Jason Henning wrote:

On Sun, 28 Mar 2004 23:26:10 GMT, "LoveFish"
wrote:

Most of the outsourcing that corporations are committing to are
high-end
technical positions. They save a ton of money by not having to pay
Americans to do these jobs. I think in the long run this will hurt
America. Eventually we will be a country of consumers.

You can't consume if you don't produce.


For those system thinkers out there, we are working into a "Tragedy of
the Commons" situation.

The various corporations need consumers ( the common resource ), however
it is in each corporations' best interest to send their labor some
place else. This reduces the number of available consumers.

But the overall reduction in consumers, reduces the corporations'
profits, and thus makes sending more jobs someplace else more
attractive.

It should be noted that this is an unstable archtype... One with an
unhappy ending. This archtype is frequently found in the fishing
industry, for instance.

The typical solution for this archtype is for some outside agency to
take over management of the commons and regulate it.

Optimists believe that educating the various players to the fact that
they're in a "Tragedy of the Commons" situation and the effects thereof
will solve the solution on its own.

I'm not an optimist in this situation...

-Donald
--
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright