There they go again.  Claiming they can't find enough skilled Americans, the high-tech industry has browbeaten Congress into allowing them to bring in another 20,000 foreign workers.  The little-noticed legislation, inserted into an appropriations bill required for the government to continue normal operations, expands the number of foreign workers eligible for H-1b visas from 65,000 to 85,000 in 2005.

And the Davos crowd — Bill Gates and GE's Jeffrey Immelt in particular-have beaten the drums for visa "reform."

They and their shills point to dwindling enrollments of U.S. citizens in science and engineering programs as "evidence" for a high-tech worker shortage. in the U.S. Labor Force, funded by Compete America, a high-tech trade

But, contrary to what the high-tech industry claims, American enrollments in science and engineering (S&E) programs have risen and fallen in almost exact correlation with the job market in those fields:

The reason Americans hesitate to study science and engineering is simple: pursuing an advanced degree in these fields is a bad investment.

For PhDs for example, the salary premium is not high enough to compensate for the five or more years of foregoing an industry salary while pursuing graduate study.

For U.S. citizens a doctorate in science or engineering causes a net lifetime LOSS in earnings.

For foreigners, of course, an American S&E degree remains attractive — relative to their options at home.

Allowing the importation of cheaper foreign workers is simply a form of corporate welfare for the high-tech industry — and it's a solution that, by flooding the S&E market and discouraging potential native-born students, makes the problem worse.

In the past ten years, American jobs screamed out of the United States at an accelerating rate of speed.  While American workers stood in unemployment lines, major corporations insourced, outsourced and offshored jobs to Third World countries.  Why?  They could obtain labor for $1.00 an hour and sometimes less. Capitalism knows no loyalty to man, beast or country.

At the high end, Congress offered hundreds of thousands of H-1B and L-1 visas that displaced 890,000 American high tech workers out of jobs while importing cheap labor from overseas.

To add insult to injury while displacing American workers — meatpacking, chicken processing, paving, construction, hotel, roofing, landscaping and other trade jobs were insourced to millions of illegal alien workers.

America's manufacturing base and ability to sell products to the world diminished with the rising power of corporations to control taxes, tariffs and commodities markets.  These huge corporations, run by American CEO's, took advantage of their American roots and benefits enjoyed in a First World country — while giving millions of jobs to people in other countries.  For what? Obscene profits!  It's why you hear of their $125 million annual paychecks.  They are the Ken Lays of Enron crowd who don't get caught.  Why not?  Because what they do is legal, but then again, they paid enough money into Political Action Committees and other organizations to make sure they gained tax breaks and other benefits from Congress.

It's a hell of a rich man's club, but it's turning America's Middle Class into the Working Poor Class.

Who are these giants?  You'd be surprised.  They are some of our most time-honored companies who built their empires on the backs of America's working class heroes.

According to Arianna Online, "Bank of America shouldn't be allowed to have 'America' in the name of the company."  One of America's largest banks eliminated 5,000 jobs while outsourcing 1,250 jobs to India.  It announced it would cut another 12,000 jobs in the next two years.  Employees were given severance pay on condition they train their replacement.

Affiliated Computer Services offers business processing technology — outsourced 1,300 jobs to India in the past three years.  They multiplied their profits by paying half the wage rate in a Third World country of 1.1 billion eager workers.

According to Arianna, "The company chairman is known as Darwin "Survival of the Richest" Deason."

General Electric built its empire on American soil.  However, it is known as the father of outsourcing.  It outsourced 12,000 jobs to people in India who perform at phones answering credit card inquires and give IT technical assistance while handling network security.  The three leading executives of GE make untold millions in salaries while American citizens stand in unemployment lines.

Halliburton, formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney as its CEO, enjoys 45 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens.  Halliburton is helping reconstruct Iraq with $73 million in equipment and services.  The only caveat stems from working as a civilian employee with Halliburton in Iraq might find you with your head on a platter.  However, stockholders make millions.

The Bank of New York, run by Thomas "Pioneering the Loss of American Jobs" Reny, in March 2003, sent 250 computer software jobs to Mumbai where it already employed 670 workers.  It plans to open a software development center in the Philippines.

American Telephone and Telegraph, or what we used to call "Ma Bell" which is about as ALL-AMERICAN a company you could ever find-outsourced 500 customer service jobs to India in 2003 in addition to another 3,000 jobs outsourced before that date.

Dell Computers employs 3,000 Indians in Bangalore and Hyderabad, India.  Sprint cut 21,000 American jobs in 2001 through 2003 and sent those jobs to Third World countries.  American Flyer, the makers of the little red wagon we all pulled as kids, outsourced to China this year.  Maytag in Pennsylvania shut its plant while displacing 1,500 workers and set up shop in Mexico.

"Congress, the President and journalists sit around like outsourcing is some incurable disease and they cannot fix it," said Paul Streitz, an industry watchdog.  "It is not.  They say outsourcing is driven by the need for firms to stay "competitive."  But to stay competitive means lowering costs and raising profits for stockholders and key executives.  The additional savings are not passed on to customers.  No study has ever shown that those companies using outsourcing are charging lower prices.  A chief justification for this abomination."

If this trend is any indication, and it is, the best days of America's working class fade in the rearview mirror.  Americans compete with 1.3 billion Chinese and 1.1 billion Indians whose medium income teeters at $2,000.00 a year.  They will work for $5.00 a day whereas Americans must make at least $15.00 an hour to maintain a decent standard of living.

You have to ask who will have enough money to buy the goods and services those companies market when the American Middle Class slides down the tubes?  What's in store for Americans?

It means America's Middle Class races to the bottom of the 'standard of living' barrel as its jobs outsource, insource and offshore.  It means millions work from paycheck to paycheck with few benefits and no job security.  It means the American Dream drops from achievable for the vast majority in the past to a pipe dream for the new Working Poor Class.

So why is opposing exporting sensitive technology not "protectionism," why is opposing importing environment dangerous chemicals not "protectionism" but why is opposing of replacing American workers by cheap foreigners "protectionism?"

Outsourcing means forcing the local workforce to train their replacements in order to allow corporations to fire the more expensive domestic workers.  If foreign countries call opposition to outsourcing "protectionism," let's force them to sign an agreement that will make it legal in their country to force local workers to train foreign replacements.

"Comparative advantage" means that some countries/societies can produce better and/or cheaper products than others.  Supporters of outsourcing say:  "History has confirmed that Adam Smith's theory of comparative advantage was remarkably prophetic.  Not only have scores and scores of countries thrived as they initially encountered global trade, but many others have crashed dramatically upon raising barriers to the same."

So what is "comparative advantage" of China and India and what is "comparative advantage" of the US?  What product can those countries produce better or cheaper than the US?  Answer — almost none, unless American corporations force American workers to teach Chinese and Indians how to make those products.  After American workers will teach them, then other countries have significant "comparative advantage."  "Comparative advantage" of China is that people of China are slaves of the communist dictatorship and are forced to work for any compensation that communists decide which serves the interests of the communist elite.  A free man cannot compete against a slave — a slave will always be cheaper and will always work harder.  Conclusion — American workers have no "comparative advantage" against Chinese workers.  What is "comparative advantage" of India?  Prices of basic food, rents are cheaper in India than in the US, so an Indian worker can survive on $200/month.  In many US cities just renting a studio costs $500/month. Conclusion — American workers have no "comparative advantage" against India.

So what are American workers good for?  The only "comparative advantage" of American workers is that they will vote for politicians that support replacing American workers by cheaper foreigners.  About 80% of them will vote for Bush or Kerry — both of them support replacing American workers by cheap foreigners.  I doubt Indian or Chinese will vote for politicians that support replacing the domestic workforce by cheaper foreigners.  So don't despair — Americans have "comparative advantage" after all.

The problem with the numbers, however, is what's wrong with nearly every pronouncement from this administration.  It's clothed in a semblance of truth, but it disguises the real facts.  The truth is we have more educated, specialized, articulate, unemployed workers than ever in our history.

Excess trash is exactly how our corporate entities view our workforce.  Worse than trash is how our government has protected them.  So, here we are being told that we're in a boom economy when the opposite surrounds us.  What are we to do?

And if the manager doing the hiring is younger than the applicant is, well, statistics indicate the chance of getting that job is close to nil.  Here's another statistic not bantered around:  only 19% of computer science grads are still employed as computer programmers twenty years later.  Furthermore, if you are forty and an unemployed programmer lucky enough to find a job in your field, you can count on taking a cut in pay.

So, what are we to do?  For one, we need to begin by replacing our legislators, representatives, and our country's leaders with truly concerned and compassionate representatives.  We need to demonstrate by our vote that we the people are in charge.  We need to send a loud and resounding message to anyone seeking political office or holding office that they work for us, the people.  We need to shun the deceptive political commercials and the spin weavers and use our own very perceptive minds.

The biggest yard sale in American history is taking place.  Unfortunately, it's America and everything American is being sold at rock bottom prices.  Everyone wants in on the action; corporations, our government, political representatives of both houses, the elite and anyone who thinks they can make a fast buck gambling with our children's' future.

Politicians motivated by the pursuit of votes and a constant supply of cheap labor are tripping over themselves in a nauseating display to give illegal aliens driver's licenses, free K-12 education, in-state college tuition and free health care.  They are willing to give privileges to foreign nationals who are here illegally while our own citizens go begging.  Try 18 million unemployed Americans!

The bizarre is becoming the norm.  American software engineers are laid off to make way for cheaper H-1B and L-1 visa holders from India and elsewhere.  Adding insult to injury, Americans must train their replacements with the threat of losing their severance pay if they decline.

The elites and big business are getting rich by balancing their books on the backs of everyday Americans.  Who pays for the social services for the millions of illegals?  Who suffers the costs of high crime rates and the influx of infectious disease due to our wide open and unscreened borders that our government refuses to close?  You do!  Not the elites who live in gated communities and send their children to exclusive private schools.  Middle Americans can't insulate themselves from the reality of their own destruction.

The latest insult to our intelligence is the President's guest worker amnesty scheme that will "match any willing worker to any willing employer."  America can now become a "giant low wage employment agency" to the world.  Envision billions of the world's poor competing for and further undercutting American wages. Clearly the middle class is under attack by our smiling politicians, both Republicans and Democrats alike.

Our country is being stolen from us bit by bit, piece by piece, every minute of every day.  We are returning to feudalism, controlled by the Lords of Industry, who will rule over the Global nation with an iron fist.  Thom Hartmann, best selling author states, "Only a return to liberal economic policies — a return to 'We The People' again setting and enforcing the rules of the game of business — will reverse this dangerous trend.  We've done it before, with tariffs, anti-trust legislation, and worker protections ranging from enforcing the rights of organized labor (RICO) to restricting American companies' access to cheap foreign labor through visas and tariffs.  The result was the production of something never before seen in history:  a strong and vibrant middle class."

Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Merchants have no country.  The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gain."

Lie #1. Loss of manufacturing jobs is a good thing.  We've exported manufacturing to the point that we have no manufacturing left.  The last remnants of manufacturing — the tool shops are closing their doors.  China has become the center of world manufacturing.  China was supposed to open their markets to our products but they didn't.  What if China decided to nationalize the production facilities or if corporations decide to use the leverage of production against us?  Who is more dependent — them or us?

Lie #2. Sending high-tech jobs to India is good for our economy and our country. High-tech jobs sustained our economy as manufacturing was exported.  The 'experts' tell us that exporting these jobs is a normal economic shift.  However, economic shifts of the past were in a closed system within our borders.  Our leaders knew where we were headed.  When we shifted from an Agrarian to an Industrial economy, our leaders led us into manufacturing.  When we shifted from an Industrial to an Information economy, our leaders moved toward computers and knowledge.  Today as we are shifting from an Information economy to a Global economy, our leaders are silent.  They have led us to the economic precipice and they are telling us, JUMP!  When we ask, "Where will we land?"  They say, "We don't know but it's going to be good for you so, JUMP!"

Lie #3. High-tech jobs being sent to India are unimportant.  Our economy is dependent on computer systems.  Everything you eat, wear, watch, and use is brought to you by the supply chain of large corporations.  Even the small local businesses are dependent on large suppliers and computers.  Computer systems run this country.  Cut the power to the computer systems and our country stops. Control of these systems is being exported to India.  What if India decides to cut the power?  What if corporations decide to use the leverage against us?  With the control in India, who is more dependent — them or us?

Lie #4. Deficit spending and the trade deficit don't matter.  Every job that leaves this country takes its tax base with it.  We are losing our ability to pay for our infrastructure.  The borrowing that our government is doing is masking the economic losses from the export of our economy.  The states are in budget crisis because of declining tax revenues.  We think we are the richest country in the world.  If we were, we wouldn't have to borrow money.  We suffer a $7 trillion national debt.  Consumer debt tops $2 trillion.  The average credit card is $8,000.00 in debt.  Annual trade deficit exceeds $120 billion.  If you don't make anything, you have nothing to sell.  If you don't have a job, you don't make any money.  You can't pay your bills.

Lie #5. Immigration is good for our economy and good for our country.  In the past, this was true, but no longer.  Our 292 million population is self-sustaining.  Illegal immigration is discussed as immigration to confuse the issue.  On the left, people are sold the message:  "The poor hard working Mexicans need a job."  On the right, people are sold the message that, "It will be an economic catastrophe if we don't have uneducated migrants working the tomato fields, wash dishes and clean bathrooms."  Mexicans are exploited and they are taking jobs that Americans want and need.  They overburden our schools, hospitals and other social safety net systems.  The invaders are taxpayer-subsidized cheap labor for corporations.  Worse, illegal and legal immigrants send $56 billion out of our country annually — thus draining us of hard currency.

Lie #6. Trade in Services is like Trade in Products.  Trade in Services defines people as commodities.  A person who is a commodity, is a defacto slave.  Guest worker programs are slave programs.  Guest Workers are indentured servants to an employer.  Complain about unsafe conditions, refuse meager wages, act up and you will be deported.  The chains of bondage are strongest when the slaves are from a Third World country.  American Workers are expected to compete with indentured servants for economic survival.

Let's recap.  We make nothing.  We import everything.  Corporations are exporting their businesses to cheap labor countries.  We borrow money from our competitors to maintain our lifestyle.  Our government is engaged in slave trade under the guise of Trade-in-Services.  Foreign nationals invade our country, breaking down our social structure and cause lawlessness on an unprecedented scale in our government and private sectors.

All this is being done in the name of Globalization.  Globalization is The Big Lie.  Free Trade is the method of implementation.  America is being bankrupted and dismantled for the fire sale.  Globalization has been taught in our military colleges.  The strategy is 'mutually assured dependence'.  It is a brilliant corporate marketing strategy.  Sell a nation an idea that purports to have a goal of world peace through interdependence of our economies.  Sell the American people the idea that they are consumers and that cheap goods from Wal-Mart are more important that anything else on earth.  Engineer foreign trade so there is no reciprocation.  When America is bankrupt from the unfair trade, the corporations will be able to loot and plunder our beloved country and the U.S. military will ensure that nobody gets in the way.

The goal of Globalization is to breakup America as a nation, as a culture and as a people.  The American Dream is being stolen from us — not the consumer model, but the dream of America itself.  America as an independent nation of independent people with rights and a Constitution to protect us from the excesses of government is being stolen right out from under us.  Globalization seeks to turn American Citizens into pawns to be used and then replaced with cheaper foreign imports at the will of corporate despots.  We are being invaded, divided and are close to being conquered.  As one American to another, look at The Big Lie for what it is and what it is doing to our nation.  In the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, "A House Divided Can Not Stand."  We must unite in our efforts to save our country from those who seek to steal our American Dream.

They say 2 million jobs are being outsourced overseas?  Let's pretend all of those jobs are for $60,000 a year?  Ok, let's tax that amount by 17% (current social security/medicaid rates) that amounts to over 20 billion dollars a year that is lost to the Social Security System.

The real number is not known, however I've read that some venture the number might rise to 14 million within the next two years.  No wonder Mr. Greenspan is alarmed, we could be loosing $140 billion a year in social security revenue?

The White House spokesman recently said that outsourcing the economic advisor on White House cabinet, who makes $200,000 a year, is the "wave of the future, just the beginning?"

Ok, lets do the math, substitute 2 million jobs times the maximum contribution level.  Social Security is based on new workers supporting older workers.  If mass numbers of jobs disappear due to free trade, then Social Security could be wiped out?

IMO, something is going to come to the head soon.  As we lose more jobs, the tax base erodes.  What are we to do about that?

With so many technical jobs going abroad, why would a young student study computer science, engineering, architecture, accounting?  the list goes on and on.

And when your own government creates visa programs to replace you with cheaper foreign workers, right in your own backyard; who in their right mind will choose a field of study with this being offered to corporate America by our very own so-called elected leaders.

Henry Ford, a pioneer and a devout capitalist, ironically did the exact opposite of what the current crop of CEO's are doing.  He raised wages (rather than lower them which is the effect of outsourcing).  And why?  It was not because Henry was being generous.  He was a pious penny pincher.  Mr. Ford knew that one way to increase sales of his product was to have more customers.  And what a better way to have more customers than turn to his very own employees making the product? Shrewd, it and earned Ford Motor Co. 30% increase in sales the very first year.

It is alright to tell the out-of-work techie to stop whining and instead compete with the Indian IT worker, as suggests another message in the same site.

But the issue here is more complex. It is difficult for Americans to compete with Indians on money terms and it is virtually impossible to live a decent life in America on $8k per year.

Yeah! May be he could get a new set of skills that would make him indispensable to his company. The problem with that is IT workers are mostly college grads. College educations take money, a whole lot of money.

After spending thousands on student loans and working 13 hour days, where is the time and the money to turn into a say a biochemist? Or maybe a nanotechnologist?

...  the flight of unskilled labor positions has a solution — retraining to provide skills.  The flight of skilled labor positions leaves you with no where else to go.  This does not mean I am advocating a protectionist agenda — I am not.  I am a believer in free trade and a market economy.  Fortunately, there are other solutions.  I recommend a three-pronged attack on this problem by government, employees and citizens.

The federal government must take action to protect these jobs without outlawing the practice of offshoring (protectionism).  I recommend we eliminate the R&D Tax credit to any corporation that offshores jobs.  In other words, instead of punishing a company that does this, just remove an incentive.  The R&D tax credit is not just about technology but about U.S.  technologists.

IT employees and those developers seeking employment must also do their part. First, do some due diligence on your company or the company you are interviewing with and don't work for a company that outsources jobs.  Why?  The practice is a guarantee that your job or future job is merely a convenience and can be sacrificed at any time by the whim of management.  Thus, this onerous tactic is a serious breach of trust between an employer and employees because a good employer seeks to do its best to insure the continued employment of its staff.  Secondly, IT employees must continue to innovate.  Innovation cannot be outsourced so every technical person should work hard to increase their skills and be invaluable to their employer.  I firmly believe in education for life for both personal and professional enrichment.  Lastly, if you are part of a company that is offshoring jobs, you should explore unionizing.  Employees of any company that follows this practice should consider themselves in a hostile environment and should respond in kind.  The only response such management will understand is losing money which translates into the threat of a strike which would entail lost accounts due to broken commitments.

As a 24-year high-tech veteran and U.S. citizen, I would say to HP and the other "America-be-damned-for-our-bottom-line" companies (built by the drive, initiative and innovation of U.S. citizen workers, by the way), don't be surprised if you're asked to pay for selling us and your country down the river.

Yeah, I hear you squealing about the evils of "protectionism," but consider that every job you "outsource" is taking away from the U.S. tax base — the same U.S. tax base that pays for the secure, comfortable and stable environment your company enjoys doing business in.  So, is it unfair to ask that you make up for the adverse economic effects to our nation that your "job outsourcing" causes?

I would suggest the draining of our high-tech jobs and the inevitable disruption to our economy, not to mention degrading our position as a technological leader, more than justifies our asking the companies involved to compensate us.

The government purports to track the unemployment rate.  But scrutiny of the numbers reveals arbitrary definitions and assumptions that obscure as much as they reveal.

You may have recently heard the good news:  the unemployment rate in this country fell from 6.0 percent to 5.9 percent in November.  The news media heralded this revelation as a sign of a economic recovery.  But is it?

Many people don't seem to know how the Department of Labor comes up with its statistics.  The friends and family I spoke with thought that it was based on unemployment insurance claims.  Not so.  In fact, unemployment claims contribute nothing to the unemployment statistics.  To collect the data, the Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts a monthly survey of about 60,000 households nationwide, called the Current Population Survey.

Now we are ready to do some math.  The BLS attempts to contact around 60,000 households (some percentage of these cannot be contacted).  Six percent of that that group would equal 3,600 people; 5.9% would equal 3,540 people, a difference of 60 people.  In the survey group, the net gain in jobs is 60.  From this number, the BLS extrapolates that 105,000 people nationally found new jobs.

Those 60,000 people represent about one out of every 2,500 people in the working population.  These are odds only a statistician can love.  One must be a true believer to think that by talking to one person in a group of 2,500 you can determine the plight of the other 2,499.

When the BLS calls you on the phone, it doesn't ask if you are a U.S. citizen, a foreign worker or an illegal alien.  The statistics include everyone who is working in this country.  For example, a foreign software programmer hired on a temporary work visa is counted as employed.  There are an estimated 1.7 million temporary foreign workers in this country.  I have to say estimated because the Department of Labor doesn't keep track of those figures.  Illegal immigrants are counted, too.  There are an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants in this country.

Here's another twist.  The unemployment rate for workers with a Bachelors degree and higher, 25 years old and over, went from 3.0 percent to 3.1 percent.  It increased.  We actually lost high-paying jobs in November.

I was laid off from Cisco Systems in April of 2001.  Since that time I have struggled to find a job any job, anywhere.  I have seen massive outsourcing of computer programming jobs to other countries.  I have seen the import of foreign programmers as a means to boost corporate profits and avoid retraining skilled professionals.

Through research in the Department of Labor database I have found that the business unit in which I was employed has hired 12 foreign software engineers — one of which is probably sitting in my old cubicle.  I have seen the wholesale destruction of our manufacturing sector as it steadily moves overseas.  I have seen part of a marathon U.S. Senate debate, lasting a whopping 40 hours. Somewhere around hour 29, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada outlined what had been lost since the debate began:  the government ran up another $300 million more in debt, there were 36 more mass layoffs (a mass layoff involves 50 or more people, 3,194 more people ran out of unemployment benefits; and 5,137 more people declared personal bankruptcy (now at the highest level in history).  And what was the Senate debating?  They were debating the fate of four federal judge nominees who already have high paying jobs with great benefits.

In the BLS survey there were 60 new jobs in October.  I was not one of those 60 people.  According to the BLS survey 457,000 people have given up looking for work.  I am not yet one of those people.  But I'm damned close.

Consider:  Slavery ended because a war forced businesses to give up their free labor.  If you don't want capitalism to become a euphemism for "greed" you need to consider the whole system, and be reasonable.  Making a profit is great, getting filthy rich while your neighbor sits idle and your cities and states lose tax revenues is stupid.  Stupid because you know damn well where the next big welfare check will go.  Maybe you don't.  It won't go to the US techies, it'll go to the people with powerful lobbyists who are being hurt by techie unemployment.  So, we're looking at subsidies for schools at the very least; which is again stupid because like I said, American engineers are not under-educated, nor is there a shortage of American techies.  Never-the-less, we'll all get free tech PhD's — except for management, the one component that never seems to get replaced.

We've devalued almost an entire class of trained, upper working class workers in less than 4 years.  Do you really believe that our system can handle that?

I'm fortunate enough that I actually own my company so I don't have to deal with the political sewage that frequently seeps down in many companies.  The entire situation in this country dealing with the outsourcing of our high-tech industry boils my blood.  I am a true believer that the legislation currently being proposed to lower the H-1B and L-1B visa quotas will not go far enough.  I think these visas should be abolished until all of the unemployed and laid-off IT workers and engineers who are US citizens are back on a payroll.  The fact that a US company thinks that hiring a barely-English-speaking worker in India or the Philippines is going to solve their competitive problems is just absurd.  This is such a shortsighted solution that it makes me sick to think that the people in these corporations actually think that they are making sound business decisions. When the high-tech people being displaced by these policies don't have the income to purchase the products being made off-shore, who exactly, Mr. and Ms. CxO, do you think is going to buy your stuff?  You think the worker in India is going to run out and buy it?  I doubt it.  I'm not speaking as a disgruntled engineer who has been laid off; I've avoided that fate which makes me, unfortunately, unusual among my friends.  I'm speaking from experience, both as consumer and as a developer dealing with offshore companies.

Are all outsourcing companies a total waste?  I doubt it, I'm sure there are some stellar engineers working at some of these companies.  Just as there are stellar engineers all over the world.  Do I want, or need, to work with them from my office in the US to successfully complete a project?  I don't think so.  Will using an offshore development team save money?  I can tell you from my experience, it was exactly the opposite.

I want to be very clear:  I have no problem working with anyone of any nationality.  In fact, most of my career has been spent working with teams located around the globe.  What I do have a problem with is working with people who are being hired as "cheap" labor who clearly aren't qualified or and can be very hard to understand to handle the business situation or transaction required.  While many of us in the industry feel like we are being dragged through the wringer and have no choice when dealing with the whole offshore situation.  I'd like to suggest that we, as an industry, have a number of choices.  Here are a few:

• When you are asked to train the foreign worker to do your job or to support your product line because in 6–8 months they will be doing your job (or the job of a co-worker), simply refuse.  And if you must, quit the job.  No two weeks notice, just flat out quit.  While this might seem like a drastic measure, you're going to lose your job anyway so does it really matter?  At least you'll leave on your own terms and not be labeled as a disposable worker, not to mention leaving with some dignity.  Let companies understand the value that we bring to the success of business in this country.

• When you are about to buy a product, call the company and ask them if they outsource their IT and their customer support before you make the purchase.  If they do, then simply don't buy the product.  But make sure you write an email or letter to the CEO or President and let them know flat out why you didn't buy the product.  American companies will listen when their wallets are being squeezed.  Maybe we should start industry-wide and consumer aware boycotts of these companies and publicly supporting those companies that support the American high-tech worker.  If enough people stop buying the products that are built and/or supported by offshore companies, then I think that American companies will start to listen.

• Last but not least, write your congress-people, your Rep and your Senators. I'm sending a copy of this blog to mine right now.  Let them know that the issuing of foreign worker visas in the high-tech industry has to stop.  Either that, or make it financially unattractive for companies to do so by hitting them with a "we're screwing the high-tech American worker and we know it" tax.  At least we'll have it all out in the open for what it is.

Companies only care about the bottom line.  Unions, boycotts, taxation, contacting our goverment leaders and telling them that the Baby Boomer Vote is on the line on this fighting from within companies are the only way Outsourcing and Age Discrimination is going to stop.  Managers should realize that if IT positions go away so will their jobs.

1) Does the argument that other countries will grow a middle class and produce new markets make sense when those newly "wealthy" workers will only have a fraction of the buying power of the payroll power they replaced?

2) How is the idea that globalization will bring up the living standard in other countries to be squared with WiPro's insight that it can always find a more cheaper pool of workers?  (i.e., the "race to the bottom") Wouldn't the buying power of every new market be an even smaller fraction of the one it left behind? Don't the worst regimes get rewarded for keeping their people "more desperate than thou"?

3) Isn't rather circular reasoning to argue that things will get cheaper, and hence more efficient, if one requires a job to produce the revenue to buy these new products?

4) Wouldn't strong protections for property rights, both physical and intellectual, be a prerequisite for these markets to arise?  If so, then do these markets meet this standard?  If not, then what basis is there to believe that American products will find a new market?  Should the pharmaceutical companies expect that Asians who make a few dollars a day will be able to pay for the research which is now paid for by the health-benefit plans of American workers?

5) Wasn't the transformation to an educated, skilled information economy the basis of the American strategy for globalization?  If software design and development can be outsourced, than why not biotech, aerospace, or nanotechnology?

6) Is globalization preparing us for global competition, or are we really breeding it in parts of the world that would have otherwise taken years to come around?  Might not a slower evolution of these markets lessened the shock of competing with workers who can live on a few dollars a day?

7) If reducing costs is about increased value, then explain what value will be found when 2/3 of mid-to-large sized software projects fail miserably.  It's not like this problem goes away by hiring the right [insert big consulting house here].  How can an organizations which do not appear to know how to select and hire people who are capable of producing value possibly maximize value by choosing a new batch of workers who are cheaper, but equally incapable of producing value?

10) How is America to maintain its technical edge when technical skills are not enough to make a living and no person in there right mind goes to school for it anymore?

I am saddened by the responses of clearly intelligent people to this article. It's time to wake up now.  This isn't about America vs India.  This is how the global economy works (is does NOT work for people).  I read in one or two of the responses the term "muli-nationals" referring to corporations homed in several countries.  A more descriptive term might be "transnational," as these corporations appear to be "from" all countries in which they operate when it suites their purposes.  This to keep up what the threads here do so well, pit nations or peoples against each other, as well as curry favor as though local. This is one big smoke and mirrors act.  The global economy is bad for people period.  It's bad for people of all nations and terrible for the planet.  That some people in some countries improve their situation is not proof to the contrary.  The Indian software developers described in the article have surely improved their standard of living.  You must ask yourself why they are so inexpensive to begin with.

My hope is that if more people everywhere (especially on the big island of America, where there is still the tiniest shred of democracy left) understand what is really happening on our planet and to it's inhabitants perhaps some of the creative beauty that is (or can be) human will shine through.

Please stop all this xenophobia.  Do you really believe that a human born at one latitude/longitude, subject to the customs, history, society, etc., there is somehow superior, or inferior, to one born at another?

The place we are all heading is dark and very, very ugly.  Many people have been there a long time.  Intentionally, by the worst of humanity.  Unintentionally, by the ignorant or uninformed masses within which I must count myself a member.

How do you keep a society based on consumerism going, when the only good jobs are soft [cough] skills like marketing, sales, and middle management, — and all the real thinking is done elsewhere?  How long will those skills be needed when the local consumer base begins to evaporate faster than India can grow a middle class which would even come close to replacing them?  Is there some magic economic multiplier that allows a worker who makes $10K a year to buy as many (non-pirated) electronics as one who makes many times that much?

Tell me, will all the ivy league, non-technical frat boys still have that "inside edge" selling to the future CIO's and housewives of [insert third world basket-case here] once multinationals realize what the Mr.  Premji obviously does, i.e:  that the same principles apply even better to soft skills, and why do we even need an "americanized" sales force whose only skill is speaking to Americans when the American consumer class can't get anything better than a landscaping job for the few remaining middle managers.  — Until they too are outsourced to "world class" competition.

This is the lie of globalism:  Knowledge workers who keep up with technology are supposed to do well in this economy, but knowledge and quality doesn't mean squat because decision makers don't understand what they are buying.  The middle management of most large corporations oversee one breathtaking implementation boondoggle after another because they seem to believe that efficient work and the creativity that requires can be mass produced like socks, when in fact it cannot.

We are not getting ready for competition, we are breeding it like dragon's teeth in the name of short term profits based on the elimination of "overhead."  That's not efficiency.  It's downsizing your target market's disposable income.