Dear Bob ... Since many of us have gone back and forth on the outsourcing dilemma from the economists that state globalization is a process that cannot be stopped and protectionism would only further hurt us - to those who state that not only are good paying, tax generating jobs are being lost, but innovation is being lost as well. I would like to touch on and get your feelings towards the second point of this Dear Bob …Since many of us have gone back and forth on the outsourcing dilemma from the economists that state globalization is a process that cannot be stopped and protectionism would only further hurt us – to those who state that not only are good paying, tax generating jobs are being lost, but innovation is being lost as well.I would like to touch on and get your feelings towards the second point of this from a little different bent. Being out of college for about 10 years myself I think that we are well aware that many of the popular majors in colleges and universities here and abroad are based on “where the good paying jobs” are at a given point in time. My college years were beginning to churn out the engineers and computer science grads that would fuel the dot com boom and subsequent bust of the late 90s. By the time I graduated, many students were turned down for the CSci and Engineering programs simply because the demand was so high and of course the supply of faculty and classes was limited. With continued losses of jobs, I fear that these majors will not be as popular in the near term because of the lower prospects of finding work after graduation and ultimately this will fuel a longer term “innovation” loss than the immediate jobless recovery we are going through. Many of our innovative engineers that pioneered our great growth the past 20 years are nearing retirement and there are not the number of qualified workers to replace them that we need. Many of our unemployed could find work as continued scores of professionals retire, but our industry moves so fast that even small amounts of time off the job can outdate skills and lead business executives to accelerate our offshoring trend because these overseas workers and countries will continue to churn out engineers faster than we will. Our future depends on young pliable minds that are willing to challenge what they see and not take everything at face value – unfortunately I think we are sending them signs to not further themselves in technology which in most cases of the past 20 years has been the basis of innovation.Are my fears rational or perhaps unwarranted?– Worried about the future Dear Worried …I share your concerns. Engineers are, as a group, one of the highest-paid salaried professions in the U.S., so sending engineering work offshore is going to be a popular cost-saving strategy for U.S. corporations.Add three other trends to this: * Respect for intellect, never strong in K12 society, has lost a lot of ground in our adult population as well. “Trust the force,” has replaced “trust the facts” in the national esteem. I think this bears on the situation: Becoming an engineer means becoming someone whose career is based on facts, logic, and the ability to work with complex ideas. That means becoming someone viewed with suspicion by most of society.* MBAs have the prospect of vastly higher salaries than engineers – CEO compensation continues to be an outrageous multiple of that earned by those who work for a living and actually create value. Since engineers no longer have the countervailing advantage of job security, a career in engineering becomes less and less appealing.* Business leaders continue to focus more on cost reduction than risk mitigation and value creation, which is what’s driving so much work offshore in the first place. The U.S.’s wealth has had two historical sources: Its natural resources, and a culture that fostered engineering innovation. We’re depeleting our natural resources as fast as we can, it appears, and depleting our abilities at engineering innovation even faster.I don’t see any quick fix, either. We spent a long time getting ourselves into this mess, and it’s had a lot of sources, from popular culture to the tax revolt to the ongoing attempts by politicians of both political parties to run against the government, redefining it as the problem rather than as a valid source of solutions.It will take us at least as long to get ourselves out of it. – Bob ——– Technology Industry