Gravy Train Over--Time to Get Real
on
The H-1B Swindle
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
World per-capita income is something like US$10K/year. For those of us who have been making more than this, we may consider ourselves lucky. (And just that--lucky--not morally entitled.) It's only fair that other people in the world get a turn at the trough, and in any case, it's inevitable. No point wailing about it.
There are two things that you actually have the power to do to help yourself:
Look for employment niches that cannot be economically off-shored, H1B'ed, etc., in the near future. They exist, and that's where the hidden hand of capitalism is telling you to go.
Stop spending money. You don't need three cars, you don't need cable, you don't need to eat out, and rice and beans are really cheap. There's a storm coming, and it's time to save like you've never saved before. (Yes, if everyone does this, the economy will crash. That's inevitable, too, as long as so much wealth is concentrated in so few hands.)
The Navy has been using Sonar for over 50 years and there hasn't been a mass extinction of marine mammals due to Sonar.
The fact that sonar hasn't killed off a substantial fraction of marine mammals doesn't necessarily mean that it's benign. The obvious presumption here would be that sonar is tantamount to torture--this wouldn't have to be fatal in order to be horribly immoral.
I don't know what the answer is here, but the question clearly needs to be studied scientifically.
That's what lets me, in my comfortable easy chair, forget about the bad things I can't do anything about.
I used to think this way, too. Lately, though, I'm starting to believe that this is a misconception, common as it may be. Consider, for example, Unger's Living High and Letting Die.
Uh, because it doesn't matter? With millions starving in Africa, hundreds of civilians dying each day in Iraq, our economy headed off a cliff, etc., who really cares whether the ball bounced inside the line or not?
That'd sure make it easier to get rid of all of those stubborn jerks that don't want to teach creationism in their classes.
#2 Kids who aren't in school to learn need to be removed.
Yeah, if little Joey hasn't figured out by the second grade that he loves school, kick him out. Let him push a broom at the mill for a few years. That'll learn him.
#3 Parenting. Why aren't parents do "fun" things like having foreign langauge weeks where they all try to speak different languages.
Yeah, these slackers put in 50 hours a week, and they don't even have the decency to learn a foreign language on the side. What we need to do is get rid of their mamby-pamby social safety net. That'll learn 'em.
Obviously some thought to detail needs to go into this. Perhaps instead an extra $.01 fee should be assessed on commonly used items, rather than the discount. Etc., etc.
I recently had occasion to spend several hundred two-dollar bills in my day-to-day transactions, and it's made this question of why unconventional coin and currency haven't succeeded quite clear. In my experience, people almost uniformly love these rare items.
The reason they don't achieve widespread use is because merchants pull them out of circulation, rather than giving them out as change. Why do they do this? Perceived inconvenience, the idea that employees will mistake their value, etc. The solution? Remove alternatives (as the parent suggested), or offer them at a discount (e.g., 100 dollar coins for $99).
All of this theorizing about customers not liking them is just so much self-serving bilge.
And 401k is absolutely overrated. You save by evading tax now. But if you didn't evade tax and withdraw the amount, tons of financial companies have better ways to make greater gains with your money.
Perhaps more importantly, the merits of postponing taxes depend a lot on what you think rates will be like in the future. Bush has both cut tax rates down to an unsustainably low level and built up a huge debt overhang. (He's borrowed about $100k in each of our names, and it's been blown, not invested. Guess who gets to pay it back!) Since we know that we need a government, the debt will have to be brought back into line sooner or later. So, tax rates may well be quite high in the future (unless you're one of the oligarchs). Given that, maybe you should pay your taxes now, while rates are low, rather than delaying them until retirement, when they may be sky-high.
do you remember a time just 25 short years ago when all television was FREE?
Yes I do, and man did I used to waste a lot of time on it. Now, with the modern innovations of high cost and abysmal quality, I lose almost none of my time watching the tube. Ain't progress wonderful?
For example, we liked Batman Begins, so why did it get hit by the slump, too?
Because
the movie industry hasn't stopped their anti-customer behavior (if anything, it's still getting worse), and
some of us customers have very long memories.
I used to see three-plus movies in the theaters every week.
If and when the industry cleans up its act (e.g., no non-movie ads in the theaters, no "no-skip" copyright warnings on DVDs), I might come back after a few years. Until that happens, though, I'll pretty much stay away. Not completely--I did go to two or three movies this year--but the costs of their strategies are pretty significant.
The market for programmers seems to be warming up a little. Rather than try to decide between two losing alternatives, maybe it'd be better to just work on your resume...
So what's the problem? Bush can just fire off a few dozen (hundred, thousand, whatever) nukes at Iran, and the resulting nucular winter should just about balance things out...
This might be the case, but a more believable explanation would be that they have the power to shut you up, so they will. There are registries of "undesirable" patients (i.e., those that have sued) that doctors can make use of--it does seem only fair that patients should have some way to get information on undesirable doctors.
Parent is right on, and Zambonini is all wet. I was going to joke that he should put "touch typing" in his list of courses that degree programs should require, but incredibly, it's already there.
CS is your time to master theory and basics--the entire rest of your life will be spent learning languages X, Y, and Z, and the latest trends...
PAL? Hah! I'm not sure they even support NTSC all that well...
I keep meaning to look around for the cheat codes for the one player I sometimes use. But honestly, it's just not that appealing. I generally try to obey the law whenever I can--I really feel like that's important--and so in this case I do so by not watching protected DVDs.
[Ironically, to the degree that the studios notice people like me in their numbers, they presume that we must be pirating because we're not buying their stuff. The true explanation just doesn't fit with their world view.]
Er, I think you're being pedantic. It's not "sales", of course, but "profit". This is the only metric by which our businesses are truly measured, and therefore it's the only principle by which they are guided. "Honesty" is just a PR angle.
It was a joke. GNU emacs, of course, comes with an extensive tutorial and a voluminous, well-written manual built in. With vi (circa 1986, when I was a novice), you were lucky indeed if the man page was installed, and IIRC, it only documented the command-line arguments.
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There are two things that you actually have the power to do to help yourself:
Complain if you like, but above all, act.
Mike (trying to practice what he preaches)
The fact that sonar hasn't killed off a substantial fraction of marine mammals doesn't necessarily mean that it's benign. The obvious presumption here would be that sonar is tantamount to torture--this wouldn't have to be fatal in order to be horribly immoral.
I don't know what the answer is here, but the question clearly needs to be studied scientifically.
Mike
Really? Give us a hint--how much do truck drivers make? Maybe a lot of us should switch...
I used to think this way, too. Lately, though, I'm starting to believe that this is a misconception, common as it may be. Consider, for example, Unger's Living High and Letting Die.
Mike
Uh, because it doesn't matter? With millions starving in Africa, hundreds of civilians dying each day in Iraq, our economy headed off a cliff, etc., who really cares whether the ball bounced inside the line or not?
Mike
That'd sure make it easier to get rid of all of those stubborn jerks that don't want to teach creationism in their classes.
#2 Kids who aren't in school to learn need to be removed.
Yeah, if little Joey hasn't figured out by the second grade that he loves school, kick him out. Let him push a broom at the mill for a few years. That'll learn him.
#3 Parenting. Why aren't parents do "fun" things like having foreign langauge weeks where they all try to speak different languages.
Yeah, these slackers put in 50 hours a week, and they don't even have the decency to learn a foreign language on the side. What we need to do is get rid of their mamby-pamby social safety net. That'll learn 'em.
Wingnuts. Is there any problem they can't solve?
Obviously some thought to detail needs to go into this. Perhaps instead an extra $.01 fee should be assessed on commonly used items, rather than the discount. Etc., etc.
The reason they don't achieve widespread use is because merchants pull them out of circulation, rather than giving them out as change. Why do they do this? Perceived inconvenience, the idea that employees will mistake their value, etc. The solution? Remove alternatives (as the parent suggested), or offer them at a discount (e.g., 100 dollar coins for $99).
All of this theorizing about customers not liking them is just so much self-serving bilge.
I wonder what "undecryptable" means exactly. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to work out the list of all md5sums for all possible CC #'s, for example.
Perhaps more importantly, the merits of postponing taxes depend a lot on what you think rates will be like in the future. Bush has both cut tax rates down to an unsustainably low level and built up a huge debt overhang. (He's borrowed about $100k in each of our names, and it's been blown, not invested. Guess who gets to pay it back!) Since we know that we need a government, the debt will have to be brought back into line sooner or later. So, tax rates may well be quite high in the future (unless you're one of the oligarchs). Given that, maybe you should pay your taxes now, while rates are low, rather than delaying them until retirement, when they may be sky-high.
Mike
"So, I guess this just goes to show you Linux losers that Windows does have lower TCO after all..."
Yes I do, and man did I used to waste a lot of time on it. Now, with the modern innovations of high cost and abysmal quality, I lose almost none of my time watching the tube. Ain't progress wonderful?
Mike
Because
I used to see three-plus movies in the theaters every week. If and when the industry cleans up its act (e.g., no non-movie ads in the theaters, no "no-skip" copyright warnings on DVDs), I might come back after a few years. Until that happens, though, I'll pretty much stay away. Not completely--I did go to two or three movies this year--but the costs of their strategies are pretty significant.
Mike
Mike
Mike
Mike
I push floppies into my spare bay slot, and then call tech support to complain that my computer isn't working right...
CS is your time to master theory and basics--the entire rest of your life will be spent learning languages X, Y, and Z, and the latest trends...
Mike
Unh huh...
...and call your Congressmen...
Actually, it sounds like you're implying that the failure was entirely due to union malfeasance.
Mike
I keep meaning to look around for the cheat codes for the one player I sometimes use. But honestly, it's just not that appealing. I generally try to obey the law whenever I can--I really feel like that's important--and so in this case I do so by not watching protected DVDs.
[Ironically, to the degree that the studios notice people like me in their numbers, they presume that we must be pirating because we're not buying their stuff. The true explanation just doesn't fit with their world view.]
Mike
Mike
Mike