RE: India - Wave of the Future?

["Anameier, Christine A - Eagan, MN" <christine -dot- a -dot- anameier -at- usps -dot- gov>]

Dick, whom I *usually* agree with, wrote:
> There are long-term positive economic trends that have
> painful short-term consequences. . . . High-tech workers
> are no different. 

I'm not convinced "offshoring" is a positive economic trend.

Let's say Acme Net-Enabled Widgets (watch out, they explode) outsources
everything to offshore workers at a bargain-basement rate. Those workers
prosper for a while. However, Acme's thousands of laid-off US workers
can't afford the net-enabled widgets anymore, and neither can the
laid-off employees of all the other US tech firms. We wind up with
millions of jobless IT workers who can't pay their monthly rent, much
less buy the products. The low-wage offshore workers can't afford the
products, at least not at the prices they sell at here in the US. Acme
Net-Enabled Widgets saves money in the short term, but in the long run
they lose customers and need to lower the price of their product to
survive.  So much for the savings. Cheaper labor, but smaller market and
cheaper product. This is better how? 

It's like "The Tragedy of the Commons" meets "Dilbert." A company does
this to gain an edge over their competitors, who respond by doing the
same thing, and if everybody does it, the US economy and tech market
crumble to dust.

Christine
(opinions expressed in this post are my own, not my employer's or my
cat's, yadda yadda yadda)