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Intel Chief: Don't Call Us Benedict Arnold CEOs

theodp writes "In a USA Today interview, Intel CEO Craig Barrett pooh-poohs arguments against outsourcing, explaining 'We do not send our basketball teams to compete against the rest of the world, saying the other teams have to play slower because our folks aren't fit enough to run as fast.' He is also fed up with being called a Benedict Arnold CEO (perhaps he'd prefer Unemployed Computer Scientist). Barrett pegs K-12 math and science education as the biggest threat to U.S. employment, but when pressed about U.S. kids who do well in both, attend excellent universities, but have no guarantees of good jobs when they graduate, Barrett remarks 'I don't have a solution to that one.'"

3 of 1,033 comments (clear)

  1. US Constitution by morgandelra · · Score: 2, Troll

    Since when does the US Constitution state that all people who go through public education are guaranteed to get a good, high paying job, straight out of school? I must have missed that part....

  2. Re:Competing with non-U.S. programmers is OK... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 1, Troll

    And as for doing something besides programming for a living...you mean to tell me that I spent my teenage years actually studying, getting good grades, and keeping my nose clean, I went to college to get my B.S. in computer science, I worked my tail off for 12 years...and now I'm unemployed and poor? Damn

    Well cry me a river...

    I'll tell you what: if you don't find what you want in your country, move to another country that'll welcome it. I did it: I moved to the US during the bubble and I got paid lots of money while people in my home country couldn't find any job because of companies in my country outsourcing to the US (you didn't complain about that did you?). You know what? when I was in the US, I was hired because I could code and talk the language of that company's foreign customers, who themselves didn't want to pay extra to get the work done locally. Amazing eh? but that didn't bother you.

    Well, sorry for you my friend, but it's your turn. Go somewhere where your competences will be welcome, instead of looking at your shoes and mourning the good ole days. If you don't want to move away from your country (I wouldn't if I were you, it's tough to be American outside of the US these days), then at least stop complaining about the flip-side of a situation your country profited from for a very long time, bite your tongue and good luck at the unemployment office, like the rest of us...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. It's much, much worse than you are saying. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1, Troll


    The problems with family in the U.S. are much, much worse than you are saying. Even when there is no divorce, a high percentage of families are disfunctional. For example, both U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney are alcoholics. Dick Cheney has two DUIs and George W. Bush one:

    Bush DUI, 1st record of arrest
    Bush DUI, 2nd record of arrest
    Cheney DUI, 1st DUI arrest record
    Cheney DUI, 2nd DUI arrest record

    Most people have little experience with alcoholics. If you know one, ask him or her about this. Alcoholics say that it requires "4 to 6 years" of driving drunk before they get a DUI. (DUI means "Driving Under the Influence of an intoxicating drug.) They will tell you that "once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic".

    While you are talking to a (recovered) alcoholic, ask them about the other characteristics of alcoholics, such as the black-and-white thinking ("You are either with us or against us") of George W. Bush. Alcoholics are often very socially engaging and likable. At other times, alcoholics are often very angry and violent, for example, consider the war in Iraq that even hawks agree serves no purpose. It's easy to find alcoholics and recovered alcoholics in the United States. Anyone can go to meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the small city of Portland, Oregon, USA, there are 27 AA meetings each week, three each day.

    Former U.S. president Bill Clinton's parents were violent alcoholics. You can read the book. Bill Clinton's misuse of sexuality is typical of alcoholism-influenced families.

    Family life is so stressful in the U.S. that children turn to drugs to try to cope:

    "The daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was arrested... ... while allegedly trying to buy the anti-anxiety drug Xanax." (Jeb Bush is George W. Bush's brother.) Why was she willing to break the law to buy a drug to become less anxious? Because living in her family is very anxiety-producing?

    George W. Bush's daughters seem to be imitating their alcoholic father: "Barbara and Jenna Bush were both charged ". Ask yourself, why do these teenage women feel they need a drug like alcohol so badly that they are willing to break the law?

    Don't try to talk about this with most Americans, however. They have been told many times that the U.S. is a "Superpower" and that "The U.S. is the best country in the world". (My father says that, for example.) Most of them are unwilling to look at the problems and therefore don't truly love the United States. There is so much pain in the life of many Americans that looking at one more problem would be an overload beyond their ability.

    The disfunctionality of families in the U.S. has created a social breakdown that affects everything in U.S. life. For example, consider breakdowns of large companies such as the Enron fraud and the WorldCom fraud and the Tyco fraud.

    The disfunctionality of families in the U.S. has created corruption in the U.S. federal, state, and local governments:

    Those who want corruption in the U.S. federal and state governments arrange that there is not enough money to do the work. This is happening throughout the United States. Here is a quote from an article written by the president of the Oregon State Bar Association:

    "The c