Here's an idea that might be useful, lets make patents only available to people, not companies. That way they can protect inventors, and not be used to suck money out of people who actually innovate and make things.
The inventor in the first article was right about needing a large company to produce these inventions. If anything, they at least have the deep pockets available to sue any patent infringers in other countries. Without that money, any patents you make are worthless.
...where is the enormous economic divide (don't even begin to talk about the middle-class squeeze, it cannot compare with Roman economics)
Let's compare and contrast the poor and the rich. There are several classes of people making less than minimum wage in the US. Illegal immigrants immediately come to mind. However, waiters and waitresses in some states only make $2.13 an hour because tips would presumably make up the rest. A family living on the minimum wage is certainly beneath the poverty line.In 2000, 11.3% of the U.S. population, or 31.1 million people, lived in poverty. Poverty in the US is defined as earning just less than $15,000. To put this in perspective, rent for a one bedroom apartment in a bad neighborhood of Seattle costs $8400 a year.
Let's compare this with the wealthiest of the US. Bill Gates is reported to be worth about $30,000,000,000. That's six orders of magnitude higher than someone earning minimum wage in the Microsoft cafeteria. Granted, I'm comparing Bill's accumulated wealth to the cafeteria worker's yearly income. However, the income difference is still at least five orders of magnitude. Either way, we're still talking about a medieval or romanesque difference of incomes.
...where was the death of democracy
The highjacking of the 2000 election? The nomination of the president of the US by an activist Supreme Court? The subsequent trampling of the rights of citizens by the administration in the name of security? Shall I continue?
...where are the growingly incompetent dynasties?
We could look at American companies. Costs are a little better, but that's because the work is being done in third world countries. Quality is poor. Customer service is down the drain. Management gets more and more incompentent by the year.
We could look at American students, the "future of America". They increasingly turn to cheating, grade inflation, and teacher intimidation in place of actual learning. They also tend to put sports ahead of academics. There's also the pressure to dumb down classes get high numbers of graduates.
Don't make me bring up the politicians. We already know how incompetent those fools are.
Me: the cost of paying that debt is higher inflation. You: That's what the taxes and spending cuts are for. So that money that gets paid back isn't just newly printed paper.
Exactly what taxes are the US going to cut? Every US president goes out of his way to lower taxes whenever possible. Right now the US is dealing with a record setting budget deficit that is a direct result of overzealous tax cutting.
As for cutting spending... good luck! Nobody in the US wants to see their pet projects die. Retirees love social security and medicaid. The hawks love military spending. The liberals love social programs. The conservatives love business subsidies. Where exactly is this spending cut going to come from?
...there are many areas where American exports far exceed imports
The US still runs a 30-year-and-counting trade deficit, a record setting budget deficit, and a record amount of debt pushing $9 trillion dollars. You can't point to one section of the US economy and say "that's great" when money is bleeding everywhere else. Eventually this will all catch up to the US and they'll have to choose guns or butter, but not both.
America is WAY up there on food production, not sure of the exact figures
You're talking about a section of the economy that employs less than 1% of US workers. (I just looked it up.)
Me: And how much of that is done by the wealthiest 1%? You: How does that matter?
It matters because you can't run an economy the size of the US on the backs of 1% of the population! You still didn't say what percentage of US treasuries are purchased by Americans. If you're going to use that argument, you should back it up.
At some point, foreign nations will stop pouring money into the US. The US economy will falter. And then it won't be able to afford all those nifty tanks, fighters, bombs, and aircraft carriers. Even right now the US is unable to pay for their military superiority by themselves. I can't understand why you think this would go on indefinitely.
Nope. You have it all wrong as usual. INTEL and IBM and SEAGATE and TI are investing billions and billions of dollars in state of the art foundries in malaysia, indonesia, china etc.
What does this have to do with my argument over how open the US market is? Does this change the fact that the US is known worldwide for it's free market economy? Does this argument refute the fact that the US is at the forefront of promoting and encouraging free trade? No. You're arguing some other topic that I didn't bring up.
I you're going to cut and paste your arguments all over Slashdot, at least tailor them to fit the original post.
Firstly the US economy is the largest in the world (at least for now), so it effectively swamps what other countries do.
And thus this proves that the US is not a free market economy? That is not a logical argument.
Secondly, the US (despite some window dressing) has a highly protectionist economy, particularly for agriculture. Your government provides _massive_ corporate welfare to agribusiness, and dumps subsidised food in other countries in much the same way as the EU, just a bit less obviously.
Finding subsidies in a tiny section of the US economy hardly shows that the US is "highly protectionist". You'll have to find proof elsewhere. I suggest that you show me that proof before making any more wild accusations.
Truth is US business firms enjoy considerably greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in US markets.
You obviously don't know what you are talking about.
You have obviously not proven that statement. In fact, you provided no proof for any of the statements you've made. However, I did provide proof for my statements.
Most of those nifty aircraft carriers and such will last for 50 years. That's a long time.
True, but how long will those 50 year old weapon systems be cutting edge? That's where the US military advantage lies. Remember, Iraq had the 4th largest army in the world at the start of the first Iraq war. However, modern US weapon systems tore through their older technology. The US should not count on it's strength at this point in time to carry it into the future. Should anyone surpass it, then the US forces will be vulnerable.
...it's been a long long time since the U.S. couldn't pay those debts back on time. Come hell or high water ( more likely high taxes, and cutting social spending ) those notes will be payed back in time.
Of course the US can pay back it's debts. The US government also controls the US Mint printing presses. But, the cost of paying that debt is higher inflation. No intelligent foreign government is going to send the US any more money if it's going to get nothing back after inflation.
Americans are also buying those notes.
Yes, in what numbers? And how much of that is done by the wealthiest 1%?
...most of the money spent on imports are imports from large multinational corporations that are heavily based in the U.S. and alot of that money is in fact flowing right back into jobs and the sort.
A lot of that money is spent on raw materials and labor in foreign countries. That money stays in the foreign economies and doesn't necessarily return to the US. How many people making sneakers in China for $250 a year actually turn around and buy $250 iPods or $200 copies of Windows? How many people working at help desks in India for $5000 a year actually turn around and buy $500 Dells or $20000 Fords? Most of that money goes into their local economy to pay for rent, electricity, clothing, food, etc that they're not getting from the US.
Are you per chance posting on a malyasian made keyboard, taiwanese motherboard, chinese/taiwanese made intel processor and korean/japanese lcd/crt ? Just curious, is there ANY US made computer part you have bought at all in the past, say, 5 years ?
Your argument actually proves my point of how open the US market is. The US has let other countries take products they've invented, ignore patent claims, and accepted them for sale on the US market. Here is a good example of that unlevel playing field hurting US businesses.
Nope, we have too much military superiority to do a thing like that. Look through history and find a "third-world" country with complete military superiority.
Find a country in history with complete military superiority and no means to pay for it. The US has been running a trade deficit since the 70's. That's money flowing out of the country that we'll never see again.
On top of that, the US also has a record budget deficit. Right now, foreign nations are buying our treasury notes. They're financing our tax cuts, education spending, infrastructure spending, social security spending, medicare spending, as well as our military spending.
Both of those deficits have produced a record US debt in the trillions.
At some point, foreign nations will stop pouring money into the US. The US economy will falter. And then we won't be able to afford all those nifty tanks, fighters, bombs, and aircraft carriers.
Actually, it's largely the first world countries that are responsible for unfair trade, not the third world countries.
Where's your proof? The US is known worldwide for it's free market economy. It is at the forefront of promoting and encouraging free trade. The US set up free trade agreements with several countries. They started with Canada and Mexico in NAFTA back in the early 90's. The US was also a founding member of the World Trade Organization.
Not bad. However, I like the recent change that requires some H1-B's to be graduates of US schools. It provides an incentive for foreign students to come here and subsidise our schools, giving domestic students lowered tuition. If we keep H1-B's around, I say make this a requirement for all of them.
Do you want to get rid of insourcing? Those Toyota and BMW plants in America?
Those Toyota and BMW plants in America were placed there because Reagan put a quota limit on auto imports. However, no limit was put on cars produced in America, so foreign producers set up shop there.
Ironically, you are using the results of a protectionist policy to argue against protectionism. However, I prefer to call it fair trade.
Do you not think that other companies (overseas or otherwise) will not avail themselves of that labor market?
I'm sure some countries will. However, if all of the first-world countries come together to enforce fair trade rules, then it wouldn't matter.
Let me get this straight. You're saying that immigrants to the US should wait 50-100 years before getting a job? Buddy, are you on drugs?
No, I am not on drugs. And no, I did not say immigrants should wait 50 years until they get a job. I was saying I am an American because my family has been here so long that we are nothing else. Recent immigrants, legal or otherwise, always have somewhere they can return to. I do not.
Being born in the United States does not give you the right to dictate who should or should not be able to work.
Being born in the US makes me a US citizen. Considering that the US is a republic, then I do have input on the laws of the US. My fellow Americans and I do have the right to dictate the laws of this country. Those laws do cover businesses and who they may employ.
In fact, if you're having trouble finding a job, have you considered emmigration?
Yes, actually I have. Although the reason was shame over who we elected president. I even looked at the requirements of becoming a citizen of my ancestors' countries. None of them will accept a third generation citizen as one of their own.
I know this might be hard for you to understand, but I'm talking about the NATIVES who lived here before your ancestors
In my original comment I said I had one great grandparent who was full-blooded Cherokee. Cherokees are native to America. I suggest taking a reading comprehension course or two.
would the native Americans have the same right to say "Hey we don't like you white men moving here from across the ocean.. get the fuck out"?
They do have the right to say that and they have said it several times. The fact of the matter is that even native Americans immigrated here from Asia 10,000 years ago.
So, now we pick and choose. Are the "real" Americans anyone who lives in America? Are they the ones born in America? Are they the ones whose family has lived here for 100 years? What about 400 years? What about 10,000 years?
Even so, you have missed my original point. My entire family has lived and died in America for a solid three generations. There is now no other country that would even consider us as one of their citizens. That is what I believe truely makes me an American.
You ARE an immigrant, as was your father, and your grandfather, and your greatgrandfather.
I was born in Washington, DC. My father was born in Troy, NY. My grandfather was born on the Cherokee reservation in Georgia. If I am an immigrant, exactly where did I immigrate from? That would also assume that I could go back. Where would I go back to?
the ONLY people in this nation who are NOT immigrants are descendants of the very first humans to inhabit this corner of the earth. And you my friend, are not among those privileged few. So piss the f*ck off and take your bigotry elsewhere.
Again, check out that reading comprehension course.
Did I say that? No. I did mention illegal immigrants. But in the next sentence, I then mentioned H1-B's. I was writing about two separate groups, which I guess you missed.
Once upon a time, your grandpa/great-grandpa was not American. What if he'd been kicked out too, instead of welcomed in?
That could have happened. He was an illegal immigrant. The fact of the matter is that it didn't happen. It obviously didn't happen then and it doesn't truely happen now. Today when illegal immigrant gets across the border, no police agency in America really cares if they stay here or not as long as they obey the law.
Instead you might have been a snooty European?
I could just as well be a asian living somewhere in northwest Asia. Yes, one of my great grandparents was 100% Cherokee. They came across the land bridge from Asia some 10,000 years ago.
There's an inscription on the Statue of Liberty which says: "Bring me your poor, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free".
News flash: we do not run our nation according to what's written on some statue in New York.
Taking pride in something assumes you have a legitimate reason to take some of the credit for making it happen.
Who said I was proud to be an American? Now you're just putting words in my mouth. I dislike the polices of our president and I am ashamed to call myself an American with him as our figurehead. Bush has lied to us and the rest of the world for policies that put his rich, crony friends ahead of everyone else. Where's Kenneth Starr when you need him? The republicans got all high and mighty regarding Clinton lying about getting a BJ in office. That lie didn't kill any Americans, unlike Bush's lies.
So, what did you do to become an American? (not your family, not your ancestors, but YOU)
Uh... I was born here. By American law, that alone makes me an American citizen. Other than that, I was raised here. And I have lived here my entire adult life. That is what I've done.
However, you seem to have missed my point. My ancestors came from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, France, and more. The latest ancestor I have that came off the boat was my great grandfather who immigrated illegally from England. My earliest ancestor that came to America walked the land bridge from Asia along with the rest of the native Americans.
If the US is not my home, which country would accept me as their citizen? The answer is none. After Bush came into office, I checked. No country that my ancestors came from will accept a third generation descendent as one of their citizens. The fact of the matter is: I am an American and nothing else.
Have you ever considered that maybe those foreign workers are simply *better*?
No, I have not considered Indian workers better. India is a country where the average salary is $450 per year. (I'm guessing the median is actually less.) That means that the average family cannot afford a computer. So, when an Indian student gets to college, they have to learn how to use a computer while also taking CS classes. I seriously question any CS program that has to teach basic computer usage along with programming knowledge.
On the other hand, an American student has grown up with computers since before the time they can remember. They've grown up as their family's technical support. They've taken programming classes in high school or even middle school. They may have even contributed professionally to open source groups. So, by the time an American gets to college, they can seriously study the material. US colleges then spend their time weeding out one to two-thirds of the lesser candidates. By the time a US student graduates, they can make that computer do anything including sitting up, barking, rolling over, and fetching the newspaper!
It's well known that companies are looking for cheaper, not necessarily better. Why pay one American programmer when for the same price you can get five Indian programmers?... Even still, I'd place my money on the American.
Yes, but the kids they have in the US are Americans. And in 20 years when those kids decide to immigrate to America, they can bring close family members with them. That includes their parents.
I'm part Irish, Scottish, Danish, French, and German. My great-grandfather on my mother's side was an illegal immigrant from England. My great-grandmother on my father's side was a full-blooded Cherokee. Which country, exactly am I supposed to say I'm from if not the US?
I was born in the US. I've lived here my whole life. Both of my parents were born in the US and lived here their whole lives. They both served in the US Army. All of my grandparents were born and lived in the US. Both of my grandfathers served in the military, one in WW2 and the other in the Korean War.
As far as I'm concerned, my family and I have earned the right to call ourselves Americans. I may have mixed roots, but what we've done in the last 100 years has earned us a place here. And, there is no other country we can now call home. That is more than I can say about anyone now illegally crossing the border or legally getting off a boat and taking our jobs. They need to spend some time and blood here before getting that priviledge.
As American citizens, we have the right to dictate how and why people may visit our country. This attempt to question our lineages as Americans is merely to conceal this fundamental truth. If we do not want illegal immigrants flooding our country, then as Americans we can choose otherwise. If we do not want cheap, foreign, H1-B labor flooding our country, then we can also choose otherwise.
We should not be made ashamed because our distant ancestors were immigrants. We are not immigrants and we never were. We were born American and we will die American. And thus we have a right to say what will happen in America.
If you're wondering, yes, my mama wore combat boots!
Actually, when I started, I was the only person in the agency with a CS degree. So, I was uniquely qualified at the time! After about 6 months though they hired someone with a master's in CS. At that point I was still unique, but not as special!
I was a gaming agent for the Tulalip Casino up in Marysville, WA. I was responsible for inspecting the slot machines, which in Washington state are basically networked computers. (They have no internet connection if you were wondering.)
These places are always looking for good, qualified people and seem to have trouble getting them. I was one of two people in the whole agency with a CS degree, making me uniquely qualified. Generally, they have to take people with a criminal justice degree and teach them the ins and outs of the computer system. They would love someone already trained in computer security.
Besides looking at your local casinos, you can also check out the slot machine manufacturers. Sierra Design Group, located in Reno, is a group I highly recommend. They have an awesome, stable product, that the industry loves and runs on Unix. They're a subsidiary of Bally Games, so you can find their job page here.
Another computer, located in Austin, is Multimedia Games. They pretty much have the lock on the class 2 games. Here is their jobs page.
The real truth, in case we are about to forget, is that it is very important to employers to whine as much as possible about programmer shortages. When the group of available programmers increases, they have greater choice and can offer lower wages.
Everyone notices this regarding H1-B's. Ever notice that companies are also complaining about the lack of women in IT?
Imagine if women started coming to IT in droves. There'd be fewer complaints about "foreigners taking our jobs". And we'd suddenly have twice the work force, which would drive salaries down.
All these pushes by companies to get women in IT seem disingenuous when viewed this way.
I live in Seattle and was recently lookinging for work. I also saw plenty of positions that were open and never filled. There are a couple reasons I see for companies not filling these positions:
A. The companies did not get any qualified candidates.
This is possible, but not likely. The IT field in Seattle was hitting 10% unemployment for the last few years.
B. Companies are gathering resumes for future hiring.
The need to hire and the money to hire don't always coincide, so companies need to figure out the best time to bring on new people. These companies could be putting "feelers" out to gauge job demand. For example, if they get 1000 resumes one month, then just 10 the next month, then demand for jobs has gone down and they might actually run out of cheap, qualified candidates soon.
C. Companies are listing positions, but not actually hiring.
Companies could also just be using this as a ploy to go to Congress to get more cheap H1-B's. "Mr Senator, we were unable to find any software engineers with 10 years of experience programming.Net and we feel that if we were able to recruit more overseas workers that all of our problems would be solved."
D. Companies are listing positions with inflated requirements to only get H1-Bs.
I've seen jobs that I've applied to get rewriten to include Indian speaking requirements. Employers generally have to prove that local candidates don't qualify for the jobs they post before they can bring in someone from overseas. Unfortunately, there's no law that states companies can't tailor their job description to one, specific, foreign candidate.
Sounds like your company hasn't moved to Win2003, so your knowledge is limited.
Most companies I know don't like to be on the bleeding edge and don't want to switch until the first service pack is released. Once SP1 comes out, you can bet a lot more companies will look at Win2003 seriously.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's an idea that might be useful, lets make patents only available to people, not companies. That way they can protect inventors, and not be used to suck money out of people who actually innovate and make things.
Yeah, and then sweatshops in China will step in, steal the invention, undercut the price, and leave you just as poor as before.
The inventor in the first article was right about needing a large company to produce these inventions. If anything, they at least have the deep pockets available to sue any patent infringers in other countries. Without that money, any patents you make are worthless.
Who are the Barbarians
...where is the enormous economic divide (don't even begin to talk about the middle-class squeeze, it cannot compare with Roman economics)
...where was the death of democracy
...where are the growingly incompetent dynasties?
I think terrorists would be the best analogy.
Let's compare and contrast the poor and the rich. There are several classes of people making less than minimum wage in the US. Illegal immigrants immediately come to mind. However, waiters and waitresses in some states only make $2.13 an hour because tips would presumably make up the rest. A family living on the minimum wage is certainly beneath the poverty line. In 2000, 11.3% of the U.S. population, or 31.1 million people, lived in poverty. Poverty in the US is defined as earning just less than $15,000. To put this in perspective, rent for a one bedroom apartment in a bad neighborhood of Seattle costs $8400 a year.
Let's compare this with the wealthiest of the US. Bill Gates is reported to be worth about $30,000,000,000. That's six orders of magnitude higher than someone earning minimum wage in the Microsoft cafeteria. Granted, I'm comparing Bill's accumulated wealth to the cafeteria worker's yearly income. However, the income difference is still at least five orders of magnitude. Either way, we're still talking about a medieval or romanesque difference of incomes.
The highjacking of the 2000 election? The nomination of the president of the US by an activist Supreme Court? The subsequent trampling of the rights of citizens by the administration in the name of security? Shall I continue?
We could look at American companies. Costs are a little better, but that's because the work is being done in third world countries. Quality is poor. Customer service is down the drain. Management gets more and more incompentent by the year.
We could look at American students, the "future of America". They increasingly turn to cheating, grade inflation, and teacher intimidation in place of actual learning. They also tend to put sports ahead of academics. There's also the pressure to dumb down classes get high numbers of graduates.
Don't make me bring up the politicians. We already know how incompetent those fools are.
Me: the cost of paying that debt is higher inflation. You: That's what the taxes and spending cuts are for. So that money that gets paid back isn't just newly printed paper.
...there are many areas where American exports far exceed imports
Exactly what taxes are the US going to cut? Every US president goes out of his way to lower taxes whenever possible. Right now the US is dealing with a record setting budget deficit that is a direct result of overzealous tax cutting.
As for cutting spending... good luck! Nobody in the US wants to see their pet projects die. Retirees love social security and medicaid. The hawks love military spending. The liberals love social programs. The conservatives love business subsidies. Where exactly is this spending cut going to come from?
The US still runs a 30-year-and-counting trade deficit, a record setting budget deficit, and a record amount of debt pushing $9 trillion dollars. You can't point to one section of the US economy and say "that's great" when money is bleeding everywhere else. Eventually this will all catch up to the US and they'll have to choose guns or butter, but not both.
America is WAY up there on food production, not sure of the exact figures
You're talking about a section of the economy that employs less than 1% of US workers. (I just looked it up.)
Me: And how much of that is done by the wealthiest 1%? You: How does that matter?
It matters because you can't run an economy the size of the US on the backs of 1% of the population! You still didn't say what percentage of US treasuries are purchased by Americans. If you're going to use that argument, you should back it up.
At some point, foreign nations will stop pouring money into the US. The US economy will falter. And then it won't be able to afford all those nifty tanks, fighters, bombs, and aircraft carriers. Even right now the US is unable to pay for their military superiority by themselves. I can't understand why you think this would go on indefinitely.
Nope. You have it all wrong as usual. INTEL and IBM and SEAGATE and TI are investing billions and billions of dollars in state of the art foundries in malaysia, indonesia, china etc.
What does this have to do with my argument over how open the US market is? Does this change the fact that the US is known worldwide for it's free market economy? Does this argument refute the fact that the US is at the forefront of promoting and encouraging free trade? No. You're arguing some other topic that I didn't bring up.
I you're going to cut and paste your arguments all over Slashdot, at least tailor them to fit the original post.
Firstly the US economy is the largest in the world (at least for now), so it effectively swamps what other countries do.
And thus this proves that the US is not a free market economy? That is not a logical argument.
Secondly, the US (despite some window dressing) has a highly protectionist economy, particularly for agriculture. Your government provides _massive_ corporate welfare to agribusiness, and dumps subsidised food in other countries in much the same way as the EU, just a bit less obviously.
The US imports 100% of our coffee, tea, cocoa, and bananas. We also import 93% of our spices and herbs, 69% of our broccoli, and 55% of our fish and shellfish. Even so, agriculture is a tiny portion of the US economy. Only 0.8% of the US population works in agriculture.
Finding subsidies in a tiny section of the US economy hardly shows that the US is "highly protectionist". You'll have to find proof elsewhere. I suggest that you show me that proof before making any more wild accusations.
Truth is US business firms enjoy considerably greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in US markets.
You obviously don't know what you are talking about.
You have obviously not proven that statement. In fact, you provided no proof for any of the statements you've made. However, I did provide proof for my statements.
Could you provide a source for that piece of info?
You can see this in Reuters... Congress has agreed to exempt from the limit 20,000 foreign students with degrees of masters or higher from U.S. universities.
Most of those nifty aircraft carriers and such will last for 50 years. That's a long time.
...it's been a long long time since the U.S. couldn't pay those debts back on time. Come hell or high water ( more likely high taxes, and cutting social spending ) those notes will be payed back in time.
...most of the money spent on imports are imports from large multinational corporations that are heavily based in the U.S. and alot of that money is in fact flowing right back into jobs and the sort.
True, but how long will those 50 year old weapon systems be cutting edge? That's where the US military advantage lies. Remember, Iraq had the 4th largest army in the world at the start of the first Iraq war. However, modern US weapon systems tore through their older technology. The US should not count on it's strength at this point in time to carry it into the future. Should anyone surpass it, then the US forces will be vulnerable.
Of course the US can pay back it's debts. The US government also controls the US Mint printing presses. But, the cost of paying that debt is higher inflation. No intelligent foreign government is going to send the US any more money if it's going to get nothing back after inflation.
Americans are also buying those notes.
Yes, in what numbers? And how much of that is done by the wealthiest 1%?
A lot of that money is spent on raw materials and labor in foreign countries. That money stays in the foreign economies and doesn't necessarily return to the US. How many people making sneakers in China for $250 a year actually turn around and buy $250 iPods or $200 copies of Windows? How many people working at help desks in India for $5000 a year actually turn around and buy $500 Dells or $20000 Fords? Most of that money goes into their local economy to pay for rent, electricity, clothing, food, etc that they're not getting from the US.
Are you per chance posting on a malyasian made keyboard, taiwanese motherboard, chinese/taiwanese made intel processor and korean/japanese lcd/crt ? Just curious, is there ANY US made computer part you have bought at all in the past, say, 5 years ?
Your argument actually proves my point of how open the US market is. The US has let other countries take products they've invented, ignore patent claims, and accepted them for sale on the US market. Here is a good example of that unlevel playing field hurting US businesses.
Nope, we have too much military superiority to do a thing like that. Look through history and find a "third-world" country with complete military superiority.
Find a country in history with complete military superiority and no means to pay for it. The US has been running a trade deficit since the 70's. That's money flowing out of the country that we'll never see again.
On top of that, the US also has a record budget deficit. Right now, foreign nations are buying our treasury notes. They're financing our tax cuts, education spending, infrastructure spending, social security spending, medicare spending, as well as our military spending.
Both of those deficits have produced a record US debt in the trillions.
At some point, foreign nations will stop pouring money into the US. The US economy will falter. And then we won't be able to afford all those nifty tanks, fighters, bombs, and aircraft carriers.
Actually, it's largely the first world countries that are responsible for unfair trade, not the third world countries.
Where's your proof? The US is known worldwide for it's free market economy. It is at the forefront of promoting and encouraging free trade. The US set up free trade agreements with several countries. They started with Canada and Mexico in NAFTA back in the early 90's. The US was also a founding member of the World Trade Organization.
China and India have some of the most protectionist policies in the world. Despite all it's talk promoting free trade in software circles, India dislikes free trade policies that don't benefit them. India also dislikes the idea free trade in their airlines. This results in an unfair playing field that hurts US businesses.
1) Cut H1B, L1 Visa laws
Not bad. However, I like the recent change that requires some H1-B's to be graduates of US schools. It provides an incentive for foreign students to come here and subsidise our schools, giving domestic students lowered tuition. If we keep H1-B's around, I say make this a requirement for all of them.
Do you want to get rid of insourcing? Those Toyota and BMW plants in America?
Those Toyota and BMW plants in America were placed there because Reagan put a quota limit on auto imports. However, no limit was put on cars produced in America, so foreign producers set up shop there.
Ironically, you are using the results of a protectionist policy to argue against protectionism. However, I prefer to call it fair trade.
Do you not think that other companies (overseas or otherwise) will not avail themselves of that labor market?
I'm sure some countries will. However, if all of the first-world countries come together to enforce fair trade rules, then it wouldn't matter.
Let me get this straight. You're saying that immigrants to the US should wait 50-100 years before getting a job? Buddy, are you on drugs?
No, I am not on drugs. And no, I did not say immigrants should wait 50 years until they get a job. I was saying I am an American because my family has been here so long that we are nothing else. Recent immigrants, legal or otherwise, always have somewhere they can return to. I do not.
Being born in the United States does not give you the right to dictate who should or should not be able to work.
Being born in the US makes me a US citizen. Considering that the US is a republic, then I do have input on the laws of the US. My fellow Americans and I do have the right to dictate the laws of this country. Those laws do cover businesses and who they may employ.
In fact, if you're having trouble finding a job, have you considered emmigration?
Yes, actually I have. Although the reason was shame over who we elected president. I even looked at the requirements of becoming a citizen of my ancestors' countries. None of them will accept a third generation citizen as one of their own.
I know this might be hard for you to understand, but I'm talking about the NATIVES who lived here before your ancestors
.. get the fuck out"?
In my original comment I said I had one great grandparent who was full-blooded Cherokee. Cherokees are native to America. I suggest taking a reading comprehension course or two.
would the native Americans have the same right to say "Hey we don't like you white men moving here from across the ocean
They do have the right to say that and they have said it several times. The fact of the matter is that even native Americans immigrated here from Asia 10,000 years ago.
So, now we pick and choose. Are the "real" Americans anyone who lives in America? Are they the ones born in America? Are they the ones whose family has lived here for 100 years? What about 400 years? What about 10,000 years?
Even so, you have missed my original point. My entire family has lived and died in America for a solid three generations. There is now no other country that would even consider us as one of their citizens. That is what I believe truely makes me an American.
You ARE an immigrant, as was your father, and your grandfather, and your greatgrandfather.
I was born in Washington, DC. My father was born in Troy, NY. My grandfather was born on the Cherokee reservation in Georgia. If I am an immigrant, exactly where did I immigrate from? That would also assume that I could go back. Where would I go back to?
the ONLY people in this nation who are NOT immigrants are descendants of the very first humans to inhabit this corner of the earth. And you my friend, are not among those privileged few. So piss the f*ck off and take your bigotry elsewhere.
Again, check out that reading comprehension course.
H1-B != Illegal Immigrant
Did I say that? No. I did mention illegal immigrants. But in the next sentence, I then mentioned H1-B's. I was writing about two separate groups, which I guess you missed.
Once upon a time, your grandpa/great-grandpa was not American. What if he'd been kicked out too, instead of welcomed in?
That could have happened. He was an illegal immigrant. The fact of the matter is that it didn't happen. It obviously didn't happen then and it doesn't truely happen now. Today when illegal immigrant gets across the border, no police agency in America really cares if they stay here or not as long as they obey the law.
Instead you might have been a snooty European?
I could just as well be a asian living somewhere in northwest Asia. Yes, one of my great grandparents was 100% Cherokee. They came across the land bridge from Asia some 10,000 years ago.
There's an inscription on the Statue of Liberty which says: "Bring me your poor, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free".
News flash: we do not run our nation according to what's written on some statue in New York.
That statue, by the way, is from France.
Taking pride in something assumes you have a legitimate reason to take some of the credit for making it happen.
Who said I was proud to be an American? Now you're just putting words in my mouth. I dislike the polices of our president and I am ashamed to call myself an American with him as our figurehead. Bush has lied to us and the rest of the world for policies that put his rich, crony friends ahead of everyone else. Where's Kenneth Starr when you need him? The republicans got all high and mighty regarding Clinton lying about getting a BJ in office. That lie didn't kill any Americans, unlike Bush's lies.
So, what did you do to become an American? (not your family, not your ancestors, but YOU)
Uh... I was born here. By American law, that alone makes me an American citizen. Other than that, I was raised here. And I have lived here my entire adult life. That is what I've done.
However, you seem to have missed my point. My ancestors came from Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, France, and more. The latest ancestor I have that came off the boat was my great grandfather who immigrated illegally from England. My earliest ancestor that came to America walked the land bridge from Asia along with the rest of the native Americans.
If the US is not my home, which country would accept me as their citizen? The answer is none. After Bush came into office, I checked. No country that my ancestors came from will accept a third generation descendent as one of their citizens. The fact of the matter is: I am an American and nothing else.
Have you ever considered that maybe those foreign workers are simply *better*?
No, I have not considered Indian workers better. India is a country where the average salary is $450 per year. (I'm guessing the median is actually less.) That means that the average family cannot afford a computer. So, when an Indian student gets to college, they have to learn how to use a computer while also taking CS classes. I seriously question any CS program that has to teach basic computer usage along with programming knowledge.
On the other hand, an American student has grown up with computers since before the time they can remember. They've grown up as their family's technical support. They've taken programming classes in high school or even middle school. They may have even contributed professionally to open source groups. So, by the time an American gets to college, they can seriously study the material. US colleges then spend their time weeding out one to two-thirds of the lesser candidates. By the time a US student graduates, they can make that computer do anything including sitting up, barking, rolling over, and fetching the newspaper!
It's well known that companies are looking for cheaper, not necessarily better. Why pay one American programmer when for the same price you can get five Indian programmers?... Even still, I'd place my money on the American.
H1-B Visa holders aren't immigrants though
Yes, but the kids they have in the US are Americans. And in 20 years when those kids decide to immigrate to America, they can bring close family members with them. That includes their parents.
I'm part Irish, Scottish, Danish, French, and German. My great-grandfather on my mother's side was an illegal immigrant from England. My great-grandmother on my father's side was a full-blooded Cherokee. Which country, exactly am I supposed to say I'm from if not the US?
I was born in the US. I've lived here my whole life. Both of my parents were born in the US and lived here their whole lives. They both served in the US Army. All of my grandparents were born and lived in the US. Both of my grandfathers served in the military, one in WW2 and the other in the Korean War.
As far as I'm concerned, my family and I have earned the right to call ourselves Americans. I may have mixed roots, but what we've done in the last 100 years has earned us a place here. And, there is no other country we can now call home. That is more than I can say about anyone now illegally crossing the border or legally getting off a boat and taking our jobs. They need to spend some time and blood here before getting that priviledge.
As American citizens, we have the right to dictate how and why people may visit our country. This attempt to question our lineages as Americans is merely to conceal this fundamental truth. If we do not want illegal immigrants flooding our country, then as Americans we can choose otherwise. If we do not want cheap, foreign, H1-B labor flooding our country, then we can also choose otherwise.
We should not be made ashamed because our distant ancestors were immigrants. We are not immigrants and we never were. We were born American and we will die American. And thus we have a right to say what will happen in America.
If you're wondering, yes, my mama wore combat boots!
Actually, when I started, I was the only person in the agency with a CS degree. So, I was uniquely qualified at the time! After about 6 months though they hired someone with a master's in CS. At that point I was still unique, but not as special!
I was a gaming agent for the Tulalip Casino up in Marysville, WA. I was responsible for inspecting the slot machines, which in Washington state are basically networked computers. (They have no internet connection if you were wondering.)
These places are always looking for good, qualified people and seem to have trouble getting them. I was one of two people in the whole agency with a CS degree, making me uniquely qualified. Generally, they have to take people with a criminal justice degree and teach them the ins and outs of the computer system. They would love someone already trained in computer security.
Besides looking at your local casinos, you can also check out the slot machine manufacturers. Sierra Design Group, located in Reno, is a group I highly recommend. They have an awesome, stable product, that the industry loves and runs on Unix. They're a subsidiary of Bally Games, so you can find their job page here.
Another computer, located in Austin, is Multimedia Games. They pretty much have the lock on the class 2 games. Here is their jobs page.
The real truth, in case we are about to forget, is that it is very important to employers to whine as much as possible about programmer shortages. When the group of available programmers increases, they have greater choice and can offer lower wages.
Everyone notices this regarding H1-B's. Ever notice that companies are also complaining about the lack of women in IT?
Imagine if women started coming to IT in droves. There'd be fewer complaints about "foreigners taking our jobs". And we'd suddenly have twice the work force, which would drive salaries down.
All these pushes by companies to get women in IT seem disingenuous when viewed this way.
I live in Seattle and was recently lookinging for work. I also saw plenty of positions that were open and never filled. There are a couple reasons I see for companies not filling these positions:
.Net and we feel that if we were able to recruit more overseas workers that all of our problems would be solved."
A. The companies did not get any qualified candidates.
This is possible, but not likely. The IT field in Seattle was hitting 10% unemployment for the last few years.
B. Companies are gathering resumes for future hiring.
The need to hire and the money to hire don't always coincide, so companies need to figure out the best time to bring on new people. These companies could be putting "feelers" out to gauge job demand. For example, if they get 1000 resumes one month, then just 10 the next month, then demand for jobs has gone down and they might actually run out of cheap, qualified candidates soon.
C. Companies are listing positions, but not actually hiring.
Companies could also just be using this as a ploy to go to Congress to get more cheap H1-B's. "Mr Senator, we were unable to find any software engineers with 10 years of experience programming
D. Companies are listing positions with inflated requirements to only get H1-Bs.
I've seen jobs that I've applied to get rewriten to include Indian speaking requirements. Employers generally have to prove that local candidates don't qualify for the jobs they post before they can bring in someone from overseas. Unfortunately, there's no law that states companies can't tailor their job description to one, specific, foreign candidate.
Maybe we should start spaming them with ads for free Taiwan. Maybe then, they'd stop the spamming.
Sounds like your company hasn't moved to Win2003, so your knowledge is limited.
Most companies I know don't like to be on the bleeding edge and don't want to switch until the first service pack is released. Once SP1 comes out, you can bet a lot more companies will look at Win2003 seriously.