Pizza, I can attest that my eyes are indeed as described on my driver’s license.
The radiology center I use has a bunch of tech’s who operate the equipment, a cleaning crew, and a receptionist/billing manager.
The physicians are all in India and they read films online. I imagine they make a solid salary for their location, but less than a radiology tech makes in the US.
Anyone who thinks that their profession (or their kids profession) cannot be outsourced had better be damn sure that the job requires being physically present.
Engineering got eviscerated during the recession of the mid 1990’s and computer science repeated that in 2001. And that was BEFORE companies figured out how to have teams based in low cost locations overseas. I cannot imagine what the next pullback will look like for engineering and comp sci.
For all the yelling in the papers about the H1B visa situation… it honestly doesn’t matter. Companies don’t need to hire someone from overseas to come to the US with a visa. They can keep them right where they are.
No, it will be the son of the owner’s friend. But the major draw of the elite colleges is a concentration of future successful people and the chance to befriend them.
People don’t get to be - or more accurately, remain – truly successful business owners if all they do is hire their kids’ unqualified college friends. And that’s kind of a fantasy as to how the world works anyway - that you’re just kind of hanging around your dorm room at Yale and your roommate’s father walks in, figures you’re a nice kid and hands you a six-figure job.
I don’t know how people don’t get that if they go around their town and look at the successful businesses therein - the guy who owns a chain of restaurants, the family who owns the largest t-shirt company in the industry, the guy who owns some local department stores – that these people can make oodles of money, be successful and sophisticated business owners, have all the “toys” of an upper class lifestyle (vacations, cars, etc) and they may not have darkened the halls of any elite college.
The American born kids will likely have attitudes about elitism more similar to those of other Americans, rather than their immigrant parents. So the level and distribution of elitist attitudes is likely to remain similar, regardless of what color the next generation happens to be. Also, most employers are not going to be able to be as elitist as you fear, since the supply of elite school graduates is limited (and many are taken up by consulting and finance employers, medical school, law school, PhD programs, or Teach for America).
- When you send engineering blue prints to third countries you give them technology that can be easily stolen. So just for security purposes not all jobs, blue prints, codes, programs etc will end up in cheap foreign offices.
- We are on the brink of huge global collapse of existing financial system. I personally believe that people with engineering and CS degrees will have better future than business majors. Golden Sash or whatever else on Wall Street can repeat the fate of Lehman Brothers
- When this global collapse happens, and it is not question of IF, it is WHEN, the world will be most likely divided to several pretty independent trade zones (around US, China, Russia, or China + Russia, but not US + China). Obama was pushing TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement) like crazy and he was definitely in a big hurry. So if you want to find out what professions are going to be in demand in US even after the great collapse, read TPP documents when they are published to find out interests of what companies Obama was lobbying most. I heard rumors about pharmaceutical, agricultural companies, and patent rights.
“Engineering” covers a broad category. Plants need certain types of engineers physically in the facility to deal with daily operations and technical difficulties. Unless all manufacturing operations are shipped overseas, some engineers will always be needed.
Fwiw, the discrepancy in pay between US engineers and their international counterparts is nothing new. We were transferred internationally in the 90s for a plant start-up. It was that way then.
IU is not in the same league as schools like UMich, UIUC, and a few other flagships, as far as being selective.
That was Moonshot99’s point, I believe.
Absolutely right! I’d just add to your list of business-people the Mayor, the doctors, lawyers and other professionals who more than likely did their undergrad at a regional LAC, directional U, or state flagship, not an elite school.
Golden Sash, LOL. I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but I’m using it in the future! 
"The number of qualified engineers and CS folks globally is increasing dramatically, and very capable people can be found in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America with alarming ease at a fraction of the cost in the US. "
-This is NOT the environment here in our city that has lots and lots of engineering firms and my H. is working at one of them while many of our friends are working at many others and I myself is CS professional. Cannot hire at the fraction of the cost, all positions everywhere are filled locally, primarily from the local college and it takes time to find the qualified people. Lately, director of my department hire a lot straight from our local college. She realized that it is hard to match the skills, it is easier to get them trained in house, so to speak. None at any places are from Harvard and such, nobody can demand high salaries either since in Midwest the economy has been depressed for several decades, at least in our city. I lost my job 8 times, I am on my job #9. I loved all of them, some places had more “international” department than others, they cannot be paid lower, everybody is paid on appropriate salary schedule that exists for certain company, the auditors will not allow any other practices. My current company is international. I am a member of the team that is split in half USA/Germany to allow for 24/7 coverage to our customers (all automotive companies are our customers and we also have building product segment and high tech and even into solar energy). Most of our market is in Europe. We, in the USA still support the customers in Europe - which is in complete reverse of what you are saying. Also, there are lots of foreign automotive companies that have built the factories in the USA, employing not only blue color workers but also huge number of the American engineers and IT professionals. My company is a supplier to all of them also.
As you can see, what you stated is probably true, but also the reverse trend is true. Many Americans are working for foreign and international employers, while living in the USA.
The notion that a potential elite school applicant (those with stats and ability to have a real shot of getting in) have to choose an elite school education or risk having no prospect of finding a “reasonably (good) paying job” is ridiculously obtuse. If things were that competitive, I would be homeless. When my son doesn’t apply, a “good paying job” isn’t what I will be wondering if he has closed the door on. There will still be plenty of paths to that at the state flagship or wherever he goes. It will be something beyond just a “job”, and perhaps separate from financial ROI altogether.