On 6/15/2010 7:41 AM cubby spake thus:

On Jun 14, 7:03 pm, "Robert Green" wrote:

wrote in message

stuff snipped

But he offers this advice: "Don't train yourself or your
children [in work] that a computer can do or a smart kid in
China or India can do. Because that's ferocious competition."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...0612,0,5466021....

Computer "operator"? That is not a particularly skilled job. Was he
thinking "programmer". Even so, I agree, there is a guy in India that
will do that for $40 a day. The internet has made it such that it
doesn't matter whether your cubicle is down the hall or half way
around the world. Halfway around the world is cheaper.

The point is that skilled trades are the last thing to get exported because
it's not practical to have someone in New Delhi fix your plugged up sink.
Not until they develop cheap teleportation like Star Trek. In the current
market, having a BA in English is likely to get you a job slinging burgers.

The worst part of all this is kids are starting their careers $50 to $100K
in debt for a college education from a named school. Unless they go to Wall
Street, there's no way they can pay that loan off in this economy. It's
just another in the row of dominoes that is falling over that used to be a
vibrant national economy.

The trades may be the last thing to get exported, but who's to say
they won't be exported? Modular home construction, in huge warehouses
in cheap areas of the US, is already taking off. It's not a huge leap
to imagine that happening in China. Sure, it will take a few weeks
for your home to arrive, but if you can get it for half price?

Even so, houses still can't be plugged into their foundations as if they
were giant Lego pieces. You still need skilled trades to pour
foundations and slabs, run electric service, plumbing, etc.

Unless you're suggesting that all these tradespeople will somehow come
in a package with the house from China or India. Maybe compressed into
one of those gigantic plastic bags that you hook your vacuum cleaner up
to. Presto! instant crew.


--
The fashion in killing has an insouciant, flirty style this spring,
with the flaunting of well-defined muscle, wrapped in flags.

- Comment from an article on Antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com)