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first off, no one talking about offshoring here is saying its the worst economy since the depression.

But what is being described is real, its really happening. Now it may well be affecting a relatively modest group of workers right now, with respect to the overall mix of workers and jobs. But its the trend that is potentially devastating for the middle class. If you look at the totality of "knowledge jobs", there is a potentially huge number of them that can be done overseas. Look across disciplines in many industries, basically any job that can be done by someone sitting at a desk with a computer, whose physical presence is not needed, can be done overseas. Extrapolate that, and you can see what the potential effects on the white collar private sector middle class can be in 10 years. We've lost most of manufacturing, if we lose "knowledge jobs", we'll have just service jobs and government jobs left.

And with respect to these "industries of the future" that are going to create all these new jobs, there is no reason that those industries and jobs won't be offshore right out of the gate.

US corporations are changing their business model: profits in the US, protections of the US legal and intellectual property systems, highly paid US corporate executives, and every job they can figure out how to move offshore will go. That shift will wipe out the US tax base. A $70K tech or white collar corporate staff worker or who ends up working at Home Depot for $40K, pays no federal income tax, and probably switches their vote to Democrat.

In addition to the economic dislocations, this trend will create a permanent Democratic majority in the US, the private sector middle and upper middle class is the only demographic keeping the Republicans afloat.

".....this trend will create a permanent Democratic majority in the US, the private sector middle and upper middle class is the only demographic keeping the Republicans afloat."

Thats an excellent point, oceanview. And if the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to expand with Republicans controlling the WH and both houses of congress, who do you think will take the blame?

But its the trend that is potentially devastating for the middle class. If you look at the totality of "knowledge jobs", there is a potentially huge number of them that can be done overseas. Look across disciplines in many industries, basically any job that can be done by someone sitting at a desk with a computer, whose physical presence is not needed, can be done overseas. Extrapolate that, and you can see what the potential effects on the white collar private sector middle class can be in 10 years. We've lost most of manufacturing, if we lose "knowledge jobs", we'll have just service jobs and government jobs left.

Whatever you extrapolate will fill the hypothetical universe.