Reply #12: If you think this is just a downturn, you are not paying attention [View All]

[kcwayne]

and are not well informed.

Intellectual capital is fleeing, and not being reproduced because the opportunities have left or are leaving the country for lower cost labor.

There are limited opportunities in product development left in the high tech industry. Every major tech firm has moved major R&D centers, software porting, contract manufacturing, et all over seas. Every product center in every company I do consulting work for will not be here in five years. I certainly am not aware of every product cycle in the country, but from what I have read over the five years, my experience and observations are not anecdotal.

Creating products in the technology arena takes large amounts of capital because the speed required to get to market is so accelerated. There is a huge disincentive to invest large amounts of money in the computer and electronic fields because of the inability to enforce patents. You put the money into it, and someone in China or India copies it and sells it more cheaply, unimpeded to the US. Software and electronics patents are a joke the minute someone overseas powers up a production plant and starts funneling their stolen property through their distribution channel (Walmart).

If you think this is bullshit, just talk to some venture capitalists, or more laughably, a US bank. They gave up on electronics. Now the rage is bioengineering. But my PHD research chemist buddies are telling me that they are going through the same chase to the bottom.

This problem is not a downturn. It is an economic tornado, and we are living in mobile homes.