Please excuse the poor quality of the writing and any grammatical or spelling mistakes. I typed it up very quickly simply to help me define and flush out my developing thoughts on these issues and give me a voice on the subject. This is not my finalized or complete opinion, even as I complete it.

I’ll start by saying that in many respects, importation of cheaper labor through H1B visa or similar situations is nearly as bad. Whether the cheaper labor is abroad, or temporarily imported is just as bad.

I believe that if allowed to continue unabated, eventually the economy of the US will be spread out across the world and we will be left with a quality of life similar to those found in third world countries. Although, at least, hopefully, those third world countries will have higher standards of living by that time, it will still be far less than what it found in the USA today Some people, especially those in third world countries, will say that is a good thing, but as a US citizen, I'm less inclined to agree. I do hope that eventually the quality of life and power of the world will be equalized, but I think the best way to do this is through technology, a stable population, and renewable materials and energy. We can steadily raise the quality of life in other countries without destroying the economy of the USA.

Sure it can’t be that bad, one might think. Otherwise, why would those causing this outsource be willing to allow practices that would ultimately undermine the base for their profitable companies? The answer is because they are selling out the future. The USA has a large amount of accumulated wealth. By making products cheaper in other countries and selling them in the USA, without contributing to more wealth in the USA, they are creating a flow of wealth from a richer area to a poorer area and siphoning of the lions share for themselves. This can't last indefinitely of course, but CEO's of today don't care about the common man of the future, or even the CEO's of the future. If they get their wealth now, they will have it far enough into the future that they have no concerns. There will always be some rich and powerful people, and they want to climb to the top of the hill and be there when the base starts sinking.

I think the situation was not as bad for the USA when it was mostly the lower paying jobs that required less education that were being exported or replaced by machines, because people could move into service industry or more white collar jobs. However now that engineering and computer jobs are going over seas to places like India and Russia, I think this is much more troublesome. The USA could lose its position as a technological leader. With neither brain nor brawn, we are left with nothing. Also, before we could say to the labor market that was loosing its jobs to machines and outsourcing, "go get more education", enter a different job market, but if those jobs are now also disappearing, where is there left to go? The only answer could be the service and entertainment industry, but with no wealth to spend on such services, how can we support this sector. In an increasingly tight job market where people are encouraged to work themselves ragged or always study to keep their skills fresh, who has the time to travel or be entertained more than before, which is what we will need to support more people entering this sector of the economy.

Copyright January 2003

After writing this article, I read this guy's post on Slashdot (a website devoted to "Geeks"). I think it has some important things to think about.