I would personally prefer the person performing surgery on my heart (or my teeth, or for that matter even my toilet) pass minimum standards of skill and professionalism before doing so
The AMA doesn't just set standards, they also set limits on the number of doctors admitted to practice, whether they meet the standards or not.
I thought the USA was founded on immigration, you know
It was built by immigrants, but strictly speaking, it was founded on tax revolt. We didn't like sending payment to England just because you were trying to pay for the French and Indian war.
Actually, there are two solutions here: the first is to organize to create a licensing process for programmers whereby you have to pass minimum standards and apprenticeship to licensed programmers in order to perform the job, with fines for anyone performing the job without a license.
This is not a solution, it's a whole new problem. The entire purpose of professional licensing has always been to protect those already in a given profession from new competition, to the detriment of the customer.
That is how the legal profession in the United States maintains its monopoly.
Exactly. You can add medical doctors, dentists, plumbers, and even hairdressers (in some states) to that list.
Instead of H-1B indentured servitude, gilded as it may be, we should fast track such people for citizenship.
Agreed. I see no benefit to the USA from raising the hurdles as high as we have, and the fact that H1B visa holders are unable to change jobs and remain in the country is damaging our economy.
Congratulations on your success. The availability of experts like yourself is one of the key things that makes the computer industry in the USA as healthy as it is.
This country has for centuries been gaining the skills and efforts of those people like yourself, and like my ancestors, who had the initiative to get here. When immigration stops, that will be the time when we know that the USA's days are numbered.
I absolutely do not feel sorry for someone with an immigrant comes in and "takes your job" for less pay.
An immigrant, a younger worker, any other person willing to do the job for less, the principle is the same: a job is not a right, it's a business transaction in which either party is free to go and find a better deal if they can.
the suit failed to show how the plaintiffs would be harmed and to what degree
More like, she rued that "they took our jobs" isn't a complaint on which relief can be granted under the law. The last time this kind of issue arose was when black laborers were competing for jobs with white laborers, and were willing to work for much less, and the upshot was that the unions demanded the minimum wage laws.
Slashdotters are not monolithic. If you can find any individual who purports to be a libertarian but wants government interference in the market for their own industry, then yes, that person would by hypocritical.
Spammers wouldn't do something as selfless as pitching in for their country.
Who says it's selfless? Maybe they cut a deal with Putin where they attack Georgian computers, and Putin doesn't enforce any laws they might be violating by spamming and phishing.
"True communism" was never anything more than a cynical promise made to enlist the support of ignorant and desperate people. Much like the afterlife promised by the church, the promise of "true" communism was held out as a justification for whatever crimes the ruling class cared to inflict on the workers and the peasants, whether it was stealing their property, looting their crops, forcing them into slave labor camps, or wasting their lives under incompetent military command. Marx, Lenin, and Stalin were all autocrats who wanted nothing more than personal power. Two of them obtained it, and millions of their subjects perished because of it.
Better yet, when you find the device, go down to the local Denny's or iHOP and stick it to the first police car you find there.
I can see a business opportunity here. Stick GPS devices on all cop cars, and sell access to their location data in real-time. That would beat the hell out of radar detectors.
What if I followed you the whole day 10 steps behind you?
That would probably result in a restraining order, and a stalking charge if you persisted.
There is no justification for planting a GPS tracker without a warrant
I concur. A device to track your movements placed on your car (your property) is the same as a listening device planted in your house (also your property), as far as I'm concerned.
If I found such a device on my car, I'm not sure whether I'd destroy it, stick it on the next cop car I saw parked in my neighborhood, or drop it in a mailbox to my congressman, postage due.
Slashdot Mirror
Can they leave? Will the cops make them go back to the job if they do?
They're not slaves, QED.
-jcr
I'm sure that will turn out really well.
It did, as it happens.
-jcr
Such a utilitarian view of human interaction invites the type of callous lawyering that everyone loves to bitch about.
No, the lawyering comes in when government interferes to override the choices of the parties involved.
-jcr
I would personally prefer the person performing surgery on my heart (or my teeth, or for that matter even my toilet) pass minimum standards of skill and professionalism before doing so
The AMA doesn't just set standards, they also set limits on the number of doctors admitted to practice, whether they meet the standards or not.
-jcr
Most Americans aren't big fans of the IRS, either.
-jcr
Sorry, but the customer isn't your property. If they like what you're offering, fine. If they don't, it's your problem and nobody else's.
-jcr
I thought the USA was founded on immigration, you know
It was built by immigrants, but strictly speaking, it was founded on tax revolt. We didn't like sending payment to England just because you were trying to pay for the French and Indian war.
-jcr
I am for a reduction of ALL immigration,
Then get your white ass back to Europe, paleface.
There are about 10 others from the Indian subcontinent who work at my college in IT and every single one of them are sub par
Probably because your employer is too cheap, and they get what they pay for. I hear they have an insufferable bigot working for them, too.
-jcr
Actually, there are two solutions here: the first is to organize to create a licensing process for programmers whereby you have to pass minimum standards and apprenticeship to licensed programmers in order to perform the job, with fines for anyone performing the job without a license.
This is not a solution, it's a whole new problem. The entire purpose of professional licensing has always been to protect those already in a given profession from new competition, to the detriment of the customer.
That is how the legal profession in the United States maintains its monopoly.
Exactly. You can add medical doctors, dentists, plumbers, and even hairdressers (in some states) to that list.
-jcr
Instead of H-1B indentured servitude, gilded as it may be, we should fast track such people for citizenship.
Agreed. I see no benefit to the USA from raising the hurdles as high as we have, and the fact that H1B visa holders are unable to change jobs and remain in the country is damaging our economy.
-jcr
Congratulations on your success. The availability of experts like yourself is one of the key things that makes the computer industry in the USA as healthy as it is.
This country has for centuries been gaining the skills and efforts of those people like yourself, and like my ancestors, who had the initiative to get here. When immigration stops, that will be the time when we know that the USA's days are numbered.
-jcr
I absolutely do not feel sorry for someone with an immigrant comes in and "takes your job" for less pay.
An immigrant, a younger worker, any other person willing to do the job for less, the principle is the same: a job is not a right, it's a business transaction in which either party is free to go and find a better deal if they can.
-jcr
the suit failed to show how the plaintiffs would be harmed and to what degree
More like, she rued that "they took our jobs" isn't a complaint on which relief can be granted under the law. The last time this kind of issue arose was when black laborers were competing for jobs with white laborers, and were willing to work for much less, and the upshot was that the unions demanded the minimum wage laws.
-jcr
Slashdotters are not monolithic. If you can find any individual who purports to be a libertarian but wants government interference in the market for their own industry, then yes, that person would by hypocritical.
-jcr
It would appear that you don't know what slave labor is. If you'd like to find out, try working as a domestic servant for one of the Saudi royals.
-jcr
Spammers wouldn't do something as selfless as pitching in for their country.
Who says it's selfless? Maybe they cut a deal with Putin where they attack Georgian computers, and Putin doesn't enforce any laws they might be violating by spamming and phishing.
-jcr
h.264 patent licencing applies to devices (and even that is low cost):
Extremely low cost, at that. The H.264 patent owners wanted wide adoption, and they're getting it.
-jcr
Charges and convictions are two different things. Sticking the tracker on a truck that's headed for the other side of the country isn't destroying it.
-jcr
"True communism" was never anything more than a cynical promise made to enlist the support of ignorant and desperate people. Much like the afterlife promised by the church, the promise of "true" communism was held out as a justification for whatever crimes the ruling class cared to inflict on the workers and the peasants, whether it was stealing their property, looting their crops, forcing them into slave labor camps, or wasting their lives under incompetent military command. Marx, Lenin, and Stalin were all autocrats who wanted nothing more than personal power. Two of them obtained it, and millions of their subjects perished because of it.
-jcr
That's typical for the USA, too. If there's only party present to argue their case, the other side loses.
-jcr
Better yet, when you find the device, go down to the local Denny's or iHOP and stick it to the first police car you find there.
I can see a business opportunity here. Stick GPS devices on all cop cars, and sell access to their location data in real-time. That would beat the hell out of radar detectors.
-jcr
What if I followed you the whole day 10 steps behind you?
That would probably result in a restraining order, and a stalking charge if you persisted.
There is no justification for planting a GPS tracker without a warrant
I concur. A device to track your movements placed on your car (your property) is the same as a listening device planted in your house (also your property), as far as I'm concerned.
-jcr
If I found such a device on my car, I'm not sure whether I'd destroy it, stick it on the next cop car I saw parked in my neighborhood, or drop it in a mailbox to my congressman, postage due.
-jcr
That magistrate fucked up. There was no one there to dispute your account, so you should have won by default.
-jcr
So, you believe in guilt by accusation, I take it?
-jcr