Offshoring and Lowered Expectations

Computerworld ^ | March 8, 2004 | Dan Gillmor

[Filibuster_60]

There's two problems here. First, frankly speaking, the public school system stinks - no need to elaborate there. Second, even the gifted students are rarely passionate enough about their specialty to pursue it beyond graduate study: life as a young researcher, never particularly lucrative, is less & less conducive to the living standard educated Americans aspire to. Students from China & India naturally have fewer qualms working for professors that treat them like academic coolies.

[CasearianDaoist]

Well that is my point, I think that you will see a revolution before that as they are moving too quickly. I could see what you say is happening if they speard it out over a couple of generations. They seem to have tipped their hand. I don't think the voter will let them get away with it.

[CasearianDaoist]

Holmdale i think, I was up at murry hill. The build you are talkingabout is not a ghost town, ahrdly any people inthat building. I think that they are trying to sell it.

[harpseal]

I worry about the young people in College who will find no work that is the stuff of revolutions.

[searchandrecovery]

...have fewer qualms working for professors that treat them like academic coolies.

TA's have always been treated like sh--. If Americans can't compete against foreign college students, well, too bad. On the other hand, perhaps foreign student's exposure to American mores may aid in the decline of education in general, and in their countries in particular (toga toga toga!, keg parties, ...). I don't know.

Oh wait, I do know - the NEA/AFT should actually be disbanded.

[mlmr]

I am not so sure. The culture wars may divide us enough to set off internal conflict despite the economic issues.

[mlmr]

They need to make work.

[CasearianDaoist]

That is one of the major problems.

[international american]

"If I understand your statement correectly, you assist in transferring ownership of American business and assets to foreigners?"

Bass akwards. I look for franchises in Asia that will work in America. They get the glory, we get the jobs and cash!!

[templar]

They get the glory, we get the jobs and cash!!

They don't get any ownership? How does this setup work?

[international american]

They get a 2% override and the bragging rights. We get the jobs, and the cash.

[international american]

Have you tried skydiving? I am considering a try:)

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

This has to be one of the most pessimistic threads I've seen on FR. CasearianDaoist is right on the money, however. The hollowing out of our knowlege industries, if allowed to proceed with no controls, will destroy us. Certainly, the only reason to go to college will be to get a law degree in order to sue those who still have money. My immediate fear is the effective demagoging of this issue by the RATs - even in 2004. If Kerry is elected president, then the expected lifespan of the country is....well, who knows how many years or months. I can't believe that GWB and his advisors are so out of touch that they will allow this issue to sucker punch them down for the count. But, I guess it's possible.

[searchandrecovery]

Holmdale i think...
I have just looked it up, and it is Holmdel, NJ.

...hardly any people in that building. I think that they are trying to sell it.
Bummer. Was like a skyscraper that fell over. But with all the telecom bad news over the past 4 years, understandable. LU is what now, about $4 stock? sucks.

[citizen]

Thanks, lots of info to chew on....$50K base salaries for Fortune 500 company CEOs? hmmmm....

I read of, for example, financial newspaper articles of the Southern Company's [pedestrian SE power compamy] chief exec's salary being $160M+, Robert something or other....my local company Georgia Power's CEO recently getting a $57M salary - hard money not options, perhaps the results of "milestones" I don't know, the point of the article was the rate of compensation....these are the so-called public utilities....other business pay much more.

I realise that these movers/shakers bring much talent & staff/strength of will with them [sometimes, sometimes not] but I also sometimes read of the same mover/shaker type CEO limiting his own salary to a reasonable amount.

Too many will command what their Board will allow - so long as the Board gets theirs too.

[international american]

"This has to be one of the most pessimistic threads I've seen on FR."

The fact that you read it shows you are not a fool. We are in a world transition. The more you know, the better for your family.

By the way, this is not pessimism, it is rational deduction, based on current mkt conditions. I wish you the best!

[Filibuster_60]

I never argued Europe and Japan are ahead of us overall; my point was I don't think in this day and age you can keep any big, determined nation with lots of raw talent from catching up quickly. Things become commodotized very quickly, technologies that were cutting-edge a few years ago become available to everyone - and that's where developing nations get their chance to grab a piece of the "incremental improvement" market. I'm confident most major breakthroughs will continue to be made in US - it's just that proliferation of know-how is too rapid nowadays for our advantage to last long from an industry-stability angle.

[international american]

Hong Kong, Singapore and London are expensive. Most of Asia is dirt cheap.Same with Burma, India, and Africa. Many others. I can buy a 5 bedroom 5 bath estate in Malaysia for 500 per month. Here, 1 million.

[CasearianDaoist]

I think i workded there just in the last great days, just before they split up the Labs. That building was designed by Sooreen (sp?) He also designed the TWa building at jfk and the T J Watson research center for IBM up in westchester.

[hedgetrimmer]

You are right about equalizing the standard of living. But the WTO and the OAS and FTAA are all about lowering our standard of living to match other countries. They call it "downward harmonization".