Sunday, December 07, 2003

Globalization and the Export of American Labor: NYT Algonquin Discusssion

Who Wins and Who Loses as Jobs Move Overseas?
An excellent overview. In the 90s American IT workers lost income, and investors gained income, through the use of foreign IT labor using special visas. In the 00s we're seeing a much stronger variant of labor shifting -- moving the work to where the labor is.

This is another step in the shift of wealth from labor to capitalists (shareholders, etc). That's not a bad thing, if capital markets are honest and ownership is widely distributed -- and if the nation takes wise measures to ease the shock of labor transitions. Of course we may now lack both of these prerequisites.

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