Reply #245: Competition.

[pampango]

You're dealing with a currency gap, not a knowledge gap.

It's not competition when Indian workers are always going to be cheaper because their cost of living allows for their salaries and ours doesn't. Surely you can even attest to that. - Indian workers are not "always" going to be cheaper (unless you think that Indians are incapable of producing a prosperous middle class society). The workers in Japan and Europe were cheaper after WWII, but they have produced prosperous middle class societies and are not cheap anymore. If you think that India do this, or cannot be allowed to do so (let's say for global environmental reasons), then I understand you rationale for restricting their opportunities.

It's not competition when you're giving them the R&D and future "killer apps" that we should be getting our hands on. - Agreed.

It's not competition because we don't MAKE anything HERE anymore. - We are still rank #2 in terms of the world's leading exporters, so we must be making something. (Germany, not China or India is #1.)

It's not competition because they're already getting the jump on sciences such as nano- and Bio-technology while were trying to destroy science to believe a story and appease a bunch of toupeed wackjobs with crosses. - Agreed. This administration's religiously-based restrictions on science and research are a self-inflicted wound on our future.

It's not competition when you enable corporations to displace thousands of American workers either by offshoring or inshoring via tax breaks and loopholes. - Agreed. Tax loopholes for outsourcing are ridiculous.

It's not competition when you have nothing sustainable or sizeable on the near or far horizon to replace the outgoing jobs. - I am always subject to competition in my job, whether I have a viable alternative or not. It behooves me to try to have alternative options, but I cannot call off competition until I accomplish this.

What it IS, however, is the destruction of the American middle class, exactly as the well-monied Robber Baron Republican'ts want it. Offshoring helps NO one but the rich and drives down wages in every job they can ship over or bring here. "Everyone in their station and have the good sense to STAY there." A fearful, low paid, divided and powerless middle class is an OBEDIENT middle class.