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Dot ComBack, Or More Of The Same?
adamsmith_uk writes "The FT features Wall Street's renewed love affair with dotcom stocks on Monday with the latest in a $6bn string of acquisitions that has helped set light to the once-defunct online commerce sector. Could this be the signs of the tech ComBack ?" But hold onto your hopes; ekarjala writes "According to this CNet article, a recent survey by theInformation Technology Association of America indicates that IT hiring in the US is expected to remain flat or decline slightly over the course of 2003. The main drivers are lack of demand for IT products/services and outsourcing IT functions offshore."
Exactly. The summary stated "outsourcing IT functions offshore".
And why not outsource offshore? If a product is homogenous enough to outsource, its up to the individual to use their privilaged position to create as unique and innovative product/service as possible instead of bitching their job is not protected (against others who could probably do it better).
I've believed for some time that "outsourcing offshore" is more an excuse to explain the current situation rather than a real cause. Articles such as the one I just cited only support my belief.
The main drivers are lack of demand for IT products/services and outsourcing IT functions offshore.
You're forgetting a huge factor. Our President's economic policiy has completely and uterly failed to help anyone but the very rich.
I calculated my potential savings from his dividend tax cut. $60 last year. And I'm one of the few people I know who actually owns stock that pays dividends.
Half the people I know are unemployeed, I've been looking for work for 4 months (average time of unemployment around here is 8 months, with an unemployment rate of 10%), I'm in danger of losing my house, and this dumbfuck is telling me to enojoy a dividend tax cut.
Fuck you Bush, you're an asshole. Now that the war is over, people will stop supporting you with their 'rally to the flag' additude, and will start questioning your policies. You better be prepared.
What good things have you done for the country since you've been in office? I see nothing but a path of destruction and nepotism...
136 billion being outsourced is nothing to sneeze at. Especially if your out of work.
If you lose your job from a cheap third world laborer your opinion will change quickly. The only reason companies are doing this is because they want to take advantage of people and raise their stock prices.
We need protective tarrifs to protect American workers and the economy. We have them for all sorts of imported products already. Since IT is a service we need to do this? Can an Indian or Chinese man do it better then an American? Then hire them. But hire them based on their skills and not "hey we can starve their families by paying them so little so why not?" A protective tarrif will acomplish this. Every country on Earth has them but America has become quite greddy over the years and is losening them due to lobbiest pressure.
After all a simuliar argument could be made that "why should we buy shoes for $55 each when you can buy Thailand brand for $3?"
If the product is homogenous enough to buy it outsourced for cheaper why not? Obviously there would be no more American economy if this happened.
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Yes you are completely stupid for wanting to get into IT right now. If you would like to discuss it in detail go to Austin TX, downtown to any of the nicer resturants and order dinner. Ask your waiter what the IT job market is like and I bet you the price of your dinner and a nice bottle of wine that your waiter IS an out of work IT guy.
No shit.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
The Information Technology Association of America. The same group that, in the midst of the dot-bomb bloodbath insisted that there was a shortage in available IT labor and lobied for raising caps in H-1B visa allowances. The same group maintaining that there is a current 500,000 worker shortage and expected to champion maintaining the current temporarily increased H-1B visa cap.
If you really want to improve the trade balance, then increase foreign aid. This seems counter intuitive but is a simple result of looking at the flow of money. We (in the US) would like to do three things (and can choose two, currently 1 and 3):
1. Keep foreign aid low to save money.
2. Keep imports lower than exports, so that we produce more stuff and have more jobs.
3. Act as the Reserve currency for the world. This allows us to largely ignore currency fluctuations. It also means that when we print money that we can buy foreign goods with it.
To provide the Reserve currency, the US has to export dollars (for other countries to use in their transactions). To export dollars, we either have to buy stuff (i.e. import) or give them away (i.e. foreign aid). We choose to maintain a trade deficit. This results in our receiving goods in exchange for a product with a very high profit margin, money (even if we had to print paper currency, the profit on printing money is over 90%; in point of fact though, the relevant transactions are generally electronic; electronic creation of money is close to 100% profitable; the only danger is that eventually we might have to provide goods for the money).
Tariffs won't reduce the trade deficit (unless they lower world demand for dollars). Instead, tariffs reduce *exports*. Why? Because they reduce imports and take away foreign countries ability to buy our goods (since they don't provide the world's reserve currency, foreign countries need dollars to buy our goods; unless we send them some, they can't buy). Since exports are five to ten times the size of the trade deficit, we would stand to lose more than we could possibly gain.
Don't believe me? Perhaps you should take a little look at history. What bill's passage in 1929 led to Black Monday's crash in October? Yes, that's it, the Smoot Hawley tariff act. The domino effect (as other countries responded with their own tariffs) cracked open the world economic system. This was followed by a power struggle between the Fed's Board of Governors (Greenspan is the current Chairman) and the Fed. Reserve Bank of NY, which led to the US money supply being cut in half.
There is only one way to get out of a recession and that is to increase demand. To increase demand, you need to increase the money supply. To increase the money supply, you need the Fed to release more money. To get the Fed to release more money, you need to convince them that inflation is under control. Since tariffs exist to allow domestic products to be priced higher, they cause inflation. Thus, tariffs will make it harder to get the Fed to increase the money supply and lengthen the recession.