Think globally

The only thing I think Bush is doing better than Kerry is handling the problem of outsourcing that is hitting the computing industry. Personally I've never been much of a protectionist, I never understood the trend ten years ago to only Buy American (say, whatever happened to Wal-Mart's commitment to that?), rather I've seen myself as a global citizen that doesn't care where my shoes or car gets made (though I would hope people get paid and treated fairly wherever that is). As barriers to other parts of the world continue to fall, we're only going to become more of a global community. And that ultimately means things will get better for everyone socially and economically that participate in it. I know in the short term that means things can be difficult, but in the long term it's a good thing.

Bruce Sterling's talk at SXSW hit on this well. He mentioned that a lot of people getting protectionist about American grunt jobs going India reminded him of how we used to treat the South in America. He said something to the effect of "When you hold a region down technologically and economically, it will have drastic future consequences...just look at how the US used to treat the South and how long it's taken them to catch up to the rest of the country."

Brad DeLong's a fairly liberal economist at Berkeley and he's written a long piece about offshoring worth reading. I also want to point out my new favorite topic blog BlameIndiaWatch as well.