Offshoring Goes on the Offensive

The McKinsey Quarterly, McKinsey & Co. ^ | 03/17/2004 | John Hagel III

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

none of this will stop off shoring.

We could end this corporate tax loophole:

U.S. Tax Code Provisions Encourage Offshore Jobs

The Wall Street Journal | 03/12/2004 | STEVE LIESMAN

Tax Break for Hiring Foreign Workers

We could end OPIC funding to Communist China and India.

I agree with you, that nothing serious will be done until it is seen as the national security issue that it is. The same can be said about protecting our borders.

[CasearianDaoist]

The same can be said about protecting our borders.

Absolutly! I cannot undertand how the free traders on FR cannot see that they are both threats to the nation.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

Absolutly! I cannot undertand how the free traders on FR cannot see that they are both threats to the nation.

Oh, they understand alright. They're the ones who are retiring in 3-7 years.

[CasearianDaoist]

Then they understand poorly because these folks will be euthanized in 15 years or so if things go south.

Tehy will pick the boomer's clean. They will have too.

[CasearianDaoist]

Then they understand poorly because these folks will be euthanized in 15 years or so if things go south.

They will pick the boomers clean. They will have too.

[CompProgrammer]

I agree that a National Retail Sales Tax would be an admirable goal. However, I think the tariff is easier to understand and explain politically. Think of the people who will be voting. I do think that we should pose this tariff question publicly to all our candidates. Make them take a position publically.

[Cronos]

Asia will be the leading civilization

Asia is not one civilisation. It's got quite a few -- the Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Turkic, Islamic, etc.

[CasearianDaoist]

I do think that we should pose this tariff question publicly to all our candidates. Make them take a position publically.

Is has been posed - they just duck it. Most of the Hill and both candidates are globalist, they will not do anything until there is great national outrage. That may take another 4 years. It is coming though I think.

[Cronos]

The other thing I object to is you notion that Globaism is inevitable, that is it some sort of force of nature.

Merging of nations is inevitable. Look at England in the 6th century, a micture of kingdoms: Kent, WEssex, Northumbria etc. Then they merged to form England. Then England conquered Wales and Scotland and Ireland to form the UK.
Even here, the US increased in size considerably in barely a century. We WILL expand to include Canada and Mexico in the next half century and probably all of Central America by the 2080s.

[Cronos]

The WTO is working to remove Chinese tariffs -- by 2006 they will lift all curbs on Foreign financial institutions from selling in china -- that means American banks and financial institutions will be able to make profits from the Chinese market.

[CompProgrammer]

I think we need to keep asking the politicians. I am going to ask my House candidates here. I'm going to write the local newspaper editor, a RINO, and see if I can get his help. This issue crosses party lines.

[neutrino]

We WILL expand to include Canada and Mexico in the next half century and probably all of Central America by the 2080s.

And the consequences of this will be...what? A larger, more poorly paid labor force, perhaps? Additional burdens on the remnants of the American middle class? You may be correct, but this hardly seems a favorable state of affairs!

[neutrino]

People in the West seem to think that there is a "crash" looming on the horizon in China. There is none is sight - China is booming and the PRC is diligently working on reform (but not the political sort that the West assumes that they will move too.) They are feverishly working on developing an internal market and with a quarter of the world's population how can they not succeed?

You make a powerful point here. A billion newly affluent (from their perspective) Chinese are - at least potentially - a much more interesting market than 300,000,000 indebted Americans.

It might be argued that the US will default on its debt to China, but this may well be something they perceive as a cost to capture market share - and in any case, such a default wouldn't destroy China's economy.

[neutrino]

Let us say for the sake of argument that they have a revolution and create the most democratic government in the history of the world. How does that change anything? Doesn't it just make things worse for us?

It depends on how destructive the revolution is. If it were particularly nasty - say, 10% of the general population killed in civil strife, nuclear devices set off by one group of Chinese against a different group within mainland China, and with substantial destruction of infrastructure - we might recover some of what we've given away.

That being said, I certainly don't expect anything of the sort. I would imagine they'll carry on nicely - unfortunately for us.

[Cronos]

And the consequences of this will be...what?

I really don't know, but I do know that we can't stop our expansion -- we can't become an isolationist state like North Korea -- we're too big. And I believe our system is still the best.

[Dinsdale]

The service capability maturity model (SCMM) is a standardized way of measuring the sophistication of software-development skills and processes.

Flat out untrue. SCMM measures how bogged in paper your development process is.

The practical implications are that if you don't know EXACTLY what you want you can't get it from a level 5 SCMM shop. They will build what you think you want (they expect you to have done all the hard analysis) at extra high cost, long schedules and just marginal functionallity (think EDS). They will then rape you on maintenance. In the end you will fire them if they have'nt pulled you down.

They are only effective for very large projects where being buried in documentation is the only way to keep control of a large (and often unskilled) development staff.

[CasearianDaoist]

Well my point is that to carp about the current form of Government is really beside the point. The danger is in exporting professional jobs. Even if they blow up half the country and still contiued to bleed technical kno- how into China, the difference is only one of timing and not of degree; the outcome is the same as far as the USA 's future goes.

[templar]

... spuring possible regime changes in several counties (including China and the U.S.), which might be helpful to us in the long term.

So, what new form of government do you advocate for the U.S. that will be helpful to "us" (and who is the "us" you are referring to, other than yourself)

[neutrino]

And I believe our system is still the best.

I'm glad we agree on this point, at least. Here's the problem - we're changing our system, profoundly. Adding Central and South America, along with Canada, mixes very different cultures and systems together. It strains belief to suppose that our system won't be modified, a lot.

Keep in mind that a central aspect of Central and South American society is the lack of a substantial middle class. That's where we're headed - and I believe that path to be dangerous.

[neutrino]

The danger is in exporting professional jobs. Even if they blow up half the country and still contiued to bleed technical kno- how into China, the difference is only one of timing and not of degree; the outcome is the same as far as the USA 's future goes.

Agreed, and well said!