IconoclasT wrote:
]
] Shipping work overseas saves money that drops to the bottom
] line as profit.  Stock prices are today keyed to
] earnings-per-share as is, to a certain extent, executive
] compensation.  Now look at the average time that an
] institutional investor actually holds a given stock.  This can
] be measured in months, sometimes in weeks, but hardly ever in
] years.  So the investor timeline is short and the CEO timeline
] -- with average tenancies in those positions at less than five
] years -- is not much longer.  So offshoring works great for
] these two groups.  The stock goes up and along with it, the
] CEO's bonus and stock options.  By the time the long-term
] effects of this policy are felt, both the investors and the
] CEO are long gone.  And even if the CEO is still around, it is
] with a golden parachute negotiated long before that often pays
] him more to go away than he might have got to stay.
]
] I have to admit that I have begun to plot my path out of tech
] and get my house paid off. The world economy has changed and
] the bottom line is the end of the line.

I'd like to remind everyone that as a son of a 30 year autoworker, this migration will not happen overnight. I remember in the late 70s and early 80s people saying that the Japanese were going to take my Dad's job. That robots were going to take my Dad's job. That we wouldn't drive cars in the year 2000, hence, no job. Yet he's still there. Working. With 3500 other people.

Personally, I'm glad that people are looking at outsourcing some of this stuff. They're not outsoucing *good* jobs. They are outsourcing the jobs that there are few people willing to do here in the US for a reasonable wage. When CS college grads are expecting to enter the workforce and make $50K+, there are problems. The jobs that you and I want, are not these jobs anyways. We want jobs where we can utilize a broader set of skills. Multi-disciplinary experiences. *This* is what Americans do better than anyone on the planet.

The biggest reason why I'm okay with this though is that it creates a foundation for stability in these countries. India is a much safer place now because of 'westernization'. Pakistan is becoming a safer place now for the same reason. Singapore and Taiwan have already benefitted from this. So has Eastern Europe (to some degree) and hopefully Africa. Maybe all the bloodshed in Iraq will yield another beacon of stability. There are definitely arguments against 'westernizing' some of these cultures, which I am sensitive to. But overall, when you can raise the poverty level in these places and give people a chance to actually build a life for themselves, that's A Good Thing(tm).

But I have to agree with IconoclasT in philosophy, because I see turmoil expanding not contracting. So things like debt, and career entanglement, are probably not good strategies for long term happiness.

My $.02

RE: PBS Cringely on IT Outsourcing