Though recently retired, I still like to follow what's happening in the IT arena, and I still am very disturbed about the whole issue of outsourcing.

This isn't the first time, and probably won't be the last when IT jobs had less job security than other careers. There are some economic forces behind this that are important, though increasing profits through the loss of American jobs is pretty repulsive, and not one of those important economic principles needed to help get out of the current recession.

The really important footnote here though is security. One reader briefly touched on it, especially in regards to Russia and China. If they decide to shut us down economically, it's well within their power, especially with the increase of the IT jobs they are getting.

Besides shutting us down, they could cause all forms of mayhem, including industrial sabotage, breaching national security, and consumer fraud on a scale not currently imaginable. These are just a few ideas that come to mind, and I for one, certainly don't see the logic of these trends.

When large corporations complain about a lack of trained staff, it's always within the context of getting the H1B and L1B quotas increased, never about how to create the qualified workers from our own residents.

After working for a large American company (large for it's industry) for a few years, we had a change in management. The new VP of our division was from India, and one of the first things he did was begin the process of setting up a new office in India, to help our development efforts "get up to speed". He did this while promising no jobs that currently existed would be lost in this process, and this was just a "cost effective way of being able to meet our customers needs more effectively." Now, after three years of the "cost effective" program, there are over 100 employees in India, a program in place to train some of those same folks in how to perform L1 type support, and a complete lack of filling positions that were opened when several of us left.

The worst part of all this was how this was justified. While "trying" to fill some vacant engineering positions, the department head declared it was impossible to find anyone qualified to do the job, so it would have to become part of the India's office. This is a common argument in the need for outsourcing, never mind the fact that it took well over six months of training before the folks in India produced anything close to usable.

So for the sake of saving a few dollars, our nation's leaders, both political and business, are willing to expose the US to all the risks that go along with outsourcing.

Please understand, I'm not against those from India nor any other country. I have a great deal of respect for the knowledge, drive and quality of work that was performed by the many foreigners that I worked with during my career. I believe that immigrants are very important to our society and economy, because of those reasons I stated above.

However, the need for immigrant workers should not be confused with a company trying to save a few bucks and make the folks on Wall Street happy. Profitability shouldn't be based on unemployment, especially if you consider that folks who are out of work can't consume at their previous rate, so the short term quarterly gain is lost in the long term effect of unemployment.

What bothers me the most about the whole issue of the work visas and outsourcing in particular is that we've put profit and greed before the needs of the people.

Just wonderful.