Outsourcing started in the blue collar sector decades ago. We felt bad for the unemployed auto worker, but then shifted our attention to the benefit to us: cheaper cars. When Levi’s pulled out of the US, we felt compassion for the displaced families, but then reminded ourselves that jeans would now be cheaper. All along the way, the consumer benefitted, at the expense of the few who lost their jobs. Those of us in white-collar jobs never cared much about the manufacturing sector, because it affected “them”, and not “us”, as we were safe in our office jobs.
Not any more. Borders are opening wider, and outsourcing is gaining momentum, as it has moved to to white collar jobs. It’s not only engineers who are affected. Even doctors must worry about their job security. First, it started with radiologists in India scanning digital images. Recently I read that an East coast company’s employees fly to India to get surgeries at a fraction of the cost. My in-laws have been going to Mexico for years for their dental work and medicine.
A global economy will lead to global wages. Our wages will go down, 3rd world wages will go up.
This is only the beginning. If you want job security, be a plumber. Or be more creative than everybody else.
For 90% of the people, wages will go down to meet the rising wages in 3rd world countries, until the entire globe has equal wages, an equal standard of living. That is how it should be, if we have any sense of justice and compassion for others.
