[JohnGalt]

No question, the government has an interest in seeing this group of IT employees take on the union mentality to ensure a steady stream of revenue.

The problem is that labor cost pressure will simply move major IT projects off shore.

The real culprit is government regulation that makes hiring an American employee so expensive; this is but a short term hold on immense downward pressure on labor wages.

[null and void]

The real culprit is government regulation that makes hiring an American employee so expensive; this is but a short term hold on immense downward pressure on labor wages.

The simplest solution is hyperinflate the Dollar.

Suddenly US wages become competitive on the world market.

Quality US products compete at par with crap built in 2-1/2 and 3rd world countries.

Hordes who have tried to manipulate their currency against the Dollar are stuck with all the lower value Dollars they've been hoarding...

(As a bonus everyone gets every penny they ever put in social security.)

[Southack]

"The problem is that labor cost pressure will simply move major IT projects off shore. The real culprit is government regulation that makes hiring an American employee so expensive;"

No, and no.

First of all, cheap labor is never cheap. Until you've paid the bribes in Beijing and dealt with the surreal bureaucracy of Hyderabad, you just don't get a true feel for how much it costs to obtain the privilege of paying employees very low salaries.

Moreover, "cheap" labor currently only appears to be cheap because the U.S. Dollar is wildly over-valued. Drop the value of the Dollar and all of a sudden all of those offshore contracts are going to take on an entirely new and unprofitable dimension. A lower U.S. Dollar makes existing foreign contracts with U.S. companies worth less. It makes exports to the U.S. more expensive. It makes domestic American goods and services and salaries instantly cheaper and more competitive, too.

And for another "no" to your claims above, the U.S. is actually pretty cheap when it comes to **relative** comparisons of rules and regulatory costs of compliance. Granted, a few individual states in the U.S. have some business costs that could be equal or above what we see in most Asian and European nations, but on the whole doing business in the U.S. is already competitive globally from a regulation-cost perspective.

[snopercod]

The real culprit is government regulation that makes hiring an American employee so expensive

I'm not so sure of that. Here in North Carolina, it costs an employer roughly $2.50 per hour to have an employee. That includes taxes, workman's comp, unemployment, etc., but does not include any benefits.

OTOH, I know employers who just don't want the hassle.

[rdb3]

The real culprit is government regulation that makes hiring an American employee so expensive;

Well I'll be. You finally said something that makes some sense.

[softengine]

this is but a short term hold on immense downward pressure on labor wages.

But lower wages must be balanced by a lower cost of living. When I first got out of school and into my first IT job, a loaf of bread was 1.19, now its 2.69. A decent apartment about 450.....now, you can expect to shell out 900-1100 for anything thats not in crack central.