Reverse brain drain threatens U.S. economy
Second, American firms are contributing aggressively to the reverse brain drain. For decades, they shifted blue-collar manufacturing jobs to parts of the world with low labor costs and acceptable quality standards. Now, they are outsourcing knowledge work — engineering, software, product design and development — to such countries as China, India and Russia. Intel CEO Craig Barrett has warned that Russia, China and India already have as many as 250 million to 500 million knowledge workers — the kind of highly educated, technologically skilled employees who can write computer code, design sophisticated products and manage high-end production processes.
Companies that contract with these foreign workers are, in effect, outsourcing their brains. In the short term, they may save money and boost profits. In the longer run, they outsource creativity and, gradually, erode their capacity to generate new products and services.
usatoday.com
I wouldn't expect Mankiw, a guy that sits in an office covered with Ivy at Harvard, to "get this". Of course when you are in the middle of it, it is quite clear what is going on. |
