British call centre in Bangalore shut, entire staff sacked 1870

On Sat, 8 Jul 2006, minnesotti

Not to disagree with you, but let me suggest some "adjustments":

My "take" is that the word "globalization" was invented well after the process began. There was international trade going back well into the 1700s, 1800s for the USA, and way way farther if you look at trade in ancient times. There was more than you might think.

Today, if there is anything new, its the magnitude of the "four freedoms": free movement of: 1 capital, 2. labor, 3. jobs, and 4. goods-services. My view is that all of this is really just a new "religion" which says "it is going to work because it has to work" and its just like the religious wars in Europe in the 1500s AD +--. The Catholics liquidateed the Protestants because they were infidels, and the Protestants liquidateed the Catholics because they were infidels. All according to Durant in vol 7 & 8 of his 10 volume set. Folks, it was very nasty back then, The Inquisitions were worse than the KGB, Nazis, KKK., all rolled into one. Then there was witch burning, too.

If there is any innovation going on in the USA, its in the financial markets, derivatives, hedge funds, and all manner of complicated tricks (eg. Enron) and the "next generation" new bag of tricks will be "Eron" that is totally legal ! ! !

People became lax

I think it depends on what level you look at. The straining is going to keep on going with the aggressive-ambitious people who will aim for CEO jobs, financial market jobs, manger-boss-owner jobs and they will make money by exploitation, in whatever form that might take. All those BMOs will just hire underlings in cheap labor countries to do the dirty work (eg. all the labs & R&D facilities that are all over SE Asia (and some in Russia, Brazil, Ireland, and a few in Eastern Europe where labor is cheap, too). But that all means US infrastructure is being destroyed. Where will US kids go to develope experience with technical innovation if 100,000 to millions of techie jobs leave the US?

Well, I think its all a problem of exchange rates. If one Indian does any kind of work, it should not cost less than to have one US guy do the same kind of work. Yet, all the exchange rates are based around numerical relationships established many decades ago. The exporters want to keep their products cheap (eg. for sure, China, and Japan) so they can keep esporting because that brings in more money than sends out more money, and the importers, also, want those importable products to stay cheap, and so its a vicious cycle that is hard or impossible to break.

Yes, but we also have enormously poor people here, too, and their lot is going downhill. And, the middle clbutt is disappearing, too.

and then do nothing and enjoy the freeloader

Its not going to happen if we have CEOs, politicians, and other powerful people who will make decisions without consulting the underlings.

Well, Kamal Prasad should see the tables turned on him for a change.

That's right.