Yup, that's the deal.It's all about cost. The new head of company wide applications development is from India (about 4 levels in management up from me) and in a recent leadership meeting he made it perfectly clear to all that outsourcing was going to continue and that he wasn't at all interested in hearing contrary views. His sidekick actually said that our company was running a percentage point below average industry turnover so if someone didn't like the direction, just leave because we'd be doing them a favor. There is much greater management integration as well: more and more US teams are actually reporting to hubs in India.

My take is that it's the old tension between what's in one's individual interest and what's in the public interest. Because of greater efficiencies in communication and education, there's very little in terms of IT services that couldn't be outsourced to save money. However if everyone does that it puts a big damper on consumer spending. Although I can't honestly say that the quality of the outsourced work is as bad as some would tell you, I can't say it's good either. You get what you pay for.

There's no way that Americans can compete on cost nor should we. But I don't think Americans have completely thought out the social costs of continuing to transfer large swaths of manufacturing to China and services to India. Those Americans who work in jobs that can't be outsourced because of either the nature of the job or the barriers to entry are indeed fortunate in some respects.