California Can't Perform Pay Cut Because of COBOL

beezzie writes "Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a pay cut, to minimum wage of $6.55/hr, for 200,000 state workers — because a state budget hadn't been approved yet. The state controller, who has opposed the pay cut on principle and legal grounds, now says the pay cut isn't even feasible because the state's payroll systems are so antiquated. He says it would take six months to go to minimum wage, and nine months more to restore salaries once a budget is passed. The system is based on COBOL, according to the Sacramento Bee, and the state hasn't yet found the funds or resources, in ten years of trying, to upgrade it." The article quotes a consultant on how hard it is to find COBOL programmers; he says you usually have to draw them out of retirement. Problem is, if there were any such folks on the employment rolls in California, Gov. Schwarzenegger fired them all last week, too.

Comments

Re:COBOL.

[demachina]

"I'm not saying it's perfect, but normalised against its size, the US is a mild-mannered mouse, a smiling puppy"

Dude you've been drinking to much U.S. government Koolaid. Most of the rest of the world knows the U.S. to be a meddling, bully, invading Iraq wasn't the first time. The U.S. has installed and propped up more dictators than just about any country in existence today, in the name of fighting Communism or defending the interests of its multinational corporations depending on your political viewpoint. In particular the U.S. has been especially fond of making Central America safe for U.S. Banana companies, and places like Iraq and Iran safe for U.S. oil companies. The U.S. under the Monroe doctrine has completely dominated every country in Central and South America since....Monroe.

In Africa the U.S. with the aid of Ethiopia toppled an Islamic government that had the first chance of restoring order there in a long time, and will in all probability let it land back under warlords, just because the U.S. couldn't tolerate an Islamic government running the place. The U.S. doesn't meddle much in Africa because its never cared about Africa as much as the European Imperial powers do, Somalia is just to close to the Persian Gulf where the U.S. does meddle, all the time.