Business and enterprise software, and other applications that help a business run

A report in Business Week has finally caused me to think outside the United States box and into the rest of the software world. The report essentially notes that slow growth (or no growth) in the U.S. economy will also have dire effects on the Indian IT economy, dependent as they are on US companies for outsourcing of software projects. The next logical thought, of course, is who else that will effect.

This column reported a month ago on the constantly moving search for cheaper and cheaper alternatives in IT and call center outsourcing, as well as other more industrial jobs. That column primarily reported on recent incursions into the Egyptian talent pool by American and Indian business interests. This pursuit of the lowest wage levels has already done immense damage to workers in America, and in other countries which have been exploited, then left behind to fend for themselves when local wages rose.

Given the slowdown in the U.S. economy, the recent slump in new jobs of any kind, the falling values of the dollar, and other factors, one must wonder how long it will be before U.S. companies are once again hiring U.S. workers, not because they are the best but because they are among the cheapest? That would be a significant irony in the center of a (literally) depressing situation.