Regarding outsourcing,I saw a post yesterday that said that in 10 years

[CanIgonow]

almost all technology jobs will be moving out with the bulk going to India.Along with the IT jobs,this movement includes research in the pharmaceutical indstry, institutional investment research,legal work,medical records,tax`preparation and a myriad other occupations.

This made me think that while the pain of our own professional middle classes is going to increase,how our addiction to warmaking equipment has gradually undermined our competitiveness and increased the costs of doing business for productive uses.If we see our vast military establishment as a nonproductive asset,as accountants like to call it, we can realize why we are getting the pants beaten out of us by China and India.

This is why the lessons of Germany and Japan are so important to absorb again.While Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were mighty military powers,their prosperity in peacetime has far outstripped anything their dictators could accomplish by their imperial conquests.
Anyone who travels to these countries cannot but be impressed with the generally peaceful and prosperous outlook of many cities and communities in those countries.

The emergence of India and China is a different matter altogether.Although we are just now being treated to stories about the surging economies of these countries, it was not long ago, when we were being treated to stories about what basket cases these countries were and how their populations were such burdens.While these stories were indeed true at the time,both countries have invested heavily in the education of their people, building a vast network of universities, technical institutes, medical schools and what have you.Now the world is seeing the result of all that investment in people and their education and,I am afraid, with their large populations, India and China are going to dominate the intellectual capital of the world.

The lessons for all of us is to abandon any imperial pretensions and get back to the business of all people,i.e.peace,health, happiness and caring.While Japan and Germany achieved their prosperity by shedding their imperial pretensions, India and China are on the road by investing in their people's intellectual capabilities. Nowhere is the biblical maxim,Blessed are the Meek truer than in the case of India and China.

We too can recepture our destined role as a beacon of hope for the world when we get rid of our addiction to war making and our imperial pretensions.The first step in that process is to get rid of this disease called the Republican Party and its power.

Vote John Kerry and John Edwards.

[oscar111]

1. HALF our scientists thrown away for warwork

half our engineers, too, are doing warwork... just as if we had thrown them away... they are not available to improve our lives. No advances in cars, tv's, or medicine from those who are building bombers, missiles, H-bombs.

'DIVERTED LABOR POWER" is the technical term used by political economists.

[oscar111]

4. ALL jobs outsourced in seven years, i say

your source was too conservative.

robotic hands controlled by cams over the internet, did surgery here, from Australia.

All jobs can be done this way. Look at the robotic arms in Detroit , welding, and tell me what job India cant control and do? America, land of 100 billionaires and 300 million starving middle class-ers.

[DBoon]

2. Mary Kaldor, "The Baroque Arsenal"

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu38ne/uu38ne0a.htm

The types of technology used by the military are large, excessively complex systems with high maintenance costs. Completely unapplicable to civilian applications, hence we now have few spin-offs to benefit the private sector. Plus (my editorial) the technical workers building and operating these machines are ill-trained to civilian technology, which emphasizes cost effectiveness and usability.

Also I think someone needs to look at the distortions caused by classifying so much basic and applied research, and how this whole culture of military security is really crippling our ability to make use of technology.

[Hidebo]

3. very true, indeed

but without US protection and support, those two nations were most likely invaded by the USSR,IMHO.

[CanIgonow]

5. In that case it would have hastened the collapse of the Soviet

Union.Germany and Japan would still have ooutstripped the Soviet Union which caught our imperial disease too, if we remember right.

[MadHound]

6. Yes, we haven't learned the lessons of the Soviet collapse

Due to diverting too much of their GDP and government spending to war programs. Instead the US continues blindly down the warpath, making a few rich people even richer, and the rest of us into corporate serfs. And sad to say, getting rid of Bush won't halt this process, only slow it down a bit. Kerry too is dedicated to continuing the Iraq war, and the war on terror. Just another manifestation of the evils of a two party/same corporate master system of government.

[Andy_Stephenson]

7. Didn't Kerry and Edwards both vote for the war?

I highly doubt they will be the doves of peace you hope them they will be.

[Massacure]

9. They voted for weapons inspections with a war deterent

Everyone knows Saddam needed to be threatened. Bush axed the inspections all together though.

[elehhhhna]

8. legal work's been outsourced (locally) for years AND Watch ouT!

Between vendors who copy & sort documents and on-site temps who do anything from bates labeling (numbering) docs to drafting briefs, the potential problems/dangers are obvious--and only get worse if the work goes offshore.

You see, corporate (and other) litigation can cover very sensitive topics--conflict of interest checks on the staff are extremely important, and just not done in most contracting or temp companies. I had a temp work on a very sensitive (buzillion dollar corporate litigation) case who I was informed had JUST worked on discovery for the same case for opposing counsel the WEEK before! A temp vendor I know did a site visit to a LARGE legal client and met a temp lawyer he'd placed there--and realized that the person who showed up & worked on the asignment was NOT the person he's interviewed and reference-checked. God knows who the mystery temp was...

Don't think that corp. espionage is not being practiced by "temps" in law firms (litigation and particuliarly patent & trademark shops), corporations, and God knows where else, constantly. Regular full-time staff can participate, too, but offsite & temp employees have NO allegiance whatsoever, and are often financially vulnerable.

If the docs go to India, how many rupees do you think it might cost to access confidential info? Please!

[Veggie Meathead]

10. I hope somebody is listening to your well thought out reasons.

[Peter1x9]

11. I posted that, here's the link to the story

'All US tech jobs will move out in a decade'

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2004/aug/26bpo.htm

[CanIgonow]

12. Thank you.I was searching for it and couldn't find it.Woke me up

I will say.