deepvoid's Journal: Recent events

Recently I have been on a tear about the outsourcing issue, and probably should explian. I have been a software engineer for more than a couple decades, and have seen the birth and tremendous growth of the internet from its miltiary research roots.

The problem I see now is twofold. The exclusion of engineering talent from the US, and the security risk of placing it elsewhere. During Desert Storm, and recently Iraq, our victories came as a product of our innovation in technology fueled primarilly by private sector research percolating back into the military research organizations. In other words, all of those toys the military used in war were created based upon technologies such as ICs, GPS, TCP/IP, MPEG, etc... Taken seperately they are powerfull, but together they produce a formidable product which gives the US military a huge advantage.

None of this could have happened if those we fought had the same technology. Imagine if you will what would have happened if during the second world war, Germany had developed the atomic bomb first and had successfully deployed it against London or New York. They only thing that seperated Germany and the US at the time technologically was a mere shaving of noetic substance in nuclear physics. They had the advantage with aircraft, bombs, guidence systems, comunications, and much more, but the overwelming power of nuclear force trumped all of that with the use to two low-yeild devices half a world away.

With smart bombs (a bomb with rudimetary attitude fins and a GPS or laser guidence system) a conventional force defeated a heavily armed opponent. If the same technology became available to an opponent of similar size, the tables would have been quickly turned. Sadly, today, that technology can be purchased on the street in in several socalist countries, and is identical down to the silkscreened DOD identifiers.
How did it get there? It was sent there by defense contractors looking for a cheaper labor force. If capitalism embraces communism, it will come away with a social disease, and that is the very exploitation of labor the communists spent so much time murdering to avoid, it is also something which neo-cons and protectionists warned against. Jobs are going to tacit or factual enemies of the US at an astounding rate, and when the electorate of this country finally catches on, it will be too late to recover.

Even if you wanted to, in the near future, you as an engineer, will be locked out of engineering by the very market forces that created your first job. When CPUs will not accept "uncertified" code, and development systems are region coded to exclude the US, you will not get paid for any work done in the US, since nothing you make will run on the newest hardware. Since the hardware designs will come out of China, and the Software India, a simple collaboration between the two will complete the act of sewing the cat in the bag.

While you as an engineer might not like the trend, the CEOs and CTOs love it. At least until it bites them back. Companies are making more money than ever, and spending it too. Where are they spending it? In those countries that we outsource to.
Remember the oil fields the US and europe developed in the 60s and 70s? Who owns them now, and how did they get them? While the pointy headed economists say it is market evolution, I say it is the act of economic traitors. Much in the same way the sea change of the loss of oil rights changed our technological development in the US, the loss of technology itself will bring about its own form of chaos.