeks. Hedonism II staff are barred from intimate relations with the guests and some have been fired for violating the edict, Bourke said.

“You have resorts with big-name resort companies that are catering to it,” McGinley said. “They’re not into swinging at all, but they are into making money, and we’re the ones that provide the clients for them.”

Desire Resort and Spa in Los Cabos, Mexico opened in November with a focus on the swinging market. About half of the guests are active swingers, according to Jesus Prado Leal, a receptionist.

Several hundred clubs nationwide also cater to swingers. Jeff James, who works for Club Freedom Acres in San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles, said 225 to 260 couples visit on a typical Saturday night, paying $85 each, with a similar number on Fridays paying $65. “It’s doubled in daily attendance in the last three years,” he said.

Swinging also boosts ancillary services such as breast enhancements and erectile dysfunction drugs. “Viagra is definitely part of the adult scene,” said Deborah, a 52-year old aesthetician grandmother from Dallas, Texas, who asked that her last name not be used. “Instead of four stars before, it’s probably five stars now.”

Source: Reuters/Sify

I am back ...

It has been an now-on, now-off kind of relation with this blog of mine. I have noted with eeriness that the typical gap between posts is almost 1 year! Can you believe that? Unbelievable ...

As my last post explains, my last hiatus was partially imposed on me. After relocating to USA, I didn't have much time on hands to blog my thoughts. Then something happened and I lost my blogs - You facing the same issue? Click here to regain control of your old blog posts!

Now that I am back, I am re-posting my blog from another site where I had shofted my blogging efforts just to show you the "next Google" on businesses ;-)

Hell I dont mind launching this "enabler model" of business and being the first to sign up as well. The blog article I am referring to is here. Or you may paste the link below:

http://ashishthakur.blogspot.com/2007/08/reuters-sex-swingers-are-serious-fun.html

Hopefully you will see me around more often now, writing with my kinda of typical posts!