Let me see if I have this straight...

Yahoo News ^

[RebelDawg]

OK, let me see if I have this straight. Corporations have been replacing American engineers and software developers with cheap foreign labor for years now and all of the sudden we are worried that there are not enough Americans enrolling in the Computer Science and Engineering fields of study in college... Go figure. Perhaps if there was an incentive to enter these fields,like the possibility of actually obtaining a job after college, then maybe we wouldn't be facing this so called labor shortage. Corporations have done this to themselves but yet they have things like this to say:

"The National Science Board and a think tank of tech executives recently warned that the economic vitality of America is threatened by a lack of U.S. graduates in science and engineering."

No, kidding? You mean that when our children see their highly paid and highly educated engineer and software developer parents put out of work by corrupt corporations hiring H1-Bs and shipping jobs over seas where they can pay employees two dollars an hour that they lose any and all incentive to enter those related fields of study? Go figure!

"The bigger issue, say the NSB and CSPP, is that America may be losing ground to foreign nations that are doing a better job of educating their youth in science and engineering. As a result, they are better able to compete against American ingenuity and innovation."

Hogwash! What does better educating the youth of foreign countries have to do with competititon when we have millions of Americans whom are already educated that cannot find employment in these very same fields! It is not about foreign education it is about foreign wages. As long as corporations want to pay foreign wages for engineers and developers then America will see a shortage of graduates in these fields. It is as simpe as that.

Are we the United States of America or have we all given up and agreed to live under the rule of some supranational global corporatist government?

[RebelDawg]

the article

[Devil_Anse]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if droves of Americans started moving to India or the Phillipines, getting the Indian or Filipino versions of work visas, and snapping up those jobs?

[2banana]

These are only jobs that Americans refuse to do...

[Consort]

Yep, and back in the '70s, sales reps from India were pitching and selling their software products and programming services in the US, including on military bases.

[OldFriend]

There is another part of this story.

Teachers in grade school are incapable of teaching math and science. Therefore, students don't get interested, feel incompetent (because they are) and choose other fields.

As for high school math and science teachers, they have long since left the profession for jobs in other fields.

[BillM]

The average age of an engineer in aerospace is 56. Most young people today don't want to take any serious subjects in university, it interferes with their social live too much.
In order for companies to survive, they need educated workers. They will get them where they can.
I would like to know what sources indicate that there are 'millions' of engineers looking for work in the USA.

[MaryFromMichigan]

These are only jobs that Americans refuse to do...

Pithy.
Well said!

[Reelect President Dubya]

Evidently some people think that the world and the economy are never supposed to change.

Repeat after me: THE ECONOMY IS CYCLICAL!!!

The engineering and (especially) computing fields have had wild up and down swings since the beginning.

In the sixties there was the the aerospace depression. Life Magazine ran a picture of a PhD engineer stocking grocery shelves.

A few years later there was a scarcity of engineers, and pay was sky-high.

The end of the world is not here.

Grow up.

[FITZ]

Foreign wages is the problem --- once we attracted the world's best engineers but with companies all trying to head down as close to minimum wage as possible, we're not bringing in the best.

[Chewbacca]

More money in becoming a blood sucking lawyer.

[DustyMoment]

I saw this coming back when the news broke about all the tech jobs being shipped offshore. When we ship high-paying technical jobs offshore, what do we tell our kids to study in college in order for them to get a good job with a stable career when they get out of college?

This is one of those times I hate to be right, but I foresaw the damage that would occur if we allowed these jobs to leave the US. When we don't have high-paying, high-tech jobs to offer our kids, those departments in the colleges and universitires begain to feel the pinch and will eventually close.

We really need to re-think the policy of shipping our best jobs offshore. After all, there are only so many jobs available that come with the phrase "You want fries with that?"

[verity]

Why do so many medical professionals in America have names I cannot pronounce?

[Wombat101]

The problem is not foreign wages or lack of regulatation in foreign countries, although they do play a big part in the decision to move jobs overseas. The issue is the MENTALITY of your typical manager in corporate America who cannot see beyond a bottom line.

The software and programming fields are not really all that crucial to the American economy (although they are important), it's the banks, brokerages, and other businesses that handle money that are.

I'll bet that once a major corp (and I'd bet on a bank) has an OOOPS! and finds a Chinese, Pakistani or Russian "replacement worker" doing something nasty that either funds terrorism, drug sales or launders money with customer accounts or has a major security breach, THEN you will see a rethinking of the whole issue of shipping wrk overseas. The lawsuits alone would dictate a change in policy.

[Seajay]

There is some merit to your ironic argument, but ...

Cost is a factor, but another major factor in the outsourcing to India movement is that there are few Ameicans who are capable of producing quality software. Software development is not easy, has a long learning curve, requires painstaking attention to detail and is very frustrating. These are qualities that graduates of USA institutions simply do not possess.

How many of us know high school students who were good at playing games on the computer and surfing the Web, went to college majoring in CS at the insistence of parents and high school counslers and then found out what they were getting into and swtitched majors to "Business"?????

[Wombat101]

P.S. I'm a systems automation programmer with Citibank....

[EdReform]

BTTT

[1rudeboy]

Because they have the educational experience and dedication to become doctors and surgeons?

[azhenfud]

"These are only jobs that Americans refuse to do..."

How about the several in government that won't do their job - like enforcing our current Illigration code? Can we hire foreign workers to replace them? Afterall those are "jobs Americans refuse to do".

[looscnnn]

Would never happen. Those countries do not give incentives to do that, unlike the US.