Would be better if we didn't need technicalities. Old story but the content industry needs to realize that their business model shifted while they were asleep and now they introduce DMCA and all that wonderful stuff to stay in business.
Have you ever thought that the American middle class might be shrinking because of excessive taxation (spurred by big government) and draconian business laws that make it difficult for companies to operate? The American tariff code has over 1000 pages! And the "we" part does include shareholders but then I'm a shareholder too and so is anyone with a pension fund (ok I'm one of those sad people who worries about retirement when they're in their 20s).
Worker wages may not have increased but neither have prices (the flip side of productivity increases)- last 15 years we've seen very low price increases (except for gas prices but that's another story). What matters more is purchasing power. As far as I can see there has been no serious drop in purchasing power. IMHO the biggest impact to jobs and IT wages in the last 7 years was a massive Tech Bubble that burst.
I graduated from school about 7 months ago buying this idea of no tech jobs because of outsourcing and offshoring, imagine my surprise when I found that this was complete nonsense. None of my ex-classmates have been out of work (except my best friend but she's decided to be a stay-at-home mom) longer than a couple of months. I personally am a people person and I was really excited when my first job involved working directly with customers. A few years ago, I would have been tied to a lab-bench but there are now Indians doing that part.
Globalization creates change and a lot of it. It keeps prices down (cheap shoes etc. - which I totally appreciate) and it increases competition. Competition is good for all of us because it increases productivity, which in turn also keeps prices down - and gives us more interesting work. Go to 1930s America for the alternative and the Smoot Hawley act...
A few years ago, the work that I would have been doing would have been absolutely dull. Things have changed now - I'm involved a lot more with customers and working out how to help them instead of being in a lab all day. Outsourcing has meant that the dull parts of my job have been moved away but the juicy bits remain. And guess what guys and girls, this makes me happier.
Incidently, I read something like for every dollar of work shipped out overseas, we get to see 1.30 in return. This is a well known figure. In more real terms, my company moved a lot of the routine chemical analysis work to India. This leaves much more time to do the really high end chem modeling work and working with customers to tailor make plastics to suit them. A few years ago, that would have been too expensive for my company.
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Would be better if we didn't need technicalities. Old story but the content industry needs to realize that their business model shifted while they were asleep and now they introduce DMCA and all that wonderful stuff to stay in business.
Have you ever thought that the American middle class might be shrinking because of excessive taxation (spurred by big government) and draconian business laws that make it difficult for companies to operate? The American tariff code has over 1000 pages! And the "we" part does include shareholders but then I'm a shareholder too and so is anyone with a pension fund (ok I'm one of those sad people who worries about retirement when they're in their 20s).
Worker wages may not have increased but neither have prices (the flip side of productivity increases)- last 15 years we've seen very low price increases (except for gas prices but that's another story). What matters more is purchasing power. As far as I can see there has been no serious drop in purchasing power. IMHO the biggest impact to jobs and IT wages in the last 7 years was a massive Tech Bubble that burst.
I graduated from school about 7 months ago buying this idea of no tech jobs because of outsourcing and offshoring, imagine my surprise when I found that this was complete nonsense. None of my ex-classmates have been out of work (except my best friend but she's decided to be a stay-at-home mom) longer than a couple of months. I personally am a people person and I was really excited when my first job involved working directly with customers. A few years ago, I would have been tied to a lab-bench but there are now Indians doing that part.
Globalization creates change and a lot of it. It keeps prices down (cheap shoes etc. - which I totally appreciate) and it increases competition. Competition is good for all of us because it increases productivity, which in turn also keeps prices down - and gives us more interesting work. Go to 1930s America for the alternative and the Smoot Hawley act...
A few years ago, the work that I would have been doing would have been absolutely dull. Things have changed now - I'm involved a lot more with customers and working out how to help them instead of being in a lab all day. Outsourcing has meant that the dull parts of my job have been moved away but the juicy bits remain. And guess what guys and girls, this makes me happier.
Incidently, I read something like for every dollar of work shipped out overseas, we get to see 1.30 in return. This is a well known figure. In more real terms, my company moved a lot of the routine chemical analysis work to India. This leaves much more time to do the really high end chem modeling work and working with customers to tailor make plastics to suit them. A few years ago, that would have been too expensive for my company.