Here's a nice piece by Declan McCullagh (via O'Reilly News) describing the crass protectionism to which the American administration is willing to descend in exchange for small amounts of cash, even when such policies clearly run against the interests of US consumers. After all the recent offshoring hysteria coming out of the US, it's nice to see at least some people in the tech world defend the principles of free trade. As if this weren't enough, no less a source of wrongheaded offshoring angst than the Interesting People mailing list has just published a link to this very fine article on why protectionism makes losers of us all.
Then, just when you think the battle might be turning in your favour, word arrives (to subscribers of The Economist only) that Dell — one company that you think really ought to get this stuff — is considering shifting call centre jobs from India to the US, and for no better reason than political pressure. A sad day indeed if it's true.
Posted by timo at November 29, 2003 08:25 PM | TrackBack