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October 26, 2006
Burning Question
Does offshoring put U.S. design engineers’ jobs at risk?
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22 CommentsWithout doubt. Short-sighted greed has destroyed this contrys' technological infrastructure. It's already too late for the U.S. to regain the technological standing it once held. Once thought of as unappealing, countries such as India, China and even Pakisatan are now sought out first for not just manufacturing, but development. It's ironic that U.S. Engineers, technicians, and operators don't stand a chance against a consumers ignorance and a political system that hold individual companies in higher regard than individual citizens.
October 26, 2006 1:51 PMI think it does. I travel a lot in my line of work. There are plenty of engineering types in many of the countries I visit. We do not hold a monoply on this resource any longer.
October 26, 2006 2:02 PMI suppose if an engineer becomes static, standard and/or status quo, I could see his/her job going somewhere else to those hungry, open-minded and non-conforming to change/idea. I have noticed over the past 30 years a tendency of laziness and some of that seems inherent of the companies they worked.
October 26, 2006 2:16 PMI'm an architect and I like very much the outsourcing process for my drawings.. It's faster, cheaper and much more effective.
October 26, 2006 3:32 PMYes, no 2 ways about it. Let's give our engineers and Co a chance to show what they can do, and develop and use some of their ideas.
October 26, 2006 3:37 PMYes, it does. Cheap labor will always be appealing, but at the expense of others. I wonder about the integrity of those involved in offshoring to countries with oppressive governments or societies. It also creates liability issues in case of design flaws. Who is at risk? All of us.
October 26, 2006 3:55 PMIt is a fact, the U.S. no longer reigns in many fields. Outsourcing has handed over a great and direct source of income to foreign interests while we watch in dismay.
October 26, 2006 4:04 PMSaving our industry is constitutionaly mandated but we'll never see it! To maintain our living standard (and support our obscene taxes) we would have to put tariffs and duties on all imports. Otherwise, we will need to live like the Chinese, twenty to a hut working 80 hours a week each and eating grass hoppers with rice.
October 26, 2006 8:23 PMIt does in some cases put US jobs at risk and even US companies.
LBS
October 27, 2006 9:27 AMNot sure if it was intentional, but as written your question implies the outsourcing of "US" engineering jobs to OTHER coutnries. Couldn't the question also mean the outsourcing of other countries' jobs TO THE U.S? Also, what about foreign students who come to our US engineering schools and wish to stay in the U.S. to work or start companies HERE but cannot? Not all engineering talent comes here wishing to "steal" a degree and knowledge then leave. Our gov't makes it very difficult to retain that inherited foreign talent. Just curious if the question was intentionally misleading as phrased?
October 27, 2006 11:18 AMGood or bad, a global economy based on economic competition will result in businesses looking globally to fill their needs, not locally -- unless the price is right.
All first-world countries that subscribe to this will take a hit to their workforce, and the remaining will have salary regrets.
There are a few areas immune to this, but not many.
This question affects all people, not just engineers. Thank you.
