From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Tue Jun 10 2003 - 23:35:08 MDT
Emlyn proposed:
<<I don't agree with this. It is true that there's a savage downturn in IT,
but that doesn't mean there is no work, it just means that we can't charge
the outrageous fees that we used to.>>
Emlyn, I don't know about you, but I didn't charge any outrageous fees for my
little efforts. You must be mistaking me with some contractor who charges 6
figures for protecting the universe from the Y2K crisis. But as I will go on to
point out, this is just about me.
<<Live with it, it's a market economy.>>
Emyln, nobody can live on what people make in Asia, Africa, or Latin America.
Nobody from Europe, Norte America, or Australia and New Zealand. Somebody
from Bulgaria may receive comptetive wages, for their work, but they will not be
able, on their salary level and rate of exchange to purchase Australian goods
amd services. Its not that they don't wish to, its that there is no way they
can reasonably afford them, due to rates of exchange and expectations for
standard of living. For example, living in Sofia, Bulgaria and taking the bus, and
electric trams are acceptable there as New Yorkers of all classes taking the
subway or Chicagoans taking the L . But as decently as they will live on these
new jobs, they will not be purchasing British Land Rovers, for example.
<<We all benefitted wildly and disproportionately from the bubble, now we are
out
in the cold for a while. It's a good opportunity to learn something...>>
??? Emlyn! What the heck kind of money have you been making ??? Have you been
flying around in a Lear Longhorn and eating Russian caviar of the thigh of a
Swedish stewardess? You must be doing something correctly.
<<economies have cycles, and if the boom you are in seems too good to be
true,
it might be a good idea to try saving.>>
Lots of people, in IT have been living paycheck to paycheck. The off-shoring
of technical jobs is a new feature. Secondly, the industry group ITAA bribed
the US Congress into believing this lie "There will be 5,000,000 new jobs added
for computer analysts, by 2005. This was and is a big lie first promulgated
by the ITAA in 1998. Hence the importing of H-1B's (foreign workers) who work
for 1/2 pay for contract companies and L1's (workers who nominally were
employed by Fortune 500 shops overseas) have been brought in to compete with
Americans. Its going to be nigh impossible to "save" one's way to prosperity, Emlyn
when the jobs disappear.
<<Anyway, what's wrong with skilled Indians having jobs? Who is to say they
deserve them less (if that matters) than USians?>>
The Indians brought over here seem to be very nice, intelligent people. This
is a real opportunity to send money back home, which according to one fellow I
spoke with, keeps his mom, well taken care of. My issue is not with Joe
sixpack from India or Bulgaria. My issue is with the bastards that currently sit on
the boards of directors who know how to squeeze money to bullshit the
stockholders; but have no interest in growing a company by new products, inventions,
or services. Emlyn, without middle class jobs to purchase goods and services,
the economy will tank. If the economy tanks, things very un-Extropian.
If W's tax cuts do not pump things up ( I suspect they will not as states
make up the difference) then I say he will be Mr. 1-term, failing a nuclear blast
in NYC. The Democrat that follows him will do the Re-flation dance and we
will have a softish prosperity for a few years, till the business cycle closes
and the inflation brings another recession.
So its not just about me being a greeeedy little duck, its about our standard
of living and mutual economic security.
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