<p>Most outsourcing probably occurs within fields where knowledge is weakly “tied” to a physical location. Think software engineering work that may be performed almost anywhere vs. nuclear engineering work that is tied to a nuclear plant or nuclear equipment manufacturing facility.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about this offshoring issue for a bit and I’m beginning to think it’s a blessing in disguise. I’m 100% positive there are several unemployed engineers somewhere utilizing their free time doing some innovative thinking. Necessity is the mother of invention. If you are hungry, you’ll figure out a way to get food, rather quickly. The next “boom” field may come from some unemployed, hungry engineer. And quite frankly, this country needs a dose of reality.</p>
<p>What is actually troubling me nowadays is the “seeding-out” issue. Basically, we are educating a bunch of foreigners at our universities (seeding) and then we allow them to leave the country with advanced knowledge (out). We should be making every effort possible to assimilate these foreigners into our culture.</p>