From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Fri Aug 30 2002 - 18:24:09 MDT
On Friday, Aug. 30th, Natasha (whose name seems to be subject
of some rather unusual debate -- she seems to know where it
came from but our European associates seem to have different opinions...
but I digress) wrote:
> Ron, what type of political system and social psychology, in your opinion,
> either provokes, encourages or determines this behavior?
in response to Ron's quote (from a source I'm not going to bother investigating),
"They fired the Americans that were making slightly higher wages. The illegals
did the work, got the money, the Americans were idle and drew relief or went
into selling dope or other illegal pursuits as their were no wages."
This isn't even worth a reply. I do not believe that a majority of
laid off American steel workers have turned to selling drugs to earn
a living.
I think Natasha is asking the wrong question -- I don't think its
a political or social situation but an economic one. My current
business plan specifically includes an offshore component because
it gives me a competitive advantage over 100% U.S. based companies
that do not include that option. Managing it productively is
tricky -- cross cultural organizations have problems that should
not be taken lightly -- but the productivity improvements that
result when it is done well justify the headaches.
The "exporting of high-productivity jobs" is a natural process
as we educate a greater and greater fraction of the world's
population. The import of low-productivity people will cease
once robots of sufficient skill become cheaper than migrant labor.
The factors driving this are low cost communication (driven by fiber
& related technologies) and low cost transportation (driven by the
low cost of ocean shipping as well as the drive for miniaturization --
each "shipload" can now carry a higher value of goods).
I only see these things accelerating as we work our way through
the foothills of the singularity mountain.
Robert
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