Strategy letter V & Offshoring

Numerous people have recommended going into other professions to escape the fate of having your job offshored.  Such professions mentioned usually involve obtaining a license or performing work that requires physical presence.

Thanks to Joel's Econ 101 lesson, I now realize that those other professions are just substitutes for this one, and as our price goes down the demand to join one of those other professions will increase.  As more people migrate to those other professions (supply increase), that means that their wages will suffer along with ours. 

I realize that this is one of those "well, duh!" insights, but I have to say that I was ignorant of it until now.

Any 'economic thinking' books out there that don't cost what a microecon textbook costs?  I'm specifically looking for microecon, not macro or politics.

Bob Ng
Thursday, October 30, 2003

While what you say about supply and demand may be fundamentally correct, there are issues of human nature to consider. If the job is dangerous (or is percieved as such), involves heavy manual labour, or keeps you away from home for weeks at a time, then the supply of willing workers will always be low.

The best paying jobs I've ever had were as 'shovelmeister'. Once I was responsible for shovelling the clay back onto a leaky conveyor belt and another time my cousin and I turned a cellar into a full basement. Both jobs were back-breaking, hand-blistering labour, and both jobs had gone unfilled for a long time before I showed up :)

The easy and fun jobs will always fill up fast. If you're really serious about job security, get good, quick, and reliable at something that needs to be done but that will cause most people to either question your sanity or actually shun you.

Ron Porter
Thursday, October 30, 2003

Free to Choose by Milton Friedman...

http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/friedman.html

It might change your life...

Christopher

christopher baus (www.summitsage.com)
Thursday, October 30, 2003

Link doesn't work

Phil
Friday, October 31, 2003

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