To have an adequate supply of new sysprogs to replace those retiring, the compensation needs to be more attractive than it is currently. Most of the younger people in IT see mainframe technology as a dead end. They might not know when it will expire, but they think it will die off sooner than it will happen to Linux or Windows. So they will choose to immerse themselves in the newer technology until the compensation for a mainframe sysprog becomes too great to ignore.
For farmers, the issue is more about inheritance. In the English system of Primogeniture, the eldest son inherited the estate and the other siblings were expected to make their own way in the world. Most Americans would see this as grossly unfair. Much of a farmer's wealth is tied up in the land. If he has two sons and two daughters, each one is expecting a quarter share of that wealth as their inheritance. So even if one of the sons is inclined to follow in Dad's footsteps and continue farming, he starts off in debt to his siblings. The debt service makes the farm unable to produce enough income to support the farmer-son. So an easier way out is to sell the farm and split the proceeds among all the children, with the farm probably ending up in the hands of corporate owners, who will then hire laborers to work the land. This trend to corporate ownership at the expense of the family farm has been going on for decades. John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
