Good Advice from Tim Ferriss 4 Hour Workweek- Outsourcing

My last few posts have been about economics and politics. I can tell you there is one issue where ALL major political candidates are dead wrong. That is the issue of Outsourcing and "jobs going overseas."

This is not as much a political issue as an economics, moral, and personal decency issue. Sorry to all the xenophobic economically illiterate Lou Dobbs sucking political idiots...

Outsourcing is GOOD. Yep. And sometimes losing jobs is GOOD. Some jobs are meant to be lost. Anyone who professes to be a free market capitalist simply cannot be a protectionist. Any politician who tells you he believes in economic freedom and then talks about "saving jobs from going overseas" is a liar. This is just not compatible.

The reality is most politicians, even if they "get it" on economics, feel they have to pander to get votes. And as this election has certainly shown most American voters are idiots. Sorry, but it's true.

People are motivated by fear- fear of terrorists, fear of losing their jobs to "furriners", and so on. Voters are not rational individuals. This is why I explained voting was worthless in a previous post. Politically, people act out of fear and a desire for power. If you can play to their fears and make empty promises, you can get political POWER.

No one wants to hear that Freedom is GOOD. They want to be coddled and told that government will "take care of them." Government will help you keep your job, keep your house, give you a pony,etc.

For some reason no one wants to be an adult. no one wants to be RESPONSIBLE for their lives. The reality is life is about choices. And people should be responsible for the outcomes.

Meanwhile, when you exclude the protectionists, idiots, and whiners, there is another type of individual. Someone who goes about his business trying to do the best he can under the circumstances. This is someone who EMBRACES the economic power of the global economy and sees it for what it is- an opportunity for MANY people to increase their standard of living while voluntarily exhcanging goods and services for mutual benefit.

A lot of readers come here looking for reviews and information about The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. For all its faults ( there are a few but that's another story) Tim Ferriss's book has a lot of good points. In pursuing "lifestyle design" and personal business efficency, The Four Hour Workweek makes good economic sense on a number of issues- without bowing down to the current wave of political correctness bullshit when it comes to outsourcing.

One of the highlights of the book is the idea of outsourcing certain tasks to virtual personal assistants- often "overseas" in India. This idea is intriguing and seems like it could be great advice for people who want to do things like spend more time with their family- rather than whining about poltics and embracng bigoted philosophies.

This is probably an idea most "regular folk" would never think of but perhaps one worth looking into.

My friend was reading "The World is Flat" and we got into a discussion about that book and 4-Hour Workweek.

He said " Wow, you can hire an Indian assistant for 1500-2000 bucks a month and have them do all the work while you are sleeping." Sounds great to me. Figure out how much money you need to live, delegate everything and live off the "global arbitrage."

My friend then made some comments about how when everyone else is unemployed "people who think like we do" will be doing alright.

Now I certainly hope there isn't massive unemployment. But the reality is the United States will NEED to shed some jobs and drop some industries to keep our economy going. But that is the way it has always been. Certain jobs become antiquated and obsolete whle BETTER jobs take their place. People who want to do well will. They go back to school, get better training, whatever it takes. No one owes anyone a cradle to grave guaranteed lifestyle. Certainly not the government and politicians.