Submitted By: Nicholas Miura

I’ve had quite a few recent discussions with friends about what makes Americans different than foreigners as the world becomes flat. One of the reoccurring themes that keeps coming up is that an American education helps create a well-rounded person who excels at innovation and problem solving, where others, Chinese and Indian especially, are too narrow in focus. Entrepreneurship and outsourcing were western traits, which is why America will come out on top in the end.

Here’s an article from the India Economic Times.

It seems that India has decided to be entrepreneurial and outsource – to the United States. All those call center jobs that Americans decided they didn’t want, or didn’t need are somehow coming back.

This raises an interesting question. Where are the American companies? Why hasn’t some bright young MBA student recognized that there was a business opportunity right in their own backyard? Instead, we got beat to the punch by Indian companies who are competing very well on the global stage.

Building on Robyn Bowie’s post ‘Need Help in School?’ - what is the future of American jobs? She wonders where the line will be drawn on what jobs can and will be outsourced. Is this the right question to ask, or should we begin to wonder when Chinese and Indian jobs will be outsourced to the United States? In our lifetime, will we see a time when foreigners come to the U.S. for medical tourism or Indian families are looking online for Harvard educated tutors for their sons and daughters?

Creativity and innovation is clearly not a United States commodity and just maybe we all should be a little more aware of where we fit into the global economy. Or, just assume everything will work out nicely - I’ve read that there’s a call center in Ohio who’s hiring.