"Virtually any"

In a Los Angeles Times story about outsourcing, they profile an Indian who is a big part of that process, Atul Vashistha of neoIT. He has some provocative things to say. For instance:

"If you're a Web programmer, I'm sorry, you have no right to think you can keep your job in the U.S. if you're using the same technology that existed four years ago," Vashistha says. "You've got to keep moving up. You've got to keep going back to schoolÂ…. If you're not going to do that, you're going to lose your job."

But then later in the story we read: (emphasis added)

Like it or not, Vashistha says, Americans are now part of a global competition for labor. With the advent of the Internet and high-speed telecommunications, virtually any job that can be done at a computer or over the phone can be moved to countries where wages are much lower. And U.S. companies that resist the trend, he says, will be swept away by rivals.

Ponder that. Virtually any. So why bother going back to school? Why keep up with things? Why even try to make a living with a job "that can be done at a computer"?

Another point. If, as seems likely, virtually any white-collar job can be moved overseas, then you're left with jobs that require the physical presence of the worker. Like delivering things. Cutting hair. Sales. Construction.

Kind of makes a college education unnecessary.


posted by Quiddity at 4/27/2004 08:18:00 AM