Microsoft, Amid Dwindling Interest, Talks Up Computing

Nationally, there is a similar trend. The Computing Research Association's annual survey of more than 200 universities in the United States and Canada found that undergraduate enrollments in computer science and computer engineering programs were down 23 percent this year.

The outsourcing trend, Mr. Notowidigdo explained, "factors into my thinking about what I want to pursue as a career."

His current path as a technologically adept investment banker, he decided, gives him "a broader set of skills and is less risky than software

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/technology/01bill.html

We are on the way to be an underdeveloped country as opposed to India, etc. developing nations.
As to Big donors to Repukes, M$ is up there. Apple and Linux don't, why are so many DUers in love with M$?

> why are so many DUers in love with M$?

The herd mentality runs strong in humans. Microsoft must be the
right solution because everyone else thinks it is. Kerry must be
the right nominee because everyone's saying he is. Bush must be
a compassionate conservative because everyone's...

Atlant

"By outsourcing to India, we force American computer workers to keep their skills current."

That's a load of crap. When a $50/hour job can be sent to India or China for $5/hour, no amount of sharpening will bring that job back. The American executive class knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The entire American workforce is in a state of siege, with wages in a deflationary spiral even as corporate earnings (and the stock markets) are at an all-time high. But there's a break point which we are close to. Once the purchasing power of the American working class (that includes what most people call the "Middle Class") falls to a certain level, it will no longer be possible to use them as a cash cow. Discretionary spending will stop. People living in daily fear of economic ruin will not buy cars, electronic gadgets, houses, designer clothing, DVDs or CDs.

Then, panic will set in among the executive class as a wave of bankruptcies and cannibalism sweeps the corporate landscape. And at long last, socialism will come as a result of the urgent cries of tens of thousands of stranded CEOs.

--bkl

"And at long last, socialism will come as a result of the urgent cries of tens of thousands of stranded CEOs."

Nice post.

I imagine it's actually the police state and the work camp that will come. But I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

"Socialism" is a word I use value-free. It may come with jackboots or with lock cutters -- and maybe both.

At the first sign of trouble, it's the free-marketers who go running for help from Big Brother. As soon as their "sacred fortunes" (to paraphrase Ashcroft's botched quote of Jefferson) are threatened, things will change.

--bkl

with regards to 'knowledge workers', is, well, won't they have commensurately more genius-level people than we do?

"We all stand on the shoulders of the giants". Our greatest advantage to date, since colonial times, has been our technological advantage and ability to out-innovate potential competitors.

But how much longer will this state of affairs last? It may be over already. The advantages accrued to a nation with, simply put, more smart people AND unending hordes of cheap labor, would seem to be insurmountable.

How do we, dare I say it 'protect' our own economy and workforce from the seemingly overwhelming advantages enjoyed by the Titans of the East?

Lowering our own wage and living standards is not a solution. If we must do that, what is the point? What can we do to increase our competitive advantage and thereby keep the jobs at home, without completely destroying the quality of life of the American Worker? And most of us WILL have to work.

The new paradigm of America somehow being the innovative, managerial and finance center of the world-guaranteeing freedom of commerce for the whole planet, through our military prowess, is just about to melt down. Simply put, many Americans have no place in the new paradigm! Probably over half of us. What is our employment going to be? The new Roman mob?

It won't work. My solution: Nearly free electricity. Spend just what we will have to borrow this year alone, nationalize ONE industry-power generation (howl from the right)-and cut electricity rates to about a tenth of what they are now...just enough to maintain and replenish the system. Use renewables where we can, but the scale of the endeavor will require massive relaince on clean coal and next generation nuclear (howl from the left).

With Free Energy, NOBODY will be able to compete with us. Manufacturers will flock to THIS nation, and pay high wages to be allowed to do it. We will simply buy what raw material we need, bring the military home-and save enough to pay for the program there, alone. The resource wars will be over.


Let Freedom Ring!

which is by no means "clean". Look at mountain-top removal in the Appalachians. Look at global climate change. Nuclear is a much better option although it has its own problems (not least of which is political). Those curious about nuclear should read web sites by physicists and engineering professors involved in nuclear research -- very eye-opening stuff.

Although they really HAVE come a long way with cleaning it's emissions-if the law were enforced, which it hasn't been...that technology IS advancing. I live in WV, around some of those plants, some of the NEWER ones. They were designed in the 60's and built in the 70's! The technology is old, old, old.

But I just read, they are building a new unit, the first one in decades, above Morgantown (WVU). Hopefully it will be more advanced. They even have a way of pumping the Co2 emissions deep underground, where they are supposedly trapped forever, I guess. No more greenhouse gasses. And if the profit motive were taken away, it might be suprising what can be done with coal...the wehrmacht used coal-gassified fuel in WW2 and German scientists were even able to make butter out of it!

Mountaintop removal does suck, but if they are regulated as to disposal-which is very weak right now-WV might end up with some stable, flat land. We could use more of that! You have to give something up to break our dependency on oil and bring the troops home. This may surprise some of you, but coal has always meant jobs here. Coal just needs to be heavily regulated...and right now it isn't.

Anyhow, nuclear and the renewables have come a long way too...might not even need much coal. The point is to break the oil addiction. with free electricity and thereby improve our competitive position, in order to attract and keep high-paying jobs here, in America. My other point is that we have spent enough to accomplish all this, just with this years budget deficit! We have plenty of energy resources already, we just need to go for it!

And then we can bring the troops home.

... are setting up a course for ruin as usual. Now that the inevitable result of their short-sighted policies come into view, you'd think they'd consider a course correction.

But they won't. It will take only a couple decades before, in addition losing the ability to manufacture much of anything, the info sciences are gone too.

It won't occur to these jokers what they've done until they cannot mount another pointless war because we can hardly manufacture bullets. :(

Let's see, let's bribe and cajole Congress to allow just as many H1-B and other assorted foreign programmers and designers into the country as possible, so we won't have to hire Americans who might demand more in wages and benefits . . . OK, check.

Next, let's have the Americans whose jobs will be taken by foreign programmers and designers train them first before being fired . . . OK, check.

Next, let's just forego the effort of filling out all that clumsy visa-related paperwork and farm out the work directly to independent contractors and subsidiaries in India, Malaysia, China, Pakistan, Singapore or wherever the wages are lower . . . OK, check.

And you still expect American college students, with full knowledge of the kind of job market they're looking at, to act like a bunch of sentient cattle - to walk merrily into the kill chute and press their heads willingly against the pneumatic cylinder.

Get a fucking CLUE, Bill!! Unbelievable.