Having lost a big project that was outsourced to India last year, it makes me feel real happy {sarcasm} that IBM is helping them "ramp up" it's labor force to take even more projects away from people like me. Thanks IBM! Not trying to play devil's advocate here, but can someone explain to me how IBM giving them all this help can be a good thing for us?
However, when India gets an economy they will do what countries with an economy tend to do...., they will consume. They will buy goods from us (and will want to develop their own internal production of goods that right now they can only buy from us). If we are still a nation of producers (and I believe we are), then the competition will be good for us and for them.
My concerns are not for Indians working for 89 cents a day. Americans have shown that we can overcome disparities in labor costs up to a certain extent. It is for the willingness of governments and unions to build in regulatory/environmental requirements which will hinder our ability to compete. The response of bureaucrats is "it is ONLY this," or " it is ONLY that much." This may work when we are the only show in town. When the real competition shows up, you suddenly realize that you are strait jacketed. Then, the labor differential is critical because you have no other areas where you can stretch. They are all regulated/controlled.
Just as an aside, I wonder how popular the move "Norma Rae" would be in the textile areas of NC if they released it today? It was all brave stalwart heroism when it came out. Now, all those union employees are wondering how to get jobs in the biotech facilities operating where sewing machines used to spin.
Since we obviously can't compete with the wages of countries like India, we have to concentrate on those high-tech, high value-added products and services like, uh, well, exactly like the project you lost to India. Hmm.
Last night I talked with a friend who just returned from spending several months on a project in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Once he got past the crowding, the widespread poverty, and the stench, the dynamism of parts of that economy just floored him. Well educated workers available dirt cheap, money flooding in from all over the world, a rapidly growing middle class...
"Go east, young man."