Re: Why not move to the US? Re: More Green Party

From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Sat Jul 01 2000 - 12:04:24 MDT


Good luck, but I am not sure it will work. You are going to find yourself
up against the Indians and other people who are to coding the equivalent
that Mexico is for car manufacturers- cheaper labor. At least if you were
in the US you could secure/lock-in some kind of job that is only possible
in the flesh.

"Emlyn (onetel)" wrote:
>
> I'm afraid I'd get paid too much money.
>
> Actually, I've seriously contemplated it in recent times; it's not too hard
> (relatively speaking) for a computer geek to get him/herself (and family?)
> into the US.
>
> But I would far prefer to live in Australia; I've not found anything lacking
> here that is only available in the US, except maybe that my house doesn't
> seem to be able to get a cable modem. But I only have to move suburb to fix
> that. And it's a pretty lovely country. I highly recommend a visit
> sometime; unfortunately we have similarly draconian immigration laws, with
> no special rules for IT people, so it's hard to move here.
>
> My current career goal (which is coming together rather nicely) is to have
> myself working directly for US companies via pure teleworking, while staying
> here. Nice exchange rate, you guys pay more, and all that. If I can get that
> stabilised, which I think I am doing, the next step is to expand into
> contracting other pure teleworking IT people, australians, working directly
> for US companies. It's something which people have been talking about
> (global employment market for knowledge work) for quite a while now, but has
> not yet been realised.
>
> The eventual goal, of course, would be to enable workers living in really
> low cost of living countries to contract into the high cost of living, high
> paying US. For example, I know people who would like to work out of the
> Phillipines. Alternatively, it doesn't take long to find huge listings of
> eastern europeans on the net who are immensly skilled in IT and unable to
> find telework.
>
> This is something which will happen, I am quite sure. Currently there are
> barriers to making this kind of employment possible, but they are by no
> means insurmountable. Mostly the barriers are attitudinal; these will change
> quickly as the practice of hiring pure teleworkers becomes more widespread.
> It will spread initially, for many areas of IT (esp software dev), because
> if you can get skilled people you will take them, however they come.
> Eventually the immense financial gains to all participants will be too
> obvious to disregard.
>
> >From my own experience, there are some hefty difficulties with telework, all
> communication related. You've got to be a really proactive communicator to
> make it work; ideally people at both ends are! But they are surmountable,
> and become increasingly so as the 'net infrastructure improves.
>
> Mmm, topic drift. Anyway, my point is, I can get the benefits (work/money)
> from here, keep the local benefits (lifestyle, less chance of getting shot),
> have fun in the process. Why on earth would I want to move?
>
> Emlyn
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Brian Atkins <Jutta.Stoeckel@t-online.de>
> To: <extropians@extropy.org>
> Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2000 8:43 AM
> Subject: Why not move to the US? Re: More Green Party
>
> > I am playing devil's advocate here... why aren't all you non-US folk
> > moving here? Laying aside for the moment the INS/immigration issues-
> > if you could move here, why not? Most people seem to believe that we
> > have pretty much the best freedom/interesting people/cheap real estate
> > in the boonies/cheap gas/etc. etc. Have you become too dependent on your
> > free medical care that you are afraid you wouldn't be able to hack it
> here?
> >



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