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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."
And here is the Reg-Free link.
In the future please use the NY Times Blog Link Generator when linking to the soul suckers.
(retinal scan login required)
Is this really necessary anymore? How many people DON'T know about bugmenot? Hell, there is even a firefox extension to plop it straight into your browser!
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Love those pickles
Walmart, by itself, can combat inflation. However, at what cost?
"The Wal-Mart You Don't Knowm l
The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?" : http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.ht
If you read the whole article, you'll see this isn't true. He won his Nobel Prize for his work showing how internationalization can help make a rich country. He notes that until now, globalization has helped us, rather than hurt us. He just tries to make the qualification that globalization doesn't *necessarily* always lead to benefits, as most economists believe.
His statement is quite a bit mroe subtle than you can put in "simplified terms." Basically, his point is that while the traditional theories of comparative advantage hold, it is possible that certain types of trade can cause you to loose your comparative advantage.
Makes sense, but I'll reserve judgement until the majority of economists have had a chance to weigh in on it.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Highly skilled?
Are you kidding? So far, my exposure to outsourced crap has been just that, crap. Not worth the beans we paid for it.
We could hire bums off the street ( fresh out from giving blood and buying booze ) to code better than some of the stuff flowing out of india right now.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Hmm, I knew this would come up. When I say "US education system" I'm talking about the one most Americans go too --- our public K-12 system. Only 21% of Americans have taken any college courses, and only 15% have a college degree. The other 80-85% attend our attrocious public K-12 schools.
Yes, our university system is one of the best in the world, and we have a couple of top-notch high-schools, but it's not the Harvard and Yale folks who are out of a job...
PS> Oxford isn't in the US.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I foo-bar'ed the statistics. My numbers (from the 2000 census) are exclusive. Ie: the 15% with a bacholers degree does not count those with higher than a bacholers degree. In all, 24% (as of 200) of Americans had a college education.
The actual report is here if you're interested.
In any case, that still means that that 3 out of 4 Americans do not have a college education, which means the criticisms about our K-12 system are valid.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...