Know what? It doesn't matter. The jobs that get exported are the ones that are easy to move around. They'll keep going to the lowest bidder currently capable of providing the infrastructure and services.
Europeans and Americans have never been as wealthy as a whole as we are now, *because* we're increasingly outsourcing the low skilled jobs and replacing it with stuff that gives a higher return on investment.
Okay, but software development is not a low-skilled job. Manufacturing isn't either - there may be low skilled operators but the Engineering teams behind the manufacturing have to be very skilled indeed.
So it's not just the low skilled jobs that are being exported. And even the low-skilled jobs being exported is a problem because it means that millions of people back here cannot get basic factory work. What do they do instead? Well, they stay at home on benefits of course. Some of them because they're better off that way, and others because they don't have a choice.
All of this is of course driven by the consumer. It's our fault because we demanded (and continue to demand) low prices, which results in the manufacturing work being exported to cheaper countries so that the electronics companies can stay profitable.
Back in the 80s it was normal to pay a high price for your consumer electronics goods. And what we got was better quality product. Now we have cheap product, but it's poor quality and the jobs associated with it have gone elsewhere. I think that's a bad thing, and I think the consequences (in terms of unemployment and future prospects) now far out-weigh the benefits (cheap goods for all of us).
That said, I don't see the situation changing any time soon. Consumers have grown used to paying bottom price for electronics goods. There's no way they're going to accept paying more now. And even if they were amenable to it, which company is going to budge first? None of them are going to want to be the first to give up their low prices. They'd all have to pull out together. Fat chance of that!
AH.
