One reason is, as a labourer, you don't need to know too much reading. Just pure muscle. And miserable lives. I saw that in China, Singapore (that was in the 80s, where foreign workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia lived in deplorable conditions as compared to the local. The Malaysian faired better since their home is only a hop away ...), now in Malaysia ...
While we frequently talk about greater access to education and training as a result of the Net and cheaper access to it -- all of which is true -- we really don't concentrate very hard on the talking more about promoting *work* opportunities as a result of the new connectivity. I don't know why this is because the examples are many that this kind of thing is well underway; (India's India's call centers -- coupled to the complaint by wealthy nation employees that their job was outsourced). (What is one man's poison is another man's potion.)
It is not a terribly long step to believe that relatively simple typing skills by Bengali's can lead to data processing jobs from Boston -- along the lines of what the Irish have done for New England insurance companies for two or three decades.
"Outsourcing" has just begun. In full bloom, 30, 40, 50 years from now, it will mean tele-commuting -- probably from telecenters with all the latest and greatest equipment, with the labor force coming from that same pool that Cindy came from...except what will count most is brain power, not muscle power.
Final note: All this means today's American college and high school graduate had best get off their lazy butts and realize what the REAL competition is going to do to their job situation.
--
John W. Hibbs
<
http://www.bfranklin.edu/johnhibbs
_______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
