America set to lose Tech dominance

hmurchisonhmurchison
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I got a trade rag this week that stated that America is likely to lose its Tech dominance in 10-15 years. It was an opinion but I have to agree.



They had a blurb about Bill Gates stating that education requirements should be heightened but lets face fact.



If I have a company and I need 5 engineers. Do I



A. Hire 5 stateside engineers for 250K a year in salary.

B. Contract/Outsource to 5 Chinese or Indian Engineers for possibly less than 100K a year?



I think we know the answer on this one for many companies. Thus it seems to me that the lack of Engineers in the US will be caused by crappy salaries rather than qualifications. Hell I'm not paying $80k for an Engineering degree so that I can come out and watch the salaries compress at Outsourcing picks up.



I know we have a few CompSci majors here. How do you feel about your prospects after graduation? I'll be honest. I'm changing my major while I can. I'd rather stay in school longer and get a JD. No one outsources Legal Counsel overseas (or at least no one smart).

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    If by "tech" you mean the set of generally mediocre people who pridefully call themselves "software engineers," (and hate being called "programmers") then yes, perhaps America might lose some of its edge. But this is due to a few reasons.



    1) Abstraction of computer code: despite the fact that computers get more complicated, it's easier to write a program now than ever before. Yeah, it might be slow and inefficient, but if people cared, then Java and .Net would be dead.



    2) People with limited education/experience (in China and India) can write programs without much trouble, thanks to high abstraction.



    3) Having layers of absraction is overall a good thing, and it won't stop.



    It's interesting to note that I doubt Electrical Engineering will take off much outside of Japan and the US for some time. It requires a lot more infrastructure to develop, in both the corporate and education sectors. I'd say that even Europe is a few steps behind the US and Japan in this area, though I'd say it's because their economies and investing profiles don't breed a good environment for high-tech. That is, the US is very start-up friendly, and as long as that's the case, we will lead or co-lead the global high tech industry.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    thttht Posts: 5,443member
    Yes, but under a few conditions. India and China are in a race - not against each other, but between themselves and their ecosystems - to be able to sustain themselves with the limited resources they have.



    For the sort of technology, I would include all technology fields including the obvious software technology, medical technologies, telecom, engineering, and possibly others. Asian medical care - comparable to western hospitals et al - is on the rise, and if one does the math, I think there will be a time (might be now) when it will be cheaper to fly overseas to get major medical care (done just as safely) than to have it done in the USA. Technical fields in medicine will also see more offshoring and such.



    The race India and China have will be one of resources and developing the technology to use the limited resources available. India and China have more than 2 billion people combined, and the trouble will be in their ability to support such a population in a stable way. Ecosystems as they stand now will not support such populations, so, they will have to develop tech and political policies to enable them to do so. The disparity between rich and poor in India and China is going to be huge, and that's usually not a stable situation. It'll be like millionare aristocracy with peasant slaves just down the street. It will be a challenge.



    If they pass and their society is stable with a happy populace, the USA will lose its technology lead, probably in all fields including the R&D ones.
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