Save the Hubble

Save the Hubble

It is understandable, though not forgivable, that the government has other priorities than the Hubble. Unfortunatelly the priorities of governments don't always align with those of their citizens, and unfortunatelly that's what we are experiencing in the United States right now.

The incredible public reaction, outside of scientific circles, should be sufficient to keep the Hubble going until the next space telescope is operational. After all, it is paid for from our tax money, and I am thrilled that so many other Americans understand Hubble's importance.

Assuming that the government and NASA administration end up canning Hubble anyway, I wonder if it would be possible for a private consortium to keep it aloft. Would NASA consider servicing it if the missions were paid for through private funds? I am not familiar with Hubble's financials and how it is subsidized, but it should be possible to finance a large portion of operational costs by selling telescope time, with the remaining funds coming from sponsorship. It would be a great oportunity to start private and commercial involvement in space ventures. It's about time NASA gets some competition and we put a few logos out there :-) Bill and Larry, what do you think? How about the Hubble-Gates-Ellison Space Telescope?

India Offshoring

"To be sure, many corporations have run into myriad headaches, ranging from poor communications to inconsistent quality. Dell Inc. recently said it is moving computer support for corporate clients back to the U.S. Still, a raft of studies by Deloitte Research, Gartner, Booz Allen, and other consultants find that companies shifting work to India have cut costs by 40% to 60%."

http://archive.midrange.com/cpf0000/200401/msg00005.html

This is exactly where the problem lies. Management teams in the US demand blindly that as much as possible is outsourced to India (call it the herd effect) without really having any data regarding the effect on quality. There is no question that some jobs can be performed offshore cheaper and better, and that eventually the quality factor can disappear, but at this time it still is a huge problem (incidentally this holds true for Chinese manufacturing as well). In my opinion sometime in the next decade we will witness a sharp decline in Indian outsourcing as managers realize the costs of reducing costs this way, leading to an equilibrium in job offshoring.

In the long term (50-100 years) the boost of the Indian economy will also lead to higher living standards and a smaller gap between costs of labor in the US and in India, essentially erasing the advantages of offshoring. That gap may not be sufficiently accentuated for a long time though.