You can wag both ends of that dog. I worked my tush off from junior high through graduate school, and have already been laid off once due to offshoring and due to no fault of my own. (The entire office has since been closed.)
The next time it happens, there's about a 70% chance that I will go to some career that may pay much less, but have some job security associated with it. What kind of motivation do you think Americans have to go into these "serious knowledge labor" fields when they risk being tossed aside like garbage at 35 or 40 (or before), in favor of some kid in Bangalore who can work for $2.50/hr? No way would I encourage my kids to get a Comp Sci degree. If they're smart and industrious, let them go into a field where they can have a stable career until retirement.
We're rapidly turning into a society of teachers, lawyers, salesmen, and security guards -- fields you can't offshore. Notice something about those professions: none of them have anything directly do with the production of any sort of exportable goods.
You're absolutely right. It needed repeating. We are turning into a UK of about the 1970's.
None of them have anything directly to do with the production of anything.
Yep. I would say MOSTLY salesmen. This entire "service" economy that "we're moving to" is nothing but endless sales jobs. There's nothing wrong with a sales career, I'm in sales myself. But there is certainly no technical expertise or education requirement, generally speaking, to sell ANY product or service. As a matter of fact, most salesmen are complete morons at everything else, that's why they're in SALES!
Beg to differ my friend; let me explain...automotive and everything around it is in high demand. With the sophistication and complexity of the today's automobiles, one needs a highly qualified technician to "be allowed" to work on.(all, but all, car manufacturers demand a highly skilled/trained technician to diagnose/repair that particular vehicle)
I should know, I am a 25+ Years Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge Technician and I can tell you that, we can not find a decent technician to do the job right. Plenty of wanna be's ("carniceros", "boomerang tech", "butchers") no shortage (they last less than 3 weeks) but nothing of a reliable and honest, old school technicians!
The old "shade tree", "DIY", kinda of Saturday Morning type of "let me fix this ol' jalopy" is all but gone. We are talking about super sophisticated hard/software operating systems taking care of your wheels. On average any of todays cars has at least 9+ computers on board, controlling misc. functions.
In my daily routine, computer related, reprogramming, updating and set up's are the routine, instead of mechanical wrenching like in the past.
The thing am trying to emphasize is that life/jobs is an ever changing medium/society where by, we all have to adapt soon or later. So, be flexible,...everything will work out, provide you are not stuck in the 50th's panacea.