Forget offshoring, does it *appear* as if technologies are being made self-containing?

[Deja Q]

Manufacturing is more and more automated; so don't expect many people in many countries to prosper here anymore.

Companies are using ITIL to streamline operations. And putting in numerous forms of redundancy.

Companies are also subtly altering job descriptions so people in other departments do work what's used to be done by a different department (e.g. periphery offices doing IT work).

In the end, will offshoring jobs hurt the economies of the countries we're helping?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/24/news/international/kirkpatrick_davos.fortune/index.htm

Why is Gates saying "In many crucial areas, the world is getting better...but it's not getting better fast enough, and it's not getting better for everyone"/"This is a worldwide movement, and we all have the ability and responsibility to accelerate it"?

He's the same man who predicted the dollar would fall (while offshoring jobs)

If "peak oil" is a concern, concentrating all the jobs overseas would negate the need to move oil over to North America and risk leaks... Mind you, it's also been said we import oil from Canada and Mexico far more than we do overseas (not that we don't, but we still do) so this paragraph is nothing more than jiffypop :tinfoilhat:


But I'll give the man credit; for wanting total control, his massive paradigm shift toward altruism of the last few years is a noble change...

But while the rest of the world is improving; the psychological effects caused by "globalization" offshoring is crippling America and nobody has much to say regarding how to keep the West stable (offshoring of jobs is hitting their countries as well; we are not alone).

True, lower cost of goods means more people can afford them. (Which is why we can find internet articles (or used to) claiming if the US goes down, the rest of world will be A-O-K. You won't find as much speculation there today.) But I digress; instead of everybody being engineers and scientists; the tools they make allow us to use them for profitable use. (At least, in theory.)

Meanwhile, you can buy that dilettante logo and business card maker program, with all those lame-ass stock toddler images for $20; instead of hiring someone to make something more original for up to 1000 times more. (I know one company that spent $20k on a new logo; and today I saw one looking very similar and equally generic. I wish I took a snapshot and sent it in; the wasters of $20k would not be happy - for when I saw the other logo, I thought of the first company. Shouldn't logos be UNIQUE and REPRESENTATIVE, and not some tin canned smelly stale anchovy? If that is business practice; why the fritter should anybody bother with a unique identity anyway?)

Yes, once the cost of living equalizes, we will be truly globalized and every country can compete again. Change is inevitable, but is it as much gloom and doom people claim it is?? Should Americans really give up doing their passions and talents and truly end up "behind"?

Or am I missing something?




(Edit: Typo correction)

[Deja Q]

1. AM kick?