White collar jobs are also being outsourced. You seem to be forgetting this. Initially the first phase started with the low wage stuff but more technical type blue collar jobs are being outsourced and now white collar jobs are also being outsourced to india etc.. A strong nation needs a strong industrial base as well. What happens if 30 years from now when we gutted all our industrial output we end up in a new world war? Even strategic things like Routers and communications items used by the military are outsourced as well. Higher wage QA jobs etc.. now reside out of the US. Funny that so called Patriotic Republicans never made so much noise when we began selling out to communist china as we did for obamas health care deal.
One of the biggest costs associated with exporting our factories that you rarely hear people mention is that the country to which they're sent get patents and other technological transfers that may have been the result of years or decades and billions of $$$ in R&D. This is how you can tell that greed and worshiping profit is the new real flavor; companies are willing bribed by cheap labor, boosting their short and intermediate term profits, but hand over the most valuable asset (i.e. intellectual property) their companies really have. Once that intellectual property gets in the hands of foreign nation, especially one with a centralized government that interweaves military and civilian technology as a strategic decision, such as China, it's gone for good.
You cannot actually believe that, do you? Do you live in a bubble? Lowest paying jobs, which are low level service jobs are here in the US. The key jobs which were outsourced are mid-level jobs that matter, like manufacturing. On top of that, the high paying jobs have been the latest to be sent out, so the theory is plain false. What has stayed is the highest level jobs, aka scumbags executives. How is USA getting richer from this outsourcing? Do you see that happening? USA is an indebted & broke nation This is plain false because the cost of living in the US has been inflated to an absurd levels thanks to the central bank scheme. Unemployment is out of control, it is only contained by the welfare programs.
Regarding R&D. Hows do the export controls that all us companies are subject affect exporting R&D/Technology when outsourcing?
It's a good question. Simply because there was no other way to deal with high capacity and production. The same reality forced Germany to conspire with France to form the EU. What good is a new BMW if you have no buyers for it? You give away money to residents of other countries to buy it, you move production in other countries, etc. Globalization is a necessity. It has problems but it is unavoidable.
And eventually, you either become a consuming nation drowning in debt with few willing lenders, or a manufacturing nation drowning in surplus goods with few willing buyers. Globalization reached an usustainable peak and is going through a decades long correction. When oil becomes more expensive, expect world trade to drop even more.
Give me a break. If the cost of living here has been absurdly inflated like you claim, then the standard of living relative to the rest of the world would be absurdly low. This is not the case. We still reside at the top of the list for standard of living for the average person. Take any place that we outsource a lot of jobs too. Bangalore India for example. The cost of living there is about 1/2 of the cost of living in NYC. The per capita income on the other hand is only about 5% of the NYC income level.
I have a degree and took all the bullshit econ courses in college. I understand perfectly how it's supposed to work "in theory". You claim that "we keep the highest paying jobs here". I call bullshit. Engineering, accounting, and programming were once high paying jobs. Those can easily be outsourced. Those which can't be outsourced can easily be replaced with an H-1B who lives with 20 of his relatives, thus his cost of housing is substantially lower as well. I'm not really sure which "high paying jobs" you are referring to. If it isn't related to the healthcare profession, it can be outsourced.
even if it is medical it can be outsourced. Go to retirement facilities. 90%+ foreign worker cna's. Have you been to a medi clinic? No American doctors there either. As a policy I don't think US has much of a limit on the higher educated foreign personell that can get visas, these would be the higher paid people in society. In my experience companies do often outsource entire departments that did very complicated and dynamic work from manager to the lowliest laborer. Companies now even outsource the CEO. Some change back after catastraphy.
ultimate outsourcing http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...-center15-2009sep15,0,5191179.story?track=rss