Offshore Outsourcing

What does /prog/ think about Offshore Outsourcing in terms of the high-tech center (not just IT but other engineering fields are effected as well) in the US?

Obviously it's seen as a bad thing for professionals here in the IT field, but I'm wondering what you think of it's effect on us, the field, and the economy? How can we get around it, what jobs are being heavily outsourced and effected by the trend vs. those that aren't? Any other comments on the subject would be appreciated as well.

I'm mostly just worrying if, say, I actually know how to program C as a core for my skills for instance and know all the abstract bullshite about pointers, mem allocation, recursion, and the like, do I have anything to worry about?

How difficult is it to deal with the break-neck changes in technology and programming languages, and rampant ageism that I've heard so much about?