Now, I'm a Norwegian and thus somewhat coloured by my state sponsored christian social democratic upbringing. Well, I resisted the christian bit... But there's lately been a lot of discussion regarding outsourcing here in the public domain. Basically I find a lot of resistance to it for various and adorable reasons, but nonetheless, outsourcing does create a plethora of middle to high educated jobs in the less than western standard developed countries. These jobs was once the sole right of westerns to get due to our former edge in education now withered and not cutting edge enough. So emerging markeds with the educationlevel needed to provide competence and excellence take up the slack. The world we live in requires max benifit for minimum cost. And those countries benefit from it. They were thought once by the rather imperialistic european approach to be inferior, where we now find them equal if not better economically speaking. And a high level of education (and thus skills) in those countries in their general population also forces an educated sphere of political power. Where decisions are made after a rational discussion, rather than on emotional whimsies. As opposed to, say, oh I don't know, the US perhaps... And so it should be. Production goes where production makes sense! Unfortunately we do not live in a world where labour is priced equal. And that is the really huge challenge. To get everyone on this globe to a more or less equal level. That means for the time beeing that the (globally speaking) affluent american middleclass especially will drag behind. Going back with regards to wealth is something no-one will do voluntarily. And I guess it will not happen without conflict. It's time to realize here in the west that we are not smarter than anyone else. We might have the weapons to subdue others, but we do not have the right to hold their development back. And those that outsource have realized that. Hell, incouraging it eventhough they are at the same time exploiting it. What we have in the West though, is respect for the individual. That is cultural but still something we all I think take for granted, and something we are all ready to fight for. Imperialism or not, those values are actually worth defending! If we're in any kind serious about wanting the best for everyone as individuals and workers, then we got to understand that the priveliges we have gained are hard won, and we need to spread that. We all need rights, and those come from fighting against and/or working with capitalists and government to gain benefits. Not just generic anti-globalism bullshit. The one single thing western culture can be proud of is individualism. And It's also the only one thing that really matters. Liberty for one and all. Best thing is (as in giving an example for things to fight for), that this idea is not entirely emplanted in our own society. A great example is the Cannabis laws. One mans recreaction is suddenly another mans worry? The other strongforce of western culture is collectivism. Equal pay for equal work. Man or woman, bent or straight, bleak or coloured. Doesn't matter. We're all one basically. We're all Humans. And those not fortunate enough to support themselves shall be guranteed a full life (and don't come dragging with it'll cost too much. in relation to military spending, feeding the entire world dwindles in expenses per year. Just imagine what we could use all those money for. Not just feeding the needing, but also space exploration and settlement. huge scientific gains to erradicate serious epidemics like AIDS and many forms of cancer. A decent education for all. And still we're just nibbling at the global military budget.). When it costs as much to manufacture a car in India as in the US with the benits US workers get, then we can talk globalization in a fair sense. Until then it's a dog eat dog world, and we don't really want that, do we? Where one guy earns not enough for a happy meal a day, whilst another makes two, three, four, five happy meals an hour... I'm not touching upon managers and innovators at this point. As this is regarding "most of us". Suffice to say, some make more money than others. It might be due to superior skills. But it's just as more likely to be due to nepotism and in what country you were born in... But outsourcing *do* help raise wages in non-western countries. It *does* increase living standards outside of EU and US (and Japan naturally). As a moderate very liberal socialist, I cannot see the fault in that...