Title a little misleading

After reading this book “The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman”, the New York Times columnist/reporter and expert on the Middle East, I better understand what is going on. I still do not agree with these “business practices”, but it is what it is, and it’s only going to change more. I strongly urge anyone that reads this message to consider getting this book, then pass it on to someone else, in the words of the kids…”he’s putting it down”… or “dropping knowledge” and when you hear it everything that MS, CISCO and all of these tech giants are doing is brought to light, and it IS about profits for them and how WE must adapt and continue to adapt to remain relevant. Also, he sounds like he is the new “champion” for this movement of change, but I say all change ain’t good change and sooner or later it will catch up to us.

But to comment on this article, no they don’t want our jobs, they want to BE us, they want to give US jobs, and if we keep going in this direction, they’ll succeed.

Why would they need to move to the US? We are sending the jobs to them! Best of both worlds really.

I certainly would not want to leave my family to move to another country. Why would they want to work over here? American corporations are giving our jobs away in the name of cost savings, following the sun, and off shoring. It is very reassuring that the Wharton Business School has told us that it is only 1/3 of our jobs that are being sent overseas. Do the math folks, the Chicago Tribune reported 1.6 billion jobs have been created in India for the Help Desk and Customer Support sector. First the textile mills go away, NAFTA killed off the next generation of American manufacturing jobs. But big brother said that this is okay, because we are going to become a service based society and that American workers need to focus on technology... those jobs that are now being off shored. We're going to become a society of door greeters at big box stores who can't afford to buy those imported products because our national leaders and business owners are giving more jobs away to other countries each year. India just happens to be the flavor of this decade. Wake up folks!

The survey included very few people and was only from the IITs. Millions of students from thousands of other colleges in India do not feel this way!

This survey is skewed. IIT graduates do not represent Indian graduates. Most of the people who land up in IIT excel in academics - the theory of everything. However, many IIT-ians lack corporate and social skills. Only a handful of IIT-ians can truly say they are all-round performers. Most of them land up as researchers - and there are limited opportunities in the U.S. for foreign research workers.

This general train of thought can apply to workers in other countries.

As a Canadian, I've contemplated working in the U.S., but the bureaucracy of getting your family the proper Visas, having to be sponsored (often times bound to a company), not having universal health care, and getting the equivalent salary here in Canada doesn't make the U.S. that appealing - although the warm weather would be nice.

In India the salaries may be lower, but the cost of living is also lower. Like this article points out, some people would rather live in their own culture, where they aren't potentially inhibited by racial biases, if they can maintain a similar standard of living. I suspect we'll see this trend continue.

In a recent (2008) San Jose Mercury News article an Indian immigration attorney estimated if everyone in India was given an option to move to the US, he estimated of the more than 1 billion people about 800 million would move.

Since IIT represents the elite students, they are more optimistic about opportunities in India than most people living in India.

Even if the attorney interviewed, who is an Indian immigrant himself, is grossly over estimating the desire of Indians to move to the US the fact is that India's largest export is and will be people. Their population is the fastest growing in the world.

It would be interesting to have accurate numbers of how many people from India are currently living in the US.

In the Silicon valley for example their numbers have grown very substantially over the past 25 years, but I have yet to see reliable numbers on what portion of the US population is from India or any numbers for Silicon Valley or other high tech areas like Austin, Raliegh, Boston etc... The 2010 census may surprise some people.

By the way, it isn't just high tech jobs that are being taken by people from India though they hold many engineering, medical and other technical jobs. Many of the fast food resturants now have Indian workers now too as family and relatives sponsor them to come over.

Most people from India I have talked to think US, Canada, Australia and Europe are as good or better alternatives than staying in India.

Many of the engineering programs in the US have very substantial numbers of students from India. I'll bet in many of the top graduate schools close to a third of the students are from India. IIT are excellent schools but many people prefer the US so they can stay and get jobs here.

Finally, many young Indians have told me they want to get away from their families for the simple reason that if you live thousands miles from home you don't have all your relatives trying to tell you how to live your life.