Posts Tagged ‘China’

The impending decline of IT wages in the U.S.?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

I ran into this interesting article on the Computerworld blogs and the upcoming trend is that the IT workers in the U.S. will eventually have to equalize with workers in other parts of the world in order to stay competitive.

IBM is increasingly outsourcing the IT work to India while keeping the high paid executives here in the U.S. (sound familiar?) to manage offshore teams. I guess its sort of like Walmart buying cheap chinese goods and selling back to the consumers here in the U.S but instead its technology being developed in places like India and China and being resold back to the U.S. corporations.

From the article:

Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America, says this chart represents a departure point for IBM.

“I think this moment was so important because it was when Big Blue made the fateful decision to compete by substituting low cost workers in India and elsewhere for high-cost American workers,” said Hira. “Instead of choosing to compete by investing in better tools, technologies, and training for their American workforce, they chose to compete their American workers head to head with workers in other countries who can afford to be paid less. And they gave those workers in low-cost countries the same, or better, tools, technologies and training, as their American workforce,” he said.

Is IT the next domino to fall?

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China develops a super weapon that can sink U.S. carriers?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

The United States Naval Institute is reporting that the Chinese military has an operational anti ship ballistic missile (ABSM) system that can sink a U.S. aircraft carrier with one strike. It supposedly has a 2000 kilometer range and flies at speeds of Mach 10!

From the article:

The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.

Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.

Supporting the missile is a network of satellites, radar and unmanned aerial vehicles that can locate U.S. ships and then guide the weapon, enabling it to hit moving targets.

What is even more troubling is that according to the article there is no reliable defense systems on ships that deter ballistic missiles.

I can’t help but to wonder that while China stresses engineering and mathematics in their school systems while the U.S. wallows in beer bong fraternities and M TV spring break. Was this disconcerting news ever in doubt?

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