In my opinion, the answer to your last question is ... the one that has
been around forever... since the middle ages ... since the stone age ...
since the dawn of time.
If leaders/ bosses/ chiefs of countries, towns, corporations, companies,
can lead "others" to make a profit for themselves, they do it. Why
wouldn't they?
That personal profit motive is POWERFUL and when the "others" don't
dispute it / do the same for their own personal interests... they end up
"flattened" increasingly and progressively. As unfair as that may be to
a rational or humanistic mind, there is simply no equation for "too
much" profit ... personal or otherwise.
Remember the word "peasant" and all that it con notates? Who says that
only could happen in the middle ages?
All the media is now controlled by several mega companies. There is
also huge consolidation of power in tech. Those leaders and their
managers and the stock holders make oodles by doing exactly what you are
complaining about. They will never suffer materially for it.
The only question is "what" you (and the rest of us "others"... the
"peasants to be" ...) are going to do about it and "when".
I think ultimately it comes down to the parable in every John Ford
Western. When do the peasants who have the gross numbers and ultimate
power, exercise it and take back what is fairly due them from the few
"black hats" that will naturally exercise power by advantage of a gun or
the merits of privileged/ advantageous position or wealth.
To say what is currently happening in employment in the US doesn't make
sense and is not fair is not really true.
Make sense and fairness for who?
The world operates rationally... you just have to start by looking at
the right framework...drawing the rational conclusions ... making the
rational choices and doing the rational thing.
ps: Not sure "rational" is the right word to use ... but the problem and
question facing us is still the same...
db
Constance Warner wrote:
Hate to pour gasoline on the fire, but pretty nearly every type of job
can be outsourced, shipped abroad, contracted out to a contract worker
(who's actually an employee, but who doesn't get any benefits and
perks), given to an illegal, or--a Washington area favorite--assigned
to an unpaid or underpaid intern.
For example, editorial jobs are now being outsourced to India. So if
your company's newsletter or annual report sounds slightly, well,
foreign, or maybe just really, really odd--that could be why.
(Editing is my bag--or one of them, anyway. And, yes, I'm now looking
for a job.) Of course, as a cost-cutting measure, lots of things
don't get edited at all, which is why they sound as though they were
written by fourth graders who need tutoring in basic language skills.
The only thing about this story that's shocking to me is that it's
happening to computer programmers and other computer personnel. We
who are mush-brained liberal arts types just assumed that you tekkies
were far ahead of us in the employability sweepstakes, and that you
would always be much better paid--and much better treated--than we were.
One way out: political action. In the modern world, computer services
of all kinds are necessary, so you aren't completely without
leverage. That means computer professionals are going to have to be
very politically savvy, worldly, and socially active to get out of
the trap. (BTW, in my book, political action includes labor unions.)
I really wonder, though, why employers are treating programmers (and
other computer professionals) so badly--it's not in their long-term
best interests or their enlightened self-interest. They depend on
you guys--they can't do ANYTHING without you. Besides, an editor with
a grudge can't do very much damage to a company--but a computer
programmer?
--Constance Warner
On Nov 24, 2009, at 11:11 AM, Tony B wrote:
Okay, I think I see the 'new' take on it. Or, at least I see it from
Wired's perspective.
Around here it's got nothing to do with extra hours. It's construction
jobs being lost to 'Mexicans' (anyone that speaks spanish). I've heard
it from both sides though - the employers complain the local guys just
won't show up on time consistently (or at all). I have no idea what
sorts of extra hours these workers may put in, or if they're paid for
them. But I can imagine they whine a lot less about extra work in
general.
On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 10:24 AM, phartz...@gmail.com
<phartz...@gmail.com> wrote:
You are right that this is not anything particularly new. That
being said, it appears as though programmers and coders, as well as
others in the computer field are the main domestic workers who
regularly lose their jobs to foreign workers even as the companies
they used to work for remain in business here in the United States.
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