03/15/05

Now that the outsourcing frenzy has inspired a small economic boom in India, tech companies looking for a source of cheap, skilled labor are turning to places like China and Estonia. But this strategy, like all strategies based on exploiting labor in developing nations, is doomed to fail. When those geeks and their countries start dominating the market, U.S. companies will find themselves scrambling to come up with business plans that don't depend on ripping off third-world hackers. Fact is, you can't just keep moving your outsourcing hot spots from nation to nation -- eventually you've got to come home. And that's why the Republicans are working now to create the domestic economy of tomorrow: one that won't require any revamping of business models that depend on underpaid professionals in engineering and the sciences. Nothing brings us closer to this exciting future than last week's passage of the bankruptcy bill, a pernicious piece of federal legislation that destroys financial safety nets for working- and middle-class people while allowing the rich to shield their wealth from debt collectors...

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/21503/

from AlterNet, by Annalee Newitz


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp