The jobless recovery and offshore outsourcing
Here's an interesting quote from the article "Let's redouble our investments in research and development in areas like nanotechnology and biogenetics--fields that offer the United States the opportunity to dominate tomorrow's great industries. "
I find it funny how some make it sound so simple in an article like this. Can you imagine after some of the world's greatest Applied Technology Research and Development labs lost the fight to survive and are completely disassembled and eliminated as the "opportunities of tomorrow" for their respected companies now people start to wake up and see the answer to the new economy problems as something the old economy just eliminated. I guess that's what they call a cycle.
Some of the world class technology labs that are gone, history, contained within them the first nanotechnology labs and other world class research efforts around subjects such as Superconductivety, Optical Neuro Networks, Non-Volitile memory and many more. Each were led with world respected leaders in each respected field. The sad part is most of these labs were at risk and closed shop during the 90's bubble's boom height. Yes there were other complex factors and problems that figured in but the result was the owners could not see nor further support the then present implied value as a worth while continued long term investment. Maybe there is an outside chance, but I doubt it, that the new companies that replace the old ones that sacrificed their long term future for overhead savings and short term quarterly profits would do anything differently today. The problem simply lies in the fact that long term technology research cost is expensive and that expense cuts into quaterly profits and makes it hard for companies to compete in the short term against other companies that don't have the research overhead. If there is no economic incentive in the short term to have the research effort it simply won't exist.
Disclaimer: All the above blogged by a guy who worked for "A World Class Applied Research Lab" starting in the late 80's through the majority of the 90's.
CNET News.com: The jobless recovery and offshore outsourcing. Michael Corbett says the fastest way to end this debate is to reinvest savings from offshore outsourcing in ways that encourage job creation at home.
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