When you went to school your 4 year degree probably cost $2,000 or so. We you got out you had a fair number of jobs to choose from that paid around $20,000 a year.

Now if I go to get a good tech degree and possibly a masters degree that is going to cost me about $65,000 – $100,000 and my expected out of college earning will be around $40,000 – $60,000.

Also, when you went to school there was something called an “entry level” job. This is probably where you got you start and gained to the experience to be “qualified” for the jobs you are talking about.

Do to 20 years of outsourcing in the tech industries there are fewer and fewer Americans with enough “entry level” experience to be qualified for these jobs.

So this is what an American 17 year old looks at when he decides what to do with his life and thinks about computer science.

Get a four year degree working really hard all four years. Not being able to go out or hold a part time job to help defer the cost. Ring up $50,000 – $70,000 in debt.

Go out into the work force and realize that there are few if any entry level jobs and go back to get your masters. Spend another $25,000 in debt and now while working just as hard in school start joining up to do a bunch of free labor in whatever open source projects you can find to try and get experience on paper.

Get out of school, move back home with your parents. Start your own project, knowing you won’t make any money with it. Spend a year on it and hopefully it will get popular and you can network your way into a place for $40,000 – $60,000 a year.

Once you get there you’ll work 60-80 hours a week. Sometimes more. Since you are a “knowledge worker” you don’t get overtime and when you sit down with a calculator that if you worked in a warehouse for $10-$12/hr with overtime you would make the same amount of money.

Since you sit at a desk for 60-80 hours a week you don’t have time for exercise you’ll be in terrible shape and feel unhealthy all the time.

Unfortunately, people in these outside countries have huge advantages now. Their education is cheaper. There is more “entry level” positions and their wages typically go further.

So although you may be shocked. Most people like me, who actually compete as a _worker_ in the global economy, wishes he got a business/finance degree.

Which is what all these smart people are doing. Because working in the tech industry when you have to pay the price of US education is a rip off for a worker. It seems pretty obvious when you spend a minute to think about it.

1) Globalisation isn’t a “here and now” thing at all. The market for violins has been globalised for 400 years. For porcelain, 300. For aerospace, since the demise of the deHavilland Comet. For computers, since the 1960s, for cars since the 1980s, and so on. (As a Brit, one tends to notice the loss of these industries more!) Globalisation is more of a rolling wave that gradually overtakes various industries. It’s not just the low cost of making things in China, but the low cost of transporting them from there which means that they command more industries than just porcelain these days.

2) When Amazon, a global company, opened their first UK warehouse, it was reported in the press than the UK staff worked the same hours and were expected to stuff the same number of boxes as their US counterpars, but for 70% of the pay. It seems clear that as globalisation extends further into high-wage economies like the US, implicit subsidies such as this will also be eroded.

well, “Globalization is working”, but I am not…
so my question is: FOR WHOM is Globalization working?

The mega corporations that manufacture in China profit from China’s cheating, which is why China continues to get away with it. And the wealthy 1% of the population profit handsomely by holding the shares of these mega corporations. In other words, they benefit enormously from the China’s artificially low Yuan.

So while rich American shareholders have gotten steadily richer, American factory workers have lost their jobs. This has contributed to America’s real estate crisis, and the ballooning national debt.

Those who are not suffering can speak calmly about “leveling out” wages. But to be fair, we should first talk about “leveling out” currency exchange rates by requiring China to allow its Yuan to float freely. Let’s ensure a level playing field before we smugly endorse “leveling out” US workers’ wages.