Comment Re:What do we have to sell? (Score 1) 1075
Rather than dragging us down, we need to bring them up
And how do we do that? Handouts?
How can we in the western world seriously look at India or China (or sub-saharan Africa for that matter) and say "Um, yeah. Look, we understand that you want jobs, you want to work, etc. But we're not going to patronize you unless you start an EPA and a Department of Labor." Nobody wants to live in third-world conditions, and absent our intervention to keep them there, eventually they'll turn to other countries with money, or start producing for their domestic markets. And, after a century of industrialization, a couple of revolutions, etc, they'll have unions and environmental lobbies. But, not until they've got jobs, food, and enough people to create a leisure class with the time and resources to tilt at those windmills.
Outsourcing to the developing world is a huge opportunity to free up labor in the US. Look at unemployment - even with the flight of jobs offshore, it's down near historic lows. AND we've got an unspoken guest worker program thanks to floods of undocumented workers. The jobs of the last century - heck, the jobs of the last 20 years - aren't where our kids (or even ourselves) will continue to make our money.
It's also an opportunity to jump-start countries like India and China. Increased employment in those countries generates wealth not only with the folks doing outsourced jobs, but also for the people who feed, house, and provide other services in-country. Shortening the timeline to above mentioned leisure-class, and environmental and labor reform.
But what do we have to sell?
That's the billion-dollar question now, isn't it?
To paraphrase Neal Stephenson -
1) Entertainment
2) Code (as in new code, new memes - not repackaging of the same set of solutions)
3) High-speed pizza delivery
And how do we do that? Handouts?
How can we in the western world seriously look at India or China (or sub-saharan Africa for that matter) and say "Um, yeah. Look, we understand that you want jobs, you want to work, etc. But we're not going to patronize you unless you start an EPA and a Department of Labor." Nobody wants to live in third-world conditions, and absent our intervention to keep them there, eventually they'll turn to other countries with money, or start producing for their domestic markets. And, after a century of industrialization, a couple of revolutions, etc, they'll have unions and environmental lobbies. But, not until they've got jobs, food, and enough people to create a leisure class with the time and resources to tilt at those windmills.
Outsourcing to the developing world is a huge opportunity to free up labor in the US. Look at unemployment - even with the flight of jobs offshore, it's down near historic lows. AND we've got an unspoken guest worker program thanks to floods of undocumented workers. The jobs of the last century - heck, the jobs of the last 20 years - aren't where our kids (or even ourselves) will continue to make our money.
It's also an opportunity to jump-start countries like India and China. Increased employment in those countries generates wealth not only with the folks doing outsourced jobs, but also for the people who feed, house, and provide other services in-country. Shortening the timeline to above mentioned leisure-class, and environmental and labor reform.
But what do we have to sell?
That's the billion-dollar question now, isn't it?
To paraphrase Neal Stephenson -
1) Entertainment
2) Code (as in new code, new memes - not repackaging of the same set of solutions)
3) High-speed pizza delivery
