When Outsourcing Goes Bad

Are you a wuss? Don't like outsourcing? Don't you know that outsourcing is the way of the future? And what's more, it is actually good for our economy, and therefore for YOU!

I always wondered how this line of reasoning works. I mean, when they were outsourcing the blue collar manufacturing jobs the general sermon went something like "We in the Western world will lead the development of new techniques and ideas, we'll be needing well-educated people with degrees, and those jobs will be safe" (not that there was much of an outcry outside of the ranks of the rather powerless blue collar workers - the white collar workers were very sure that their jobs were safe, I mean they went to university and everything). Now the white collar jobs are being outsourced (or offshored - less people know that term yet) and there is a major outcry. Scores of people can't find work (there's of course a major argument whether this is to be blamed on the economy in general or on outsourcing) and they are being told they should keep training themselves to stay competitive. But what exactly are they supposed to do? If being an electronics engineer or a computer scientist can't get you a job, what will?
The problem is that the only thing that Americans can do better than anyone else right now is producing scores of lawyers and entertainment. Somehow this doesn't strike confidence in the heart of Americans that don't work in these industries but are supposed to be preparing for the future. Too many people fear they face a future in the service industry, flipping burgers.

And because of all this I find that I get a real kick out of stories about outsourcing gone bad:
This one is a real beauty: Jolly Technologies in San Carlos, Calif. has a "subsidiary" in Mumbai, India. This is an example of what's usually considered outsourcing - get cheap programmers in poorer countries to do the work. Then it went wrong (HAHA!). It seems a young programmer stole some source code and design documents and sent it out via her Yahoo email account. Then she went home and never showed up again. The company went to the Mumbai police which not only didn't investigate but wouldn't even accept the company's complaint. So now they are stuffed, and they are quite rightly afraid that their ex-employee might "... sell the stolen code to competitors -- compromising customer security and ruining ... business."

I know you feel their pain. My heart bleeds for them, too. Or something.