$200 is about the going rate for getting a short piece published in a compendium. You can call it a rip-off if you like, but the fact of the matter is that must of the people submitting stories would be unlikely to get published without the draw of Kevin's moniker on the cover. Given a choice between getting $0 and getting $200, I think most people would rather have the $200.
Those who are convinced that the $200 is a rip-off need not submit their stories and try to find a better price elsewhere. I would be quite surprised to see very many published outside of Kevin's book, let alone published for more money than Kevin is offering.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the cap on the H1B program first raised to 115k in 1998 and to 195k in 2000?
I'm fairly certain that we had the infrastructure for massive overseas connections by 1998.
Also, the word 'significant' is meaningless in the present context. It doesn't matter if 'significant' numbers of workers on H1B visas were programmers. What does matter is how many jobs were created or lost each year and how many workers were imported through the H1B visa.
The last year I could find numbers for was 2001 which had 150k of H1B visas approved for workers in the tech sector. How many of those 150k jobs would have been filled by workers already in the US if those H1B visas would not have approved? My contention is that the majority of those jobs would have been shipped overseas if the H1B visas would not have been available.
If anything the availability of H1B visas kept those jobs in the states longer they would have remained had their been no H1B program.
Boil it down. Look at the facts. One point three million H1-B visas issued. One point three million software engineers/techs currently working in the United States. Pretty simple math. If Clinton hadn't been in office, it wouldn't have happened and you would still have a job. A good job at that.
Yes, lets look at the facts. What facts do you have that support the hypothesis that the wholesale migration of IT jobs to overseas locations would not have started five years earlier if IT workers would not have been available for import on H1Bs?
Also, what percentage of workers on H1B visas in the period in question were tech workers?
However, given that these numbers (1,282,000 computer programmers and software engineers) are from the year two thousand, before the massive layoffs of the past few years really started happening, the 941,584 number doesn't seem all that out of the ballpark.
All the news reports I've read appear to be in consensus that the average project outsourced overseas saves in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty percent after all is said and done.
I assume that by microeconmics you mean neoclassical microeconomics, especially supply/demand price theory where supply and demand are the sole determinants of price in a perfectly competetive market.
If so, then you disprove your own thesis because if ITMS is successful by "differentiating the brand with things the other commodity players can't provide: quality, convenience, and bundling", then one of the key assumptions about perfect competition is failing. In perfect competition, all firms within an industry have indistinguishable products and compete solely on the basis of price.
I suppose you could argue that ITMS is essentially creating a new industry, but it seems to me that the only determinent of price is what Steve Jobs sets the price at. If price is set entirely by the producer and not by the negotiation of producers and consumers through the open market, then neoclassical economics is fundamentally disproved.
If you are a Libertarian who believes that the economy is an issue of no importance, and that it is OK to give the government full control over economic decisions, why, yes, you can be a Libertarian for Kucinich.
That is a strawman. Kucinich doesn't believe in full government control over economic decisions. I'm not even a Kucinich supporter. In fact, I think he is likely to be a very dangerous man. But you've also clearly distorted his position and have turned it into a strawman.
Libertarians have nothing to fear from a government that is truly democratic, as such a government only acts in the interests of the people.
A democracy, by definition, acts in the interests of a majority of the people. I would expect that a Libertarian, of all people, would understand the dangers inherent in being a disliked minority in a fully democratic system.
Most rights, such as the absolute right to personal property that is the philosophical underpinning of Libertarianism, that offer protection to the minority from the majority are not necessarily part of a democratic system. The only right necessary for a democracy is the right to vote. Most (if not all) of the other freedoms and rights that most people associate with democracy can exist as easily in other political systems. A constitutional monarchy, for example, could allow for personal property rights, freedom of speech, etc.
So it looks as if Spain, Ireland, Greece, Norway, Portugal and Belgium all have better home ownership rates than the US. A more interesting figure is which way the rates are headed over time. Home ownership rates in Germany and France, for example, are dropping very quickly.
Not that I have much of clue as to exactly how this pertains to anything under discussion.
And let me just mention that the lameness filter sucks when the majority of one's post is tabular data. The only purpose of this final paragraph is to increase the average character count per line so as to get this post through the lameness filter.
Where Florida screwed up is in not having codified how to interpret ballots that do not have chads entirely removed. If they had such legislation in place, then there would have been no rationale to stop the recount. Many states use the same machines as Florida (Ohio, in fact bought several of the used punch card machines from Florida) without any of the controversy because they have adequate rules.
IMO, the only move that makes any sense is to a paper ballet as optical scanners are far more accurate than punch card readers which makes for fewer recounts.
You can't possibly be implying that Kucinich is attractive to Libertarians? He may overlap with Libertarian interests on this one issue, but on virtually every other issue is diametrically opposed to Libertarian philosophies.
As long as a voter gets to keep any confirmation of his or her vote, the secret ballot system is fundamentally broken. An abusive spouse, a vote buyer or a mafioso can all force a voter to positively verify his or her vote as long as there is a receipt that acts as a key. Only if the voter has no verifiable record of his or her actual vote is the voter secure from such coercion.
The receipt goes into a locked box (similar to a ballot box) in case that particular district is selected at random for one of the audits required by both of the bills currently before congress.
If people got to keep their receipt, it would do away with the secret ballot system that American democracy is founded on. Others posters have mentioned the practical consequences of eliminating the secret ballot system.
The purpose of the receipt is to be dropped into a locked box. Then, if a recount is necessary the election officers have the paper receipts right there to manually count.
How else could the vote be audited at random as specified in Bob Graham's bill?
This thing draws about as much power as a single light bulb. Sure, you can find more powerful servers for less money, but those high powered servers will cost four to five times as much power to run.
You're statement You really have to limit the comparison to hardware is contradicted by your later statement, of course, you'd be foolish to buy purely on hardware.
It is my belief that the software is exactly comparable. People that will find the utilities bundled of one system more useful than the utilities bundled with the other need to take that into consideration. If equivalent utilities are not available for no cost, then the price of purchasing software needs to be included in the evaluation.
But as you point out, this varies according to individual wants and needs. One system might present a better value for one person, but a lesser value for another.
But does the eMachine come with equivalent software? Granted, iTunes can be downloaded free for Windows, but what about iMovie, iCal, development tools, etc.
Do I undertand correctly that you are arguing that Windows NT is merely a "revision" of OS/2 and that OS/2 is merely a "revision" of Windows 3.x and that Windows ME and Windows 2000 are merely "revisions" of the same product and that Windows CE and Embedded NT are merely "revisions" of the same product?
I didn't even start on NT for PowerPC, Alpha and MIPS or Windows 64 or the various platforms for CE.
The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has frequently forked the Windows code base to make it more attractive to different market segments. Some of these branches have been left to die off. (What is the upgrade path for someone running NT on MIPS?) Some of these branches have been kept current. In a few cases, seperate branches have been bolted together to take the best features from both.
I find your comment curioius because I've seen coder/programmer positions at all four of the IT companies that I've worked for over the past 9 years. These positions differ qualitatively from analyst type positions that require designing software alongside writing code.
If supply and demand price theory is true and a sizeable portion of non-defense IT work is moved offshore, what happens to the supply of IT workers in the US and what is its net effect on wages of said workers?
Prof. Johnson specifically mentioned coders, not software engineers. I would assume that being an economist he uses job classifications similar to the US department of labor which distinguishes between computer programmers that merely implement a given design in software and software engineers that create that design.
It does not take much skill to do most programming. There are some exceptions to this. Some programming problems are hard, but these are the exceptions and not the rule.
Software design, however, is hard for any non-trivial project.
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There are a good many publishing houses that routinely produce books in this format and pay authors about the same amount ($200) per piece.
How many of the authors submitting stories could actually get them published somewhere else for more money than Mitnick is offering?
Those who are convinced that the $200 is a rip-off need not submit their stories and try to find a better price elsewhere. I would be quite surprised to see very many published outside of Kevin's book, let alone published for more money than Kevin is offering.
I'm fairly certain that we had the infrastructure for massive overseas connections by 1998.
Also, the word 'significant' is meaningless in the present context. It doesn't matter if 'significant' numbers of workers on H1B visas were programmers. What does matter is how many jobs were created or lost each year and how many workers were imported through the H1B visa.
The last year I could find numbers for was 2001 which had 150k of H1B visas approved for workers in the tech sector. How many of those 150k jobs would have been filled by workers already in the US if those H1B visas would not have approved? My contention is that the majority of those jobs would have been shipped overseas if the H1B visas would not have been available.
If anything the availability of H1B visas kept those jobs in the states longer they would have remained had their been no H1B program.
Also, what percentage of workers on H1B visas in the period in question were tech workers?
585,000 computer programmers
697,000 software engineers
And that doesn't include the 887,000 systems analysts, computer scientists, and database administrators, some of which are almost certainly working in programming positions.
However, given that these numbers (1,282,000 computer programmers and software engineers) are from the year two thousand, before the massive layoffs of the past few years really started happening, the 941,584 number doesn't seem all that out of the ballpark.
All the news reports I've read appear to be in consensus that the average project outsourced overseas saves in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty percent after all is said and done.
As high as the failure rate is for projects that are outsourced overseas, it is lower than the failure rate for IT projects in general.
If so, then you disprove your own thesis because if ITMS is successful by "differentiating the brand with things the other commodity players can't provide: quality, convenience, and bundling", then one of the key assumptions about perfect competition is failing. In perfect competition, all firms within an industry have indistinguishable products and compete solely on the basis of price.
I suppose you could argue that ITMS is essentially creating a new industry, but it seems to me that the only determinent of price is what Steve Jobs sets the price at. If price is set entirely by the producer and not by the negotiation of producers and consumers through the open market, then neoclassical economics is fundamentally disproved.
Most rights, such as the absolute right to personal property that is the philosophical underpinning of Libertarianism, that offer protection to the minority from the majority are not necessarily part of a democratic system. The only right necessary for a democracy is the right to vote. Most (if not all) of the other freedoms and rights that most people associate with democracy can exist as easily in other political systems. A constitutional monarchy, for example, could allow for personal property rights, freedom of speech, etc.
Ireland - 80%
Greece - 78%
Norway - 76%
Portugal - 76%
Belgium - 73%
UK - sans Scotland - 70%
United States - 68%
Italy - 65%
Scotland - 63%
Finland - 62%
Sweden - 60%
Luxembourg - 55%
France - 55%
Netherlands - 53%
Denmark - 50%
Austria - 50%
Germany - 40%
So it looks as if Spain, Ireland, Greece, Norway, Portugal and Belgium all have better home ownership rates than the US. A more interesting figure is which way the rates are headed over time. Home ownership rates in Germany and France, for example, are dropping very quickly.
Not that I have much of clue as to exactly how this pertains to anything under discussion.
And let me just mention that the lameness filter sucks when the majority of one's post is tabular data. The only purpose of this final paragraph is to increase the average character count per line so as to get this post through the lameness filter.
IMO, the only move that makes any sense is to a paper ballet as optical scanners are far more accurate than punch card readers which makes for fewer recounts.
You can't possibly be implying that Kucinich is attractive to Libertarians? He may overlap with Libertarian interests on this one issue, but on virtually every other issue is diametrically opposed to Libertarian philosophies.
If any receipt can be a fake, all receipts have just been rendered useless.
As long as a voter gets to keep any confirmation of his or her vote, the secret ballot system is fundamentally broken. An abusive spouse, a vote buyer or a mafioso can all force a voter to positively verify his or her vote as long as there is a receipt that acts as a key. Only if the voter has no verifiable record of his or her actual vote is the voter secure from such coercion.
If people got to keep their receipt, it would do away with the secret ballot system that American democracy is founded on. Others posters have mentioned the practical consequences of eliminating the secret ballot system.
How else could the vote be audited at random as specified in Bob Graham's bill?
This thing draws about as much power as a single light bulb. Sure, you can find more powerful servers for less money, but those high powered servers will cost four to five times as much power to run.
It is my belief that the software is exactly comparable. People that will find the utilities bundled of one system more useful than the utilities bundled with the other need to take that into consideration. If equivalent utilities are not available for no cost, then the price of purchasing software needs to be included in the evaluation.
But as you point out, this varies according to individual wants and needs. One system might present a better value for one person, but a lesser value for another.
It isn't freeware. If I buy a Mac, I'm paying for the software as well as the hardware.
But does the eMachine come with equivalent software? Granted, iTunes can be downloaded free for Windows, but what about iMovie, iCal, development tools, etc.
I didn't even start on NT for PowerPC, Alpha and MIPS or Windows 64 or the various platforms for CE.
The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has frequently forked the Windows code base to make it more attractive to different market segments. Some of these branches have been left to die off. (What is the upgrade path for someone running NT on MIPS?) Some of these branches have been kept current. In a few cases, seperate branches have been bolted together to take the best features from both.
I find your comment curioius because I've seen coder/programmer positions at all four of the IT companies that I've worked for over the past 9 years. These positions differ qualitatively from analyst type positions that require designing software alongside writing code.
If supply and demand price theory is true and a sizeable portion of non-defense IT work is moved offshore, what happens to the supply of IT workers in the US and what is its net effect on wages of said workers?
It does not take much skill to do most programming. There are some exceptions to this. Some programming problems are hard, but these are the exceptions and not the rule.
Software design, however, is hard for any non-trivial project.