Quote:
Originally posted by Razorfish
But maybe the impact won't be as bad as I thought. Looks like to get a job in the technology field of the future you will truly have to stand out from our technology workers overseas. All people not cut out for the field will fade away and the best will be left. Hopefully business people will see the trend. Too bad I can't say the same about our fellow Americans formerly working in the manufacturing industry.
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I hope for your sake, Razorfish, that you happen to be one of those "best and brightest" who is able to obtain employment in your field. But even if you do, your troubles, and those of our nation, will be far from over.
Look at what is happening. We are loosing our ability to be a producer nation. Whether its steel girders or good programming language, we no longer will create it. A skilled work force, once lost, can't be re-trained over night. People will have to be trained how to work in a steel manufactoring plant, people have to spend years studying to become proficient as programmers, and students will quit majoring in computer science if there are no jobs in it.
How can anyone be so naive as to believe that it is in the best interest of the US to have programming code for vital tasks be written by the Chinese? How can we think that its a good idea to have the steel girders for our bridges and buildings be made in Mexico or Taiwan? How is it in the best intersts of national security to have the electrical components for EVERYTHING made in Asia?
Even if the US were to wake up tomorrow to the terrible harm it is doing itself, it would take literally years to rebuild our capacities as a producer nation. What if we have an enemy who doesn't give us those years?
A nation that can't make steel, can't manufactor industrial items, can't produce electronic components or write good programming code is going to be a second rate nation. If you don't know something about auto mechanics, you are at the mercy of your repairman. If you can't take apart the back of your computer and put in a new drive, you are going to pay top price for upgrades. On the wages McDonald's pays, you may as well forget the whole thing. Nations are no different than people in this regard. CEO's and politicians who are making these choices won't be hurt. They've got their off-shore banking accounts safely stashed away.
It is you and I who will be standing in the breadlines (if there is any bread to be had). The work that we so much want to do will all be overseas and foreign nations, especially those of the 3rd world, have no special reason to show us any mercy.