I'd also like to add that I have nearly 20 years of IT experience and lost my job due to outsourcing or the "scaling" down of my department.
Any time someone with 20 years of IT experience, or 20 years of welding or mechanical experience, or 20 years of customer service experience, cannot find work - and at scaled "seasoned" rates - something is WRONG. Sadly you're not alone; undercutting practices have been on the increase for years now. I've worked with guys who developed smart weaponry and trajectory systems for the Vietnam-come-Iraqi conflicts who morphed into "overqualified" and/or "antiquated" status once their long term contracts expired. Suddenly they were "dinosaurs" not worthy of retooling, not with cheap scab replacements lined up around the corner.
Sadly, boatload after boatload of H1B mercenaries have never been enough to satisfy the insatiable greed of the industry leadership. Thus they've been quickly supplemented with outsourcing schemes to displace even more native rank-and-filers. All these slick ideas come from Ivy League erudites, whose claim to fame and raison d'etre is to dream up schemes to increase short term profits at the expense of everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - else. That includes longer range projections (bah), principles, ethics, traditions, and of course regulation and oversight whenever and however they can.
They reward these wizards top dollar, basically so you can sit on your thumbs unemployed - and perhaps in foreclosure - while foreigners excel in your place. It's a form of Jonestown Kool-aid by any other name, and trust me, you'll be given quite a guilt trip if you don't drink from their pink cup. That's because modern day captains of industry, do-no-wrong heroes to capitalist purists [!], have been so busy salting loot away in their private vaults that they never bothered to look after or care the very people who helped get them there (other than their handpicked inner circles). Five-and-dime 'expendables' like yourself, along with millions of others, can hit the road.
Don't think it's anything but your own fault, please. You were too devoted and, uh, 'starry eyed' for your own damn good! They'll be the first to tell you so, trust me.
Your hard labor and 20 years of devotion basically bought you OVERPAID, OVERQUALIFIED and OVER-EXPECTANT status. Don't trouble yourself that the same thing applies to those elitist "movers and shakers" at the top of the food chain, only to the power of 100. They're safely sheltered on hilltops and in exclusive enclaves where such rules simply don't apply. But it is interesting - and dare I say, insightful - how they conveniently forgot those at the lower end of the scale who helped get their princely butts into stratospheric climbs. *Alas* these industry princes can't be bothered with any sniveling "gripes" from expatriate labor at this point.
But do take comfort knowing Raj from India and Rahul from Pakistan are doing well in your place. Same thing goes for all the undercut blue collar guys by the score. All should rest easy now that they now have extra time on their hands, and be comforted by the fact that Jose is feeding his kin like never before south of the border, since the Mexicans apparently can no longer fend for themselves! At least their leadership appreciates your "sacrifice," as it allows them to offload their troubles onto our shores and to drape themselves in that much more gold jewelry.
