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It is a scary time when corporations transcend nationality. Labor, skilled and otherwise, is always going to come more cheaply in nations with a lower standard of living. One question that comes to my mind is what kind of jobs will there be for educated and skilled Americans to replace the educated and skilled jobs going overseas? Does anyone have an honest answer?

Second, if salaries are going overseas, does this mean that these companies no longer care about building up the economies of the communities they locate in, ie the American cities they locate in, or are they no longer in any sense American?

Third, if they pay out salaries overseas, does that mean that they expect their principal consumers to come from overseas, or do they expect other industries to continue to pay decent salaries in the US and maintain a middle class to purchase their products?

Fourth, Who is the "competition" these industries cite as necessitating the outsourcing of jobs? Is it national or international? In either case, aren't there other remedies than outsourcing jobs (ie tarrifs, labor regulations)?

Fifth, if the companies aren't interested in maintaining a strong US consumer middle class, what interest ought the US have in maintaining them? Maybe they belong in France or in some banana republic where they can have glamorous corporate headquarter and exec mansions and look down on the former banana pickers whom they can enlist to work in their factories for next to nothing. The execs who make decisions like outsourcing would surely enjoy the view, but they oughtn't expect the US market to be as receptive to their products as it once was, though stock purchasers might enjoy the short-term bump in share price before the market erodes and the execs all bail out with their golden parachutes.

One question that comes to my mind is what kind of jobs will there be for educated and skilled Americans to replace the educated and skilled jobs going overseas? Does anyone have an honest answer?

Fewer jobs will be available. If labor is treated as a commodity and trade is free (no tariffs) the comparative advantage principle will lead to the replacement of American educated workers by Indians, Chinese working from their home countries.

Education is much cheaper in Third World countries. Cost of living is also cheaper. For the individual worker in Europe it is also cheaper to get education since it it is heavily subsidised and often free.

The question is what jobs will supported? Maybe the local service jobs which cannot be exported - like plumbers for example, security guards? Another problem is the contraction of demand in America - and if the rising demand in Third World countries will secure the market for the industry?

It is a scary time when corporations transcend nationality.

I can just see in the future where under UN sanctions global corporations will disregard national boundries and and sovereignty in quest for labor. Employees will be paid in UN Credits to be converted to local currency at prevailing exchange rates. National governments will be subservient to Global Corporations! One world government ruled by board of directors ;-)

does this mean that these companies no longer care about building up the economies of the communities they locate in, ie the American cities they locate in, or are they no longer in any sense American?

Most of them don't consider themselves "American". They have no problems selling out their neighbors or even the Bill of Rights in order to save only a few dollars.

One question that comes to my mind is what kind of jobs will there be for educated and skilled Americans to replace the educated and skilled jobs going overseas? Does anyone have an honest answer?

Yes. None. The offshoring phenomenon will accomplish two things. Make corporations rich beyond their wildest dreams of avarice and turn the American middle class into a group of poverty-stricken wage slaves.

Second, if salaries are going overseas, does this mean that these companies no longer care about building up the economies of the communities they locate in, ie the American cities they locate in, or are they no longer in any sense American?

Right again. They don't care. About the local community, about the infrastrature, about America. . . about anything except the bottom line.

Third, if they pay out salaries overseas, does that mean that they expect their principal consumers to come from overseas, or do they expect other industries to continue to pay decent salaries in the US and maintain a middle class to purchase their products?

Here, I think, is the only Achilles heel in the scenario. Companies expect the American economy to keep humming along, for people to keep buying their (still) high-priced goods and services, while their production cost plummet, inflating their bottom lines. But that can't hold up. And they will have no such market overseas. I've mentioned it on these threads over and over -- the foreign governments who underwrite the foreign slave wages do not want a flood of American goods. They only want American dollars.

One question that comes to my mind is what kind of jobs will there be for educated and skilled Americans to replace the educated and skilled jobs going overseas? Does anyone have an honest answer?

Good question, but also, what kind of jobs will there be for those who are NOT educated and skilled? America has alwys been a place were anyone, educated or not, could have a very good life if you work hard and save your money. The american work ethic was all that was needed(education was just an added bonus to the american dream).