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Should I mop floors to keep an American in a cubicle, I will let you decide.

I've done exactly that (mop floors), and I replaced an illegal alien who lost the job because he didn't have his papers (score a victory for the anti-immigration crowd--the floor-mopping job went to a real American!). I took it because it was a night job, and I could still send out resumes, do contract work, and go to interviews during the day.

There is no stopping this phenomenon. PCs are cheap, the internet is becoming ubiquitous, and if I will mop floors in grocery stores, I can't fault a Russian or an Indian for getting whatever work they can get their hands on. And I can't fault an honest American for taking outsourced projects like this.

I'm beginning to wonder what real security looks like, and if it was only a temporary, post-WWII phenomenon that began to die in the 1970s. To survive, we are all going to have to get tougher, faster, smarter, and bolder. Bitching about all the little yellow people who will work for less than us is probably a big waste of time.

I'm beginning to wonder what real security looks like, and if it was only a temporary, post-WWII phenomenon that began to die in the 1970s.

It was temporary.

Of course, to get it back, we'd have to pretty much demolish every other major country's industrial base in a six-year-long war.

Bitching about all the little yellow people who will work for less than us is probably a big waste of time.

LOL! I'm a translator, and a lot of my work is going offshore to people who barely speak English. However, I suspect that much of it is the stuff I hated to do and usually rejected (forms, birth certificates, etc.).

The only thing to do is stay competitive. I have seen truly lousy translations by US translators who should have known better, and from the agency point of view, I can see why it would be better to pay .03 a word for a lousy translation than to pay .10 a word for the same lousy translation.

Americans should pull up their socks and either do a job that's worth paying Big $ for or start their own businesses doing something entirely different.

That said, I'm sure there are some agencies that are taking my research and sending it to their .03 per word translators in India and Hong Kong. The theft of intellectual property is a wholly different matter, however.

"I'm beginning to wonder what real security looks like, and if it was only a temporary, post-WWII phenomenon that began to die in the 1970s. To survive, we are all going to have to get tougher, faster, smarter, and bolder. Bitching about all the little yellow people who will work for less than us is probably a big waste of time."

I think you are mostly right in this. Think of how insecure most people in the world are today, and always were throughout history. Not just economically, but in every way. Everyone loves to remember the great old days of the agrarian economy, which was actually a lot of praying for rain (but not too much, and not at the wrong time), and back-breaking labor. We rather spoiled boomer and later Americans are certainly going to have to get tougher, I mean we are pretty fast, smart & bold, but we seem to be turning into a nation of wimps. I don't mean anyone on these boards, but in society in general.

The liberal establishment seems to want this to happen in the worst way (all possible puns intended). "No dodgeball, it's too mean" is just about the most perfect example of the whole body and soul ruining mindset I can give. The media's recent spotlight on some unhappy enlistees in Iraq is another. I'm sure those guys are p*ssed and want to come home, who could blame them? But I certainly hope they are punished for speaking against their commading officers to the press over such self-indulgent concerns. I'm starting to doubt we could beat the Nazis today, and that is a frightening thought. You are right, we shouldn't worry about the third-worlders who want to work really hard for cheap, but we do still have to worry about the ones who want to continue to slaughter us.

I am now going to reveal my theory about the past 50-60 years of American domestic labor, which some may find offensive, or controversial. I think what killed this country's labor base was welfare. Before welfare poor people had to work, and so took jobs that didn't pay much money. After welfare there was no driving need for them to do that, so foreigners had to be brought in to be our maids, chauffers, laundresses, porters, etc. The Great Society, like many liberal programs, actually killed the thing it sought to create. Just like legal abortion has basically taken away women's right to bear all their children. It seems the left is founded on an Orwellian relationship to reality.

Of course you are doing the right thing Fox, sounds like you are doing a great job for your client, you are providing honest labor for honest people, and you are not becoming a public charge yourself. Those are your responsibilties, you are not the person responsible for providing full employment for the American workforce. I am a person who feel overly responsible for all things sometimes, I think you might be the same way. I just try and remind myself of what I DON'T get paid to do and not do that stuff. Continued good luck with your project, and who knows, if you continue to do well, maybe you can hire some unemployed American(s) also!

We've got to tackle the problem of public elementary education before we are going to have any shot at curing what ails our nation. Also defeat the stinking terrorists and the festering communists around the globe. Including those on our shores.

To survive, we are all going to have to get tougher, faster, smarter, and bolder. Bitching about all the little yellow people who will work for less than us is probably a big waste of time.

Having worked with a few Hi-B's, I must comment on a very likable fellow I know from India. While listening to him talk may make me dizzy at times, he writes proposals and technical reports in absolutely the most beautiful English I have ever seen. His mastery of the language is far better than mine, and of most people posting here. My wife told me not to feel too badly about it..."After all, they were part of the Empire for a long time! Of COURSE Ravi would be good at it!"

There's a bigger picture than just cheaper labor. I talked to a state bridge engineer a few days ago and he mentioned something in passing that stuck. "We can't build the infrastructure in the present that we did in the past." The cost of doing things in the US has risen from other things and not just unions or high priced professional salaries.

It's not going to be pretty.