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To: RockyMtnMan
So when competing internationally IBM is going to be happy about losing contracts to Indian firms they trained? Isn't this what offshoring is supposed to help IBM with?

No. It is supposed to cut their operational costs, not to permanently eliminate the possibility of competition against them, which is impossible anyway.

If Indian firms do proliferate and compete with one another, it will further cut their costs, and yours. And if Indian programmers and engineers do try to compete with IBM--a long-term possibility--it will make your cost of living go down even further and free up even more money for more American investment at home.

But also remember, as other countries' economies improve through their commerce with us, they will start buying computers too, and there will be room for many competitors on the world stage.

What about Chinese companies copying source code, relabeling it ChiComSoft and selling it to US companies for a tenth the cost?

They already do that, working from here in the U.S. That's a separate problem.

What's wrong with the US owning a monopoly on the world stage?

Such a situation is both unattainable and unsustainable, unless you want to assume that everyone in the Third World is too stupid to compete. Besides, if not for Third World labor in a variety of industries, you would not be able to afford the computer you are working on--costs would be two, three or four times what they are today.

You fear, as many do, that such labor will drive America's economy to destruction. But ask yourself, has it brought us in that direction? In fact, no, it hasn't. We are more prosperous than we ever have been before, and the rest of humanity is beginning to share that prosperity by doing business with us. Our salaries will not diminish, but theirs will rise. I think that's a good thing, myself, and it will give them other things to do with themselves besides immigrate here illegally and collect foreign aid and charity money.

And I don't see any reason to compare poor nations with feces. After all, they are human beings, children of God, too.

80 posted on 12/15/2003 12:30:44 PM PST by The Old Hoosier (Right makes might.)
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To: The Old Hoosier
I consider Communist/Socialist nations turd-world as would most on this board. We had a policy during the cold war to not allow the soviets access to our high-tech innovations. Yet we seem quite comfortable sharing with the ChiComs, I don't get it.

This trend is not being driven by long-term goals but by short-term profits. The Chinese are long term thinkers and damn good at it and will capitilize on our short-sightedness. We should take a careful look at the long-term ramifications of a significant brain-drain of American resources and the ensuing disinterest of our youth in a science based career.

If the tides do turn then our best and brightest will be recruited to other nations just as we do to the rest of the world now.
82 posted on 12/15/2003 12:43:16 PM PST by RockyMtnMan
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To: The Old Hoosier
fine, I accept they they are intelligent enough.

Let some Indian entrepreneur start BBM, Bombay Business Machines. Let them hire low cost Indian staff, and undercut IBM prices for services. Then let's see BBM sign up Citibank, and Goldman Sachs as customers? Think they can? We all know the answer, they can't. So instead IBM uses their good name and sells out US jobs, they don't cut prices, and the execs pocket a good portion of the savings for themselves.

The end result: the wealthy executive class accumulates more, and the jobs of middle class people go offshore, and many of those americans are forced into lower paying jobs in the service sector. Our tax base shrinks, we have more people who need government assistance to have a middle class life, so the rest of us who still have jobs pay ever higher taxes to support those social services.
85 posted on 12/15/2003 12:55:42 PM PST by oceanview
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