Reading Thomas Friedman's "The Flat Earth" and more articles like this one (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10206250/site/newsweek/) and this one (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10206251/site/newsweek/) I don't really see why everything except burger flipping won't end up being outsourced. Even taking the orders for the burgers is... yes, I kid you not, being outsourced.

I'm probably a lot closer to retirement than some of you (except Arienne, she's ancient) but I'm not sure all the technical voodoo I soaked up is going to worth diddly in the next 5-10 years. Those of you who are relatively noobish should be getting concerned.

Even taking the orders for the burgers is... yes, I kid you not, being outsourced.

Will this improve the sound quality out of the clown head speaker? Or make it worse?

I guess it depends on how you look at it. My general take on it is that those who are living in squalor now will get a chance to live at a higher standard. And those living at a higher standard now, will end up living closer to those currently in squalor.

So I suppose if I were a member of the squalor camp, I'd be pretty happy about globalization. As it is, I'm not in the squalor camp, and I don't particularly want my standard of living to drop down much.

Yeah, squalor hasn't been in fashion since the 1800's. I tend to think we're in deep doo-doo in a relatively short time frame as middle class jobs move offshore. Its going to negatively impact everything from housing prices to management jobs. In the end, it is sort of short-sighted of industry. We're the big consumers here, but if our jobs are going away, we're not going to be able to consume. Then what good will being able to mass produce whortle-bunnies for slave wages be if the whortle-bunny consumer can't afford them any longer?

I think it is time to look at investing into those emerging market mutual funds.


Will this improve the sound quality out of the clown head speaker? Or make it worse?
He's going to have a strange accent and call you Sahib.

He's going to have a strange accent and call you Sahib.


LOL. Reminded me of the Bob & Tom bit where telephone sex calls were being outsourced to India. Imagine a middle-aged male Indian voice claiming to be a "hot, teen-aged sorority girl ready to satisfy your decadent American sexual perversions"....

LOL! Funny, funny. :D

I feel a bit like Cassandra. This is turning my bowels to water. Ok, well not literally. This is almost making my first career choice look like a better bet... and that's pretty danged bad.

Healthcare can't be outsourced. Not the way that it is set up now.

That is one of the reasons why I am going into that industry.

Even with doctor consults by video. Or insourcing, that is bringing third world healthcare workers here, with the baby boomers reaching older and old age healthcare is a very good place to be.

It is still a service industry. "Would you like a Foley Catheter with that?",,,same difference.

Service jobs are just up higher the production pyramid(than manufacturing). Americans will just naturally gravitate up that pyramid. Americans don't want to make shoes themselves, they would prefer to sell them. Or manage those who sell them.

My grandfather lost his right hand making steel. I don't suppose if he were alive today he wouldn't rather have OSHA around and just sell the stuff that Korea makes for us now.

Ah, don't feel too safe. If no one can afford health care your services won't be needed.

The common myth is that its just manufactoring sector jobs getting outsourced. Actually its the pretty much everything from engineering to accounting to high tech jobs. Entire operations, like much the high tech communications company I work for, are moving to India.

So, manufacturing and computer programming, engineering, animation, CAD, customer support, accounting, even Reuter's has outsourced some of their reporting to India. This is gutting the middle class in America. All that will be left will be service sector jobs.

You're going to have to have a PhD pretty soon to be able to work in America because a basic college education isn't going to cut it any longer. I predict there will be a nursing glut as more and more people find their industries have fled to third world countries and they reason that nursing is safe.

I finally got out of office bullcrap and into construction. Hopefully the electrician's trade (and I doubt it will), will get outsourced. Insourced yes, but as long as I live in the south, then their's a racist redneck that'll higher anyone except mexicans that do crap work. (And Alot of their work is crap, some of it is perrty damned good; but alot of crap before the good).

I have mixed feelings about globalization. Like most things, it has its good points and bad points. Global companies say they care about the places they do business, but they don't. On the other hand, globalization does improve the overall standard of living in the world.

If I was giving advice to a young person today about choosing a profession (and I often do give advice), I suggest skilled trades. There are fewer folks willing to get their hands dirty in professions such as millwrighting, electrical and pipefitting. Professions such as health care, accounting and engineering are also good. Computer tech jobs are risky because of rapid changes. Beware of the disappearing niche professions. Remember the masses of computer programmers who had to change careers or stay unemployed.

The US has been reaping the advantages of globalisation for years, now it's hurting but that's all part of a changing world. Different aspects of globalisation will continue to help or hinder various countries at various times. We can't roll back time on this one.

The proliferation of outsourcing pretty much makes any particular nation's labor laws useless and even harmful in some cases. Why pay someone in the US to do a job someone in India can do without all the governmental overhead. The ones that suffer are the unnamed masses that in the end, nobody but the one being effected really cares about.

The result may be exactly as stated, living standards will normalize resulting in those in formerly rich countries falling while those in formerly poor countries rising. It is a bad time to be a kid looking for a new job that is something more than flipping burgers. Workers are a dime a dozen already with huge populations but in India and Fiji and elsewhere around the world, they are a dime for 10 dozen.

I would like to think that things will even out once those products and services being made extremely cheaply are no longer affordable by anyone.

I think many sorts of engineering are ripe for being outsourced. Accounting already is. You wouldn't believe the number of engineers that are coming out of India right now. You're absolutely right though about the trades. America is going to be the land of Tradesmen and women again.

Perhaps I should go back to school and become a chef. ;p

I do think it will even out, but I also think with ever-increasing populations and increasing automation, there's going to be a lot of adjustment coming, and probably not all that fun. :P

Add this one to the job list possibilities. Tough to outsource this one.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/12/13/recruiting.funeral.directors.ap/index.html

LOL! Love it. Well, true. That's a good choice.

With the baby boomers hitting 'that age', I'd bet funeral homes would be a great business to get into. Kinda hard to outsource that one!

I've had some bad investments, some good ones and some great ones. The funeral business was one of my better investments. Service Corp, a funeral company, was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange a number of years ago. I bought the initial offering. When the U.S. parent bought out all the Canadian shares a few years later, I quadrupled my money.... Yay :)

Actually, I got into a health care fund in the 1990's reasoning that the aging population would do good things to it. It did. :)