<p>I’m an electrical engineer and I can’t count how many fellow electrical engineers I’ve seen get laid off and their jobs sent to China, India, etc… As for mechanical engineers, I think it’s been worse for them.</p>
<p>The nice thing about civil engineering is the difficulty of outsourcing it. Sure, some of the functions can go, but someone needs to visit the job sites. Also, there is an abundance of municipality jobs for civil engineers. When was the last time you saw a township hire an electrical or aerospace engineer?</p>
<p>I’m sorry for this soapbox diatribe I’m about to spew, but…
What needs to happen is our politicians need to stop fixating on “job creation” and start spending some time on “job saving.” It is insane for the US to continue to allow an unfair playing field. The US regulates and taxes companies to point of a choke hold and at the same time allow foreign companies, unburdened by either, to compete head to head with our domestic industries.</p>
<p>Think about it for a minute. If you make something in the United States, companies need to conform to OSHA rules for worker safety, EPA rules for environmental safety, pay high Social Security costs for employees, high insurance, high local/state/federal taxes, high utility costs, etc… </p>
<p>But when we allow foreign manufacturers to export to us, we don’t insist on any of those things. Look at the Bejing Olymipics. They shut down factories in a 100 mile radius for weeks just to get the air quality up and it never even reached “acceptable”. Their rivers run technicolor with toxins. OSHA? Worker safety?! Don’t make them laugh! Workers are disposable over there.</p>
<p>And that’s the kind of companies we allow to compete with American firms who protect their workers, protect our environment, pay social security benefits, pay taxes to our country?!?! It’s no wonder the CEOs and boards of American companies outsource to Asia. It’s not greed! IT IS SURVIVAL!!! If they didn’t do it, there would be no company.</p>
<p>Someone has got to stop the insanity.</p>