[warchild9]

Another irony is a friend of mine's family is from India, and they became naturalized citizens three years ago to "find the better life in the USA". Now, his job has been outsourced to...India! He has two small children and a mortgage, and his wife is ill. They're selling their house, but beyon that they don't know what to do.

[swarthyguy]

HA! I was a victim of the first wave of H1B's in the late 80's during the administration of Bush the Elder.

To misquote Daffy Duck, "the irony, oh, the irony".

As one wag (me) said, if we'd wanted to join the global economy, we'd have stayed in India.

Under Clinton, it became a flood. There was NO labor "Shortage" at all. Companies preferred to hire contractors employees at will. Idiot exec's would tell me that a guy who spent a chunk of time writing Fortran and Assembler couldn't handle a silly piddly Java app. It was blatant age discrimination " can you fit into our culture?" Do you look and act like a GENX'er? "Do you have the right energy level?" Ie. work til 10PM+ every night without complaining. We'll give you free pizza! What a deal.

But, Americans never said boo all these years until now. Hi Tech whiners who thought their jobs were immune to export, unlike those bluecollar auto and steel jobs, now have to face the fact that hi-end jobs can and will be done overseas. It is sad from an individual viewpoint; the damage done to one's career, life and psyche can be very hard to overcome and i sympathise totally. I've been there.

But it's the free market at work. Double edged sword that.