That guy just got everyone in his department fired. They then hired the Chinese firm that he found to do the work of everyone for 1/5th what it used to cost them.

There are 2 parts of the service industry. The stuff you can outsource and the stuff you cant (sort of anyway).

You CAN outsource the manufacturing and assembly of products and customer support stuff like tech desks and answering services.

You can't outsource getting your toilet fixed or your pizza delivered. You need someone local. When i said "sort of" i meant that while you can't outsource pizza delivery (for example) you can hire non us citizens to do the work for less. So...in the United States its very beneficial (for those of us in the service industry) to work very hard at obtaining knowledge that allows us to "solve" harder "problems".

If you wan't to be in AV don't plan on hanging plasmas and installing in-wall speakers for the rest of your life. Imported/lower cost labor will continue to move up the ranks making it impossible for you to finance your life. Product margin erosion and the "google for best price" phenomenon will eventually put an end to selling/profiting from hardware so start billing for all labor like other service oriented professionals do (architects/doctors/lawyers).

There is an entire continent south of us (and a few countries between texas and the canal not to mention the 3rd world countries around the globe) of people who risk their lives every day (just to get here) to come do the "dirty low class work" here because the lowest paid job in the United States is an incredible opportunity compared to where they come from.