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14 April 2004

Where is the benefit for Americans of having their human capital destroyed when they are replaced by cheap foreign labor?

A couple of notable articles on information technology outsourcing. First, Paul Craig Roberts pokes holes in the March job numbers, noting that other than domestic construction, the figures are still a big minus. And for the first time on record, the U.S. ran a trade deficit in advanced technology products and services.

Next, InfoWorld columnist Tom Yager on how outsourcing has fostered an "assembly line" mentality in IT culture, that destroys loyalty, crushes innovation and imposes a cap on solution creation.

All outsourcing shares one major characteristic: A worker in a temporary role has little incentive to innovate, invent, or create. This is spirit, blood, and emotion, gifts we bring to work only under rare conditions. During the ’90s, IT set aside its position as a hotbed for collaboration, new ideas, and individual achievement. All of those workers with temporary mind-sets reduced what used to be engaging, knowledge-expanding jobs to fixed stations on an assembly line. A generic Java programmer with x years of experience stands here. It doesn’t matter whether that programmer is full-time, contracted, brought in on a visa, or part of a consulting team.