Alan Blinder on Globalization

In the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs, Alan Blinder argued that outsourcing has barely hit our shores. Outsourcing over the next several decades will dramatically increase with impersonal service providers becoming the next big victims (manufacturing was the last). This makes sense to me and it is why education will be so important over the next several decades. Students, particularly in the developed world, will need to increase their experience into jobs which are not likely to be outsourced.

The most interesting tidbit of information that Mr. Blinder acknowledged (and which I firmly believe) is that outsourcing to China is not this nations biggest threat. Most of the outsourced positions to China currently involve manufacturing (i.e. textiles, etc.). The nation that I believe is most likely to take our best jobs is India (and Mr. Blinder agrees). This nation is far more democratic, more likely to receive substantial FDI (foreign direct investment), less likely to have a major political upheaval and produces far more specialized positions (scientists, engineers and doctors) than America does.

We need to discover what India is doing to encourage this, copy it and also encourage these bright students to learn, teach and live in this nation.