[thelist] Design/Development Goes Third World?

I think anyone who went to a decent university with a techie bent
probably had TAs and fellow students who were from these "third
world" nations.  We all saw how hard they worked and how smart
they were.  Also none of the countries that you got emails from
were third-world nations- especially not India.  IIRC, they have the
third largest population in the world, they've got nukes, and their
own way of doing things.

I've got family friends from India...  one of them teaches at a small
university here and really is brilliant.  He's a qualified and competent
medical doctor, but he made less in India than you probably make
for pushing pixels.  $18/hour in India is good money, really good.

This is really the future of outsourcing.  Most of the high-tech labor
in India and other countries like it is very disciplined, using a highly-
formal process, and usually well-trained.  They can't get enough
VISAs so they got smart and started their own companies and
outsource from across the world.

What alternatives are there out there?  Wait for enough Americans
to wake up and realize that they themselves and their kids are
supposed to be the ones who fuel this high-tech labor market?
I don't think so.  Time to market is everything... while you're still
trying to recruit some developers who don't have outrageous
salary demands or bad track records, your competitor is beta
testing the software the Indian consulting firm just developed for
her - for about what you would be paying just *one* of your
developers a year...

So, yeah, eventually we as individuals developers will be in competition
on a much broader scale, sharpen the saw and be prepared for it.
I don't think I have a problem with it, I'm just afraid that they'll get all
the really cool work and I'll be stuck doing maintenance and what not.