US Economy & Outsourcing essays

US Economy & Outsourcing essays The United States Economy and Outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement to have work done for a company by people not employed by that particular company. Outsourcing is a trend in corporations that is especially found today in the information technology field. In certain businesses, the whole information management of a company is outsourced. Outsourcing varies from large contract, large companies doing work for small companies and vice verse, to small contract, hiring substitute workers. Outsourcing does not necessarily take place internationally; it can be a domestic matter, although my topic deals with sending jobs overseas. The reason outsourcing has expanded these past few years is because it helps the economy in the long run. It prevents high labor costs in businesses, which allows companies to make more profit and create more jobs. Yet there is much debate over sending jobs to low-wage nations such as China, Romania and especially India. Many employees in the United States have lost their jobs to workers in these foreign countries. These unemployed Americans are asserting that outsourcing is only assisting the large corporations, but not helping the economy. They are arguing that it gives more money to the management at the top and dismissing workers at the bottom. What the jobless are missing is the big picture in the U.S. market. Companies are able to save a minimum of twenty to thirty percent through outsourcing. The money conserved is put back into jobs, stock dividends and profit sharing. Outsourcing does not automatically succeed in every situation. Some Dell customers have complained about la nguage barriers and delays for certain call centers. Delays are inevitable and likewise found for American help services. Language difficulties, on the other hand, can be a major issue. India, which is the top nation for outsourcing, has an elaborate schooling system that teaches English as one of the primary languages. When corpo...

Water Desalination

Water Desalination Desalination (also spelled desalinization) is the process of creating fresh water by removing saline (salt) from bodies of salt water. There are varying degrees of salinity in water, which affects the difficulty and expense of treatment, and the level of saline is typically measured in parts per million (ppm). The U.S. Geological Survey provides an outline of what constitutes saline water: 1,000 ppm – 3,000 ppm is low salinity, 3,000 ppm – 10,000 ppm is moderate salinity, and 10,000 ppm – 35,000 ppm is high salinity. Water that contains saline levels less than 1,000 ppm is generally considered fresh water and is safe to drink and use for household and agricultural purposes. For a reference point, typical ocean water contains about 35,000 ppm, the Great Salt Lake contains variations of 50,000 – 270,000 ppm, and the Caspian Sea contains an average of about 12,000 ppm. The more concentrated saline is in a body of water, the more energy and effort it takes to desalinize it. Desalination Processes Osmosis Reverse Osmosis There are several setbacks of reverse osmosis. The membranes are currently prone to gather too much bacteria and â€Å"clog up,† although they have improved since they were first used. The membranes deteriorate when chlorine is used to treat the bacteria. Other setbacks are the arguable water quality that reverse osmosis produces, along with the considerable pre-treatment that the salt water requires. Forward Osmosis Pressure gradient desalinating water The main setback to forward osmosis is that it has great potential, but is still fairly new to large-scale desalination and therefore needs funding and research to explore the possibilities that could improve it and reduce energy costs. Electrodialysis Thermal Desalination Multistage Flash Distillation Multiple-Effect Distillation Negatives of Desalination Fossil fuels Geography of Desalination Middle East Saudi Arabia is currently the world’s number one producer of desalinated water. They use multi-flash distillation in several large plants, providing water for many large cities, including the largest city, Riyadh, situated hundreds of miles from the coast. In the United States, the largest desalination plant is located in Tampa Bay, Florida, though it has a very small output compared to most facilities in the Middle East. Other states that are developing plans for large desalination plants include California and Texas. The United States need for desalination plants is not as severe as many other countries, but as the population continues to explode in dry, coastal areas, the need increases. Future Options of Desalination Desalination is a process primarily done in developed countries with enough money and resources. If technology continues to produce new methods and better solutions to the issues that exist today, there would be a whole new water resource for more and more countries that are facing drought, competition for water, and overpopulation. Though there are concerns in the scientific world about replacing our current overuse of water with complete reliance on seawater, it would undoubtedly be at least an option for many people struggling to survive or maintain their standard of living.