Um, nothing you've said is new to me. In fact if you follow the whole thread back between me and laura-bush back to yesterday, you'll find I made exactly the same points.
With respect to other things, they can and do live here for less. They get paid less. Fact, and you admit it yourself. Eventually you pay them more because they can do more. So what? Isn't that how the real world works? After a couple years they either got skills the average schmo graduating from a big 5 school doesn't have or they get sent home.
What you fail to recognize is that things don't go backwards. Nobody in the USA is gonna go back to living in shanty towns with no running water. Progress doesn't work that way. So we won't be having a lower standard of living, just less rich relative to the third world, which is already talking on cell phones and launching people into space. They will just have a better standard of living. Proven throughout Europe and Asia all through history.
Also you have failed to take into account innovation and the pace of technology. Eventually people will catch up faster than we invented, but the technological lead will always be here, unless the developing nations can avoid the brain drain. And sorry dood, you are just dead wrong about what they get paid compared to their counterparts here with a green card and work experience.
Intellectual activity already goes to the lowest bidder. You just don't realize what innovation costs, and the risks associated with it. Anybody can invent a cheaper and better mouse trap. It is absolutely wrong to think that innovation comes at some premium cost that only the US can afford. Just plain wrong.
The playing field may level out at some point in the distant future if the brain drain doesn't continue, but just as people in Japan were predicting the demise of US dominance, another round of innovation set them straight. It is IMPOSSIBLE to predict what the next big leap in technology is going to be and where it's going to come from. Nonetheless some people around here seem to confuse success with arrogance and would rather whine about globalization instead of finding new ways to innovate and accept the fact that the shiney new career they spent 3 years learning has now become a commodity. Such is life, become a longshoreman, a bus driver or an auto worker and you can go on strike!!!! |
