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If the government was serious about stopping the loss of jobs, it would stop companies from implementing Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management, Business Process Management and Customer Relationship Management software, no matter where it was written. Enterprise software makes companies more efficient and allows them to eliminate jobs. For instance, some companies produce software that allows companies to automatically process travel and entertainment expenses. The number of people required in HR and Accounting will be much less. Yet these people need jobs too. Where are they going to work now, with all these companies installing automated software? Other companies are installing software that will allow them to closely track the efficiency of their salesforce, and will allow them to target their salesforce. This will result in them hiring fewer sales people. Companies can now bar code all their inventory parts, and with a barcode scanner reduce the number of people taking inventory. Finally, the Plumtree portal will allow companies to severely reduce their paperwork, which will result in fewer document clerks. Don't these companies realize that becoming more efficient and profitable, they're actually keeping less people employed, and that these now unemployed people can't possibly buy stuff and contribute to the economy? Why are these companies so damned selfish?

And why doesn't The Government prohibit automatic door openers, that could employ at least four FTE's per door. Same for automatic elevator operators. More police would be on the streets if we did away with cold-impartial-inflexible traffic lights and these were replaced by caring traffic cops. An internal passport (useful for catching terrorists) could be introduced to employ printers and even more police who could man the roadblocks at each town gate. Other opportunities to create employment exist in highway building. There are machines (some made in Korea, some in Japan) that are taking away the jobs of thousands of American shovelers. Dial telephones cause the RIFing of thousands of smooth operators, the belles of Southern Bell.

Many of those very technologies you mention create thousands of new jobs in the IT space.

The software my company makes reduces the number of personel from one section of a IT department. However the number of new jobs it creates is much larger than those it replaces through automation. The new jobs require more skills and therefore will by higher paying jobs. Those new jobs also create new products and services that can be sold for a profit.

Automations main goal is to eliminate tedious tasks in an effort to create more advanced products and services. The automation cycle gave us the dot-com boom. First came CGI then ASAPI/NSAPI, then JSP/ASP, then J2EE/.NET, now SOAP/WSDL/XML/XSL, and who knows what is next. The progression of technology has built wealth for corporations and IT personel alike.

Very little new innovation will come from the offshoring model, this you can be sure of.

If the government was serious about stopping the loss of jobs, it would stop companies from implementing Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management, Business Process Management and Customer Relationship Management software, no matter where it was written. Enterprise software makes companies more efficient and allows them to eliminate jobs. For instance, some companies produce software that allows companies to automatically process travel and entertainment expenses. The number of people required in HR and Accounting will be much less. Yet these people need jobs too. Where are they going to work now, with all these companies installing automated software? Other companies are installing software that will allow them to closely track the efficiency of their salesforce, and will allow them to target their salesforce. This will result in them hiring fewer sales people. Companies can now bar code all their inventory parts, and with a barcode scanner reduce the number of people taking inventory. Finally, the Plumtree portal will allow companies to severely reduce their paperwork, which will result in fewer document clerks. Don't these companies realize that becoming more efficient and profitable, they're actually keeping less people employed, and that these now unemployed people can't possibly buy stuff and contribute to the economy? Why are these companies so damned selfish?

There is a major difference between investment that increases productivity and investing offshore. This has been documented on these threads for quite a while. When and if you wish to discuss the actual issues facing the USA and the structural problems the current Clinton trade envirornment is inflicting on the United States economy let me know until then equating investment in the USA which helps the American economy with the results of predatory trade practices is merely a repitiuon of someone's propaganda.

Koblenz-Why are these companies so damned selfish? - Men ( & women ) ARE selfish by definition. Also corporations.

These are 'new world' issues being debated in an 'old world' manner-by old rules.
We have a very large hill to climb-moving our decision-makers ( some of whom are corrupt ) from Industrial Age mentality & attachments ( to factions based in the old world ) to a new model of high tech dynamics.

The new model ( & I am assuming that high tech manufacturing & communication mixes with the geo-political dynamic to yield a new model ) is yet to be defined-it appears to be far too dynamic ( evolving ) or newly formed to get more than a mere snap shot. Those who discuss these things also have certain prejudices.

Bad actors ( like China & Russia & their clients in the Third World ) make big trouble. The NWO ( constitutes a major faction which seeks to control all large events ) has great difficulty getting these bad guys to sit still untill their fair share of the world can be determined-or manipulated giving the Western Powers more of the pie... Corruption at the highest level of the NWO also interferes with the PLAN.

We peons in America keep screwing things up by insisting we follow our Constitution-a free & powerful populace was not in the PLAN ( of the NWO ).

The more aggressive geo-political actors will have the potential to employ their adaption of these New World dynamics to their advantage-given that their populations are not free.

I am going to assume that is ajoke.

Obviously, all technology improvements are capable of removing people from payroll as production can be improved through automation and computers, that is a universal reality.

That universal reality is applyable to all forms of business across the globe.

That is not the issue. What the issue is, is using foreign sources to run domestic technologies and intellectual properties, and leaving foreign sources in control of running these technologies and intellectual properties.

That is making us dependant on foreign intelligence and foreign ownerships of our own ideas and properties, intellectual or material!

We're not talking about jobs being eliminated due to better technology. We're talking about high tech (i.e. "jobs of the future") being eliminated and sent overseas.

If all of our computers are made overseas. If all of a company's development is made overseas and none of it is being done by Americans, doesn't that bode ill for America's future?

Sometimes, I think some people on this forum would be more than happy if every job that could be outsources were outsources, American unemployment sored to 20%, and India became the world's superpower. They'd smile and say, "Aw, the power of free markets."

If we cut everybody down to minimum wage, there's still no way we could compete with India where companies can pay them 80 cents an hour. If we were to eliminate the minimum wage and pay our techs the same thing, there's no way people can live on $32.00 a week here.

As automation comes more into vogue and we export all the technology jobs offshore, where does that leave us? Are we not planning our own obselescence?