Obviously, assigning full blame to the Bush administration merits a 'barf.' However, the basic reality is: there are an awful lot of Americans who are suffering like hell economically. Could the Bush administration do something to alleviate the problem? I'm not sure, nor am I sure what the solution might be. But what I am certain of is, they'd sure as heck better try.
"No need to pay a living wage. No need to pay benefits. Government regulations? Pollution controls?"
Moron, pick one or the other.
wtf is this idiot's problem. 'I want 100k jobs, no pollution, AND free healthcare' seems to be the mantra.
I also noticed that he listed 'McJob' and health benefits in the same sentence. This guy has no clue.
The basic problems outlined in the article are fact. The trouble is the author uses it as a hit piece on Bush, and the gratuitous "tax cuts for the rich" line is a dead give away. I don't know what the answers are but Ukiapah Heep has a good point, if the dems weren't so anti straight white male and so full of bile, they could give GW a run for his money. Bush had better start looking at this issue and quit depending on the dims to keep shooting themselves in the foot. It happened to Bush 41, everyone thought he would win hands down after the gulf war, until a used car salseman from Arkansas, with the help of a Texas mental patient snatched defeat from the jaws of victory from the repubs. The war on terror is important, but someone who spent years building a career only to see himself working at Radio Shack in his mid 50s doesn't necessarly care about a possible terrorist attack.
12/27 Dan Norcini - "The Chilling Truth Behind the Demise of the American Software
Industry"
"The Chilling Truth Behind the Demise of the American Software Industry"
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Summary.pdf ……. is written by Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University
of California, Davis, and details the loss of American jobs in the computer software
programming field. Within this essay is contained the chilling sentence:
Due to a combination of H-1B, L-1 and offshoring, the American software developer will
become extinct within the next few years. The percentage of new programmer jobs
going to H-1Bs and L-1s has shown a sharp upward trend in recent years. The
Commerce Dept. says 28% of the programmer jobs during 1996-1998 went to
H-1Bs;17 the Federal Reserve Bank gave a 50% figure for 1999;18 and my very rough
calculations, based on an attempt to piece together different types of data,
suggest a figure as high as 90% for 2001. Jon Piot, COO of the Impact
Innovations Group, even estimates a precise date at which the "extinction" of the
American programmer will occur—2006.19 Given the flurry of current activity in which
many American programmers are being laid off and replaced by H-1Bs/L-1s, that
date may need to be revised to an earlier one.
• I am using the term American to mean U.S. citizens (native or naturalized) and
permanent residents.
In particular, he deals with the H-1B and L-1 programs which allow American companies
to hire foreign sources of labor. He also details occasions in which Americans have
been humiliatingly forced to train their own foreign replacements. It is a particularly
distressing read to learn how the quest for the next quarterly stock price
enhancement has resulted in an entire industry thumbing its collective nose at native
born workers all under the umbrella of government approval bought and paid for by
campaign contributions to politicians who have sold out their own constituency for the
sake of political power and prestige.
The essay is well documented and professionally written.
In all honesty, I must say Bill that I came away from reading this article with a terrible
sense of foreboding and an increased cynicism in regards to our current political and
corporate leaders who appear intent on mortgaging the nation's long term future for
short term political and/or financial expediency. Here is another line from the essay:
Prominent members of Congress publicly admitted that they were forced to
approve the H-1B expansions because of industry campaign contributions.
Regardless of my personal feelings on the matter, the economic ramifications are
alarmingly quite clear. The permanent loss of quality, high paying jobs both in the
manufacturing and now the service sector our economy, will result in the following:
1.Americans who have seen their jobs either outsourced abroad or lost to foreign
replacement workers will either be forced to dramatically alter their life styles or
resort to increased levels of personal indebtedness to maintain that which they
have grown accustomed to. Those who choose to downsize will sell higher
priced homes and look to move into more modest housing crimping the sales of
high priced homes. This should result in prices for upper scale housing falling in
relation to small and mid sized housing. Those who choose to maintain their
current lifestyle, will go deeper into debt until they accrue such unsustainable
levels of indebtedness that bankruptcy becomes their only viable alternative.
2.Those who have trained for what were once thought of as the securest of the
secure positions in the modern workforce, now find themselves with a set of
obsolete job skills. The remaining positions available for them are positions at
decreased salary levels or the unwelcome alternative of low-paying retail sector
jobs out of economic necessity. The excess labor pool available of these
displaced workers will result in downward pressure on wages in all fields in
general. This is perhaps the area that the all wise sentinels at the Fed are
observing as they continue to speak of "deflationary pressures" in the economy.
More Americans competing for a shrinking quality job pool is not the recipe for
long-term robust and sustained consumer spending especially if such spending
occurs as the result of further indebtedness. Add on top of that, rising prices
for tangible goods such as crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, natural gas, copper,
and services such as medical insurance costs and local and state taxes and the
ingredients for a horrendous squeeze on household budgets is in the cards for
most Americans.
3.The loss of these high-quality, relatively good paying jobs will result in
decreased tax revenues for both state and federal coffers. A taxpayer once
bringing home a salary of $65,000/year will pay far less in taxes now that he
works at Wal-Mart for $9.00/hour. Again, to quote the good Professor Matloff:
By official data, currently more than 100,000 U.S. computer programmers6 are
unemployed. Many more are underemployed, working in nonprofessional jobs such as
bus driver, real estate appraiser, and so on. The un- and under-employed easily total
several hundred thousand workers. Meanwhile 463,000 H-1Bs are employed in the
field, as of 2002.
Since Congress has shown no appetite to restrain its profligate spending habits, look
for the federal budget to continue to balloon out of control.
4. Businesses caught between customers experiencing downward wage pressures
and rising input costs for commodities due to inflationary pressures created by the
Fed's loose money policies and the recycling of monies from current account deficits
with nations from abroad that make their way back into the U.S., will continue to
experience a loss of pricing power and will watch profit margins be squeezed. With
the loss of purchasing power, consumers will require deeply discounted sales to
induce them to part with their money.
All in all, things do not look rosy in the future for the U.S. economy as a whole no
matter what the hype and spin that the elitists wish to paint with. If consumer
spending is the engine that drives the U.S. economy, I cannot help but to believe that
this engine is beginning to run dreadfully low on gas. The scenario that races across
my mind's eye in light of the above, is one in which the U.S. Dollar continues to plumb
new lows in the process pushing gold to new and loftier highs.
Dan Norcini
December 26, 2003
Dan is a professional off-the-floor commodity trader residing in Texas and can be
reached at
dnorcini@earthlink.net with comments.
He should become a prostitute. Good pay, and you can set your own hours.
We have a saying in New York, "s--t happens"! This guy along with wailing Democrats and useless union leaders just doesn't get it! There are no more jobs for icemen or knife sharpners, etc. The Pennsylvania Railroad, Pan Am and Eastern Airlines are history! Things happen. Jobs come and go as our economy and lives changes. New industries arise and others go by the wayside because they are no longer profitable! That's capitalism! If you want socialism, vote for Howard Dean and the "traitor/treason" Democrat Party. I have no pity for those weak sisters that moan about their lost jobs. Get your butt in gear, go out there and get yourself moving! Unless you change, life and job opportunities will pass you by!
Yes, Virginia, there are no jobs.
It's been rough as hell for some of us, but Americans still get the boss jobs.
You're right that there are too many problems with this whine to know where to start. But it strikes me as amusing that this whiner thinks that he would get a good job if the gov't spent money building roads. Would he really take a job on a road crew? And, if so, why doesn't he take a job building houses? There are plenty of those jobs available.
BTW, a $50,000 job would probably be less than $30,000 in salary. The rest would be in benefits, including health, unemployment ins., and employer paid SS.