Readers on outsourcing U.S. jobs - Practical Futurist weblog

[dArKeR]

Name: Marc Hansen
       Hometown: Seattle
       When all the Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM software production has been outsourced offshore, and when all Intel factories are completely automated, and when all Home Depot stores have self-check-out lines. ... my question is: Who, in America, will be able to afford the food that the McDonald’s robots cook?
       
       Name: EV
       Hometown: Annapolis, Md.
       Where do all of these upper level managers think they will be when everyone has been outsourced? Guess they better learn Hindi or one of the other 18 dialects. You are only a manager if there is someone left to manage.
       
       Name: Daniel E. Platt
       Hometown: Putnam Valley, N.Y.
       Sixteenth century Spain was quite rich on gold from America. While they funded the industrial revolution in the rest of Europe, they were largely left behind in the end. Are we doomed to the same fate? Or should we purchase a future at the cost of lower profit margins now?


http://www.msnbc.com/news/767146.asp?0cv=CB20

http://darker0darker.tripod.com/

[bodhisattava]

1. Could India and China become a vast market for US goods?

As India and China become more prosperous, the combined populations of these massive economies can become a market that dwarfs anything we now have. It is how we get there without disrupting the lives of people in the US that will be the key. Can someone tell me if the end
result of more prosperity can be achieved painlessly for all concerned?

[scarletwoman]

3. Painlessly?

All life is suffering... (since you have named yourself
"bodhisattva", I assume you know the reference.)

What goods?

Oh, there WILL be pain. Think about it. China already makes more stuff than we do, look at how much we buy from THEM. What is there for us to market to them? We hardly make anything in this country anymore, except weapons.

In any case, what India and China are increasingly in the market for is OIL -- it's their ENERGY needs that are growing.

The PNAC solution is to use whatever means neccessary to control the sources of oil -- why do you think they were so hot to take over Iraq?

We will not be spared pain, we corporate serfs will be increasingly economically squeezed while our feudal lords enrich themselves through endless wars for possession of key resources. The growing Chinese "market" is more likely to end up playing a large part in the downfall of the American Empire than in any sort of rescue.

I cannot really speak to the India factor, as I have not looked it at very closely up to now. My current impression -- based on largely general and superficial observations -- is that India is in very grave danger of increased sectarian violence (Hindus vs. Muslims) as the very lowest classes find their livelihoods continually threatened by neo-liberal, corporate globalization policies.

There is more chance of chaos in India, than in the vastly more tightly controlled economy and society of China. At best, perhaps a time will come when China, India, and other Southeast and East Asia countries unite into a powerful counterforce to U.S. hegemony.

In this they would perhaps accomplish a mercy for us; the disempowerment and downfall of our corporate masters -- with the way opened to re-ordering and rebuilding of our Republic in better accord with both the original "Enlightenment" which ispired the Founders, and the further enlightenment of human Consciousness.

Economics will not save us, Consciousness will.

sw

[The Zanti Regent]

2. Just wait for India to process Social Security cards...

Hell, if Bush has his way and outsources all government work overseas, what am I gonna do if I lose my Social Security card a need a replacement right away?

If the Social Security offices in the US are outsourced, am I going to have to book a flight to New Delhi?

If I call SOcial Security's 800 number, will it be answered by someone in Ireland or India or Indonesia? Will they have access to my Social Security Record?

What will I do if someone is committing identity theft with my number? Will the Inspector General be contracted out to South Africa?

What if I don't have a passport? Will I have to go the Singapore Embassy because they got the passport franchise?

If someone robs a bank, what will we do if the FBI is outsourced to Ireland?

What about prison guards? Are we gonna outsource our prisons to China?

This is INSANITY!

[KC]

4. Great response

and it's already nearly that bad.

KC