How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America

[Malthus]

There are limits to how much lawyering can be outsourced. The vast majority of it is jurisdiction-specific.

Hooray for an independent judicial branch that enforces protectionism!

...kind of sucks if you want to move around in the US, mind you; you'll be taking another bar unless you're lucky.

There is certainly plenty of protectionism inherent in local-level (state or provincial) licensing requirements, but even without that, you would still need a knowledge of local laws, and ability to make appearances before local tribunals and courts - in person; plus contacts with local regulators and the like.

Not that it would be impossible for a non-local to acquire knowledge of local regs - I certainly know the regs in specialized areas of law in all Canadian provinces and have a working knowledge of similar laws in the major US states and in some European countries - but the whole "package" would be difficult to orchestrate from outside the jurisdiction.

Certainly some tasks could be done outside the jurisdiction, but most will require local knowledge & connections.

[Zanza]

Didn't you have to travel halfway around the world for a job? And probably one that doesn't pay particularly well either.

I thought Tim did that because he wanted to... not because he had no other option.

Maybe. But then, as the OP article said, education is one of the fields that isn't hit that hard by the crisis.

[Caliga]

He did it to taint an entire other continent.

He needn't worry as Kim Jong Il has Asia covered. 

[DontSayBanana]

Hooray for an independent judicial branch that enforces protectionism!

...kind of sucks if you want to move around in the US, mind you; you'll be taking another bar unless you're lucky.

Well, there's always the multi-state bar; you've still got to take an exam, but at least it isn't the whole shebang.

[Tamas]

Actually, the whole process is getting much more pronounced in the IT world than most people would think, I believe.

Increasingly, I feel, that the skills of Windows server management I have picked up at work will not be so international in practice.
The future of IT would warrant an own thread, but the move into "clouds" can only increase in volume and speed, and the big IT service companies will be by all chance placed in east europe and India. With network speeds as big as they are already, and with server virtualization, there will be less and less point for any company to have their servers around locally, rather than having them administered by a big service company, who already have eastern wage slaves doing that for others, and with good skills.

The question of course, will the eastern countries manage to turn this (as the general outsourcing thingie) into a historical possibility of finally, after a thousand years, growing an own strong middle class, or it will be lost to political instability again.

[ulmont]

Well, there's always the multi-state bar; you've still got to take an exam, but at least it isn't the whole shebang.

Try that with Florida* or Louisiana and see how far it gets you.

*While Florida uses the MBE, they have no reciprocity and don't even honor MPRE scores from other jurisdictions.

[Barrister]

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I remember similar hysteria  after the early 90s recession - talk of a jobless recovery, Generation X not being able to find work, first generation to have a lower standard of living, etc.

Things worked out pretty well after that. 

[Barrister]

Oh, and thank goodness for the mobility protocols in Canada, which allow you to move to any province that doesn't rhyme with Trebec and be able to join the bar without writing exams.

[Grey Fox]

Not that we need anymore lawyers, we've got enough.

[Barrister]

Not that we need anymore lawyers, we've got enough.

No such thing.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I remember similar hysteria  after the early 90s recession - talk of a jobless recovery, Generation X not being able to find work, first generation to have a lower standard of living, etc.

Things worked out pretty well after that. 

I'm even older and can recall at least another turn on this particular wheel, maybe two 

The media are either worried about the dependancy ratio (ie a shortage of workers) or no jobs at all for expensive Westerners.

I'm not in the slightest bit worried. Yes, Indian workers have moved into some of the higher value stuff, but at the same time the call-centre crap is starting to return home as India is too expensive (remember it's members of the Indian middle class that man the call centres, not a 100-rupees a day peasant).

I place my faith in Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage to keep us in work. Of course that does not preclude a change in our relative status.

[Ed Anger]

We're domed.

[Jacob]

We're domed.

Like the Russian Orthodox Church?

[Savonarola]

We're domed.

DOMED!

[Maximus]

We're domed.

You may be. I on the other hand still have a full head of hair.