Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage

Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration ^ | April 21, 1998 | Dr. Norman Matloff

[FormerLurker]

I hadn't noticed your post to me until now.

My comment about the Arm Chair General stands.

If you're referring to Dr. Matloff, he's a recognized expert in the field. Are you saying you're more knowledgeable than he is on this subject? Since Dr. Matloff has provided HIS credentials, why don't you supply us YOURS?

For you to critique his statements as if you ARE are an expert in this is absurd.

One question regarding Mr. Luh ...

I have to wonder if he was for or against before I wonder if he was a FREEPER. Please read or post with care it does make a difference.

You might be right on that one aspect of the discussion, I did read that page a bit in a hurry (I do have other priorities to attend to). BUT, Dr. Matloff also relates that President Bush ALSO opposed revoking China's MFN status at the time. At least Dr. Matloff doesn't support the wholesale import of Chinese workers to replace Americans, as you appear to do.

In a nutshell, I think the software industry for the the most part is a industry ready to move offshore very quickly. This wouldn't be the first time it has happened to us, and won't be the last. I think that focusing on the H1B program as a scapegoat ignors both the lessons of history in other industries, and elimination of the program now that it is in place will cause the industry to move quicker.

So do you think that all of our defense systems should be designed and developed by China? Our space satellites, ground systems, and telecommunications infrastructure should be developed by them as well?

You seem to think computer software is simply such visible items as MS Word and IE. You don't appreciate the extent to which MANY things depend on software to work correctly.

Additionally, the economy is collapsing for the very fact that MUCH of our manufacturing resources already HAVE been shipped overseas. We are left with next to nothing, and these self-absorbed corporate executives can't seem to understand why their stocks are falling.

Lets take a quick look at history. The Atomic Bomb, we had it first, and I might add it was for the most part a Jewish immigrant development. Lost it in two years to Russia and then most of the rest who wanted it had it in the next 30. Had we offered all those foreigners in nuclear physics lots of money and a soft life we might have been able to keep it a lot longer, but not forever.

I believe it was foreign immigrants who SOLD our nuclear secrets to the Soviets and Chinese. It was only because of espionage that Russia and China were able to develop nuclear weapons in such a short period of time. And that is happening even MORE extensively today.

Now, remember the electronics industry from 1950-1975? We went from all out production, sometimes three shifts a day. Some production workers were at close to $13p/h big money, and a car cost about 3K. Then along came the Japs at 1/10 the rate base.

A engineering technician back in 1983 would make $18,000/yr, or roughly $9/hr. A tester would make several dollars less an hour, and a assembly worker would earn less than that, close to minimum wage ($5/hr or so).

Cars were around $10,000-$14,000 for something reasonable. Corporate greed killed the industry, with massive kickbacks for both vendors and government inspectors. Waste, fraud, and ineptidude were also part of the equation. As it was then, as it is still..

Few workers worked in union shops such as AT&T, where there might have been a somewhat higher rate of pay. For the most part, workers in the electronics industry were payed minimal wages however.

In summary from the other side of the equation, I see Mr. Matloff's study providing soultions that will only drive your industry offshore quickly, and most likely to the Chinese who are welcoming software developing Co's with open arms.

I don't agree with that summation. I don't think embracing slave labor from foriegn lands as a solution, and especially not at the expense of wiping out our engineering base here in the US. The problem IS that we are laying off American workers, so there is now less money being injected into "the economy".

I do wonder who paid for this "study" and how much KuaiXue costs?

Well, it WAS a report to Congress, so perhaps it was federally funded? As far as the cost of "KuaiXue", universities do develop software for free you know. Click the link on the biography page and you'll see you can download it free. The same is true for any of the GNU tools such as emacs, gcc, and a myraid of others, which are freely available from major universities.

I also wonder if his simulation software works for neutron multiplication and reflection?

You've just demonstrated your ignorance here. JSim is a Java event simulator for software development and debugging, and MSim is a multiprocessor simulator, again for software development.

There is an enormous amount of software development tools and specifications available from the academic environment, all of which is freely distributed through the Internet. It is for this reason our technology has leaped as far as it has in such a short period of time.

[Kevmo]

Adding Duncan Hunter keyword.