Globalization…or US Suicide?

Seriously….why are we the only country in the world that offers tax breaks to send work outside our borders? Stop and think about this for just a second. 10 years ago, the United States was forefront in the IT world. Even with the .dot com burst, we were up front in IT innovation. Now we ship one in four IT jobs out of the country because it’s cheaper for the business. By the way, the US still has record job loss in the worst recession since the Great Depression, or so everyone says.

Yes I know I’m ranting and you’re thinking, what is this about…well I was reading the news again (I really need to stop doing that) and saw that IBM is laying off another 2000. The reason, IBM won’t say. The article is HERE. Insider speculation is offshoring.

Maybe I’m getting worked up about nothing….or maybe everyone should start getting worked up about it. I don’t know. It seems to be the US is running towards a cliff and instead of hitting the brakes, we’ve pushed the NOS button. One of the things I’ve always heard is you don’t outsource your core business component, or put simply, you don’t outsource what you’re good at. The US is good at IT and what do we allow to happen to make the bottom line better? We outsource what we’re good at and to add insult to injury, we offer these companies tax breaks to do so. Where’s the lube?

Now you have this situation, and you get Bill Gates telling Congress we need to increase the number of H1B’s because there’s a shortage of qualified IT people in this country. Are you freaking kidding me? Honestly if you believe there is a shortage of IT talent in this country then you should perhaps purchase a 2012 home (old ICBM silo). That being said, there is an IT talent shortage coming on the horizon. If companies continue to outsource and not develop IT talent in house, when the Boomers start to retire you’re going to be screwed because eventually, all those people in the outsource lands are going to want to more money or they’ll just take over the company.

Suddenly the theme from M*A*S*H popped in my mind, “Suicide is painless”. Does it feel painless to you?