Paul Samuelson Challenges Outsourcing

Noryungi writes "Paul A. Samuelson, Nobel Laureate in Economics, a professor at MIT challenges the outsourcing of jobs (retinal scan login required) to India and China. Choice quote: To put things in simplified terms, he explained in the interview, being able to purchase groceries 20 percent cheaper at Wal-Mart does not necessarily make up for the wage losses."

Comments

Re:globalized economy.

[keep_it_simple_stupi]

Also according to the article, if you believe a global economy, then you also believe in the Tooth Fairy. Wow, that's unbiased right there.

Where do people come up with these articles?

Nothing new here

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing new here: everybody knows that the American middle class has been shortchanged by corporations and governments in order to increase shareholder value.

The mantra is, that these days everybody is shareholder, so this is not good only for the corporations, but it is great for Middleclass BlowJoe. (The others, lower on the totem pole don't matter, anyway.)

However, Middleclacc BlowJoe bought that 500 shares of BigCorp from the money he was making in the US, before his job was outsourced somewhere else.

Now Middleclass BlowJoe does not have the money to further "shareholderizing" himself. In fact, he will sell those shares at any price, first to pretend to be still Middleclass (remember the "retire as millionaire - you can do it"?) later just to make endmeats.

Middleclass BlowJoe gets screwed, BigCorp gets pats on the shoulder from The Street for an other quarter, BigCorp CEO gets big bonus and the story of ever faster increasing wealth gap in the US and all over the world will jump to #1 on the Top25 Most Censored stories (featured on Slashdot a few days ago).

Nothing new here.

Let me know when something actually happens to reverse the last 20 years trend in wealth distribution.

I'd like to live that long, to see the governments acting on behalf of the ever increasing poor segment of the population, for a change.

What a revolutionary idea, eh?

Re:globalized economy.

[be-fan]

I don't know why I should even bother replying to you --- your argument is patently ridiculous at face value. It's completely illogical --- you provide no evidence to support your view that economists' theories are "half baked." All you say is that their jobs are not on the line, which has no logical bearing on the validity of their theories!

But I'll indulge you anyway. What kind of economic super genius are you to call their theories half-baked? Even Samuelson points out that globalization has helped us so far, just as economic theory has predicted for 100 years. He's proposing a new wrinkle in the existing theory. The existing theory is well-established, well-supported, and very far from "half baked."

Re:Depressing trend

[benzapp]

Unfortuantely, your assessment of immigrants is based mostly on hearsay and popular mythology.

The vast majority of immigrants are not successful, and a disproportionate number result to crime, end up on public assistance, in prison, or worse.

Look at the latimes today. It turns out that 50% of people in Los Angeles over 16 can't even read.

You can bet your life 99% of those people are immigrants.

You can also take a drive through many immigrant neighborhoods in our major cities. They are all slums, and not a single immigrant group today understands cleanliness and exhibit no pride in their new home. How much money does it take to sweep the sidewalk in front of your apartment?

You exhibit the naivity of a suburban raised white person, indoctrinated to believe your culture is depraved and inferior yet who is too afraid to actually live amongst the immigrants you love.

I unfortunately do live among them, and witness their uncivilized and barbaric ways on a daily basis, so spare me any response that suggests I am being anything less that completely honest.