Posted on 08/25/2002 11:16:26 AM PDT by gfarrington
Greedy Corporate Bastards And How They Destroyed the Programming Profession
Greedy corporate bastards have destroyed my profession. They are greedy for profit at any cost, with no consideration for the consequences of their actions. They are bastards because they have disowned their People and Country in favor of globalization. They will not stop until they achieve their goal and that is to reduce this once great nation’s population to the same status as a third world country. Some, like Enron, have simply taken all of the money from their employees and absconded. Others use a less direct approach by firing American workers and then relocating overseas. Believe it or not, some even bring foreign citizens over to the good old USA to replace existing American workers. At this moment there are approximately 1,000,000 so called temporary workers here on work visas, replacing American workers! The majority of the visitors are here to replace workers in the Programming profession. For a statistical analysis of these visitors, visit http://www.automationmatrix.com for a breakdown.
It all started a few years ago when Corporations were having a hard time filling technical programming positions. They needed a device to convince the government to import more foreign workers. They decided they needed to funnel money to government officials to gain the support they required. Thus was born the ITAA. Many corporations like Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco donate millions to the ITAA. What does the ITAA do with all of this money? They lobby our elected officials so they may import even more foreign workers to replace even more American workers. What do they tell our elected officials? They tell them there is a big labor shortage in the Programming profession. Despite the fact that thousands of American programmers are currently out of work, they have convinced the government to let even more foreign programmers into the country to take American jobs. Why does this happen? It happens because the greedy corporate bastards would rather pay a foreign programmer half of what their American counterpart would make. They have demonstrated over and over that they have no regret about replacing American workers. To see how far a field these corporate bastards have gone in their efforts to lie to the government, check out the site entitled "Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage" http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.real.html .
At this point in time, thousands of technical employment agencies across the country began to import foreign workers by the boatload. The agencies were very happy, as they were still charging their clients the same high rates, but got away with paying the foreign workers half the rate they would pay to an American worker. Yes, it was fat city for the agencies, but it did not last forever. Imagine charging a client anywhere from $75 to $125 an hour for an employee that you are only paying $20 to $30 an hour. A very lucrative business plan, indeed! The agencies should have been happy at this point, but they were far from finished when it came to getting blood out of a rock. They placed the foreign workers in guest houses and gave them small monthly stipends, from which to live. They bolstered the housing and stipend charges to make it appear that the foreign workers were making far more than they actually were. The agencies were very happy. Then the bottom fell out. Stories began to appear about the abuse of foreign workers by their so called agency benefactors. Stories about lack of payment, disingenuous promises to sponsor a worker for permanent resident status and even threats to send the worker back to their home country became prevalent. Then the stories from the displaced American workers started to rise to the surface, despite denials from organizations such as the ITAA. To see firsthand accounts of these horror stories try the link http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Horror.htm .
Suddenly, the agencies realized that they had imported so many foreign workers, that the job market was flooded. They forced the foreign workers to take mandatory pay cuts, because they could no longer command high rates from their clients. In other words, they screwed themselves good. Even at this low point, the agencies and corporations still convinced the government that a labor shortage still existed. They begged the government to let them import even more foreign workers. The government obeyed, following the philosophy of not biting the hand that fills your back pocket. Rates and wages proceeded to plummet. During this time of a supposed labor shortage, the very companies who supported the importation of foreign workers were laying off American workers by the droves. The following link shows several examples of these layoffs http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Abuses.htm . Talk about two faced, while firing thousands of American workers, these companies were begging the government to allow even more foreign workers into the country. How do I know this? The following link http://www.zazona.com/LCA-Data/ allows one to list all of the foreign worker applications that companies have filed with the government. Take a look and see.
Most companies are no longer importing coders. They contract with an outsourcer, who provides a project manager on the ground in the states, then ships all the programming to India or the Phillipines or Indonesia, where it can be done at a fraction per line of what it would have cost here.
Outsourcing is much cleaner than importing bodies.
Hint: 6 letters, starting with 'p' and ending with 't.'
We are not an island, and globalization of the economy has been going on for centuries. It only alarms you because it is now accelerating and because it is goring your particular ox. I suggest you adapt to it because it's not going to adapt to you. Granted, protectionism has its place. But you can only take it so far before the American consumer can no longer afford to buy our own products and services.
Now if we could just get those greedy bastard landscape firms to stop hiring "foreigners" to do their lawn mowing, we American lawnmowers would be alot better off! Get a grip on yourself and maybe a new profession.....
Hey! Who moved my cheese!
Not that long ago I was paying college students $40/hr to do programming - and I really felt good that I was benefiting the US by providing students with a good source of revenue. Now I'm paying less than one third of that to very grateful students in another country. I would ask any and all technical people to become politically active and impose controls on foreign outsourcing (as well as H1B visas).
Isn't it strange how we're supposed to be in the middle of all this "free trade" and yet it is so important to every other nation on this planet whether or not you are visiting to work when you go through customs?
On the other side of the coin, I heard that the inventor of the sewing machine was chased through the streets of Paris by the French tailors shortly after his invention became public. Might this be the same phenomena?
It all comes down to a simple fact, if techies have the political will to assert themselves against the politicians then they will get their nest feathered - if they don't then they will certainly disappear in the very near future.
Imagine getting off your ass and starting your own business. Or would you rather whine?
Worse yet, like cars etc. made in Mexico for american corporations, it's considered import and export, not "outsourcing"
Hint: Our fiscal burden of government is 2X greater than Communist China and 3X greater than Hong Kong.
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They had a hard time getting their way at the price they arbitrarily wanted to pay with their spoiled little kid's mentality. Among other things I used to program considerable real-time data acquisition. I can also engineer A/d conversion systems and connect them to parallel processors. People aren't beating down my door to get me. It's easier to send the job out of the country or hire an immigrant to do it half-assed.
How is it an "enemy?" Every company in the world stays in business by controlling costs, and salaries are the single largest cost. When an Indian JAVA programmer is as productive as a Texas programmer, and makes half the money, a company would be irresponsible not to outsource legacy maintenance, conversion projects, and select other jobs. Security of data is a primary issue, so most mission-critical applications are still done in-house.
But the handwriting is on the wall: heads-down programming, like repetitive manufacturing, is headed offshore.
What a great expression! I may have to borrow it sometime.:)
How would you do that, Duke? All I need is a server with a com line, and I can tie into an outsourcer over the Internet.
The alternative is to simply take what you're doing to its logical conclusion: find an office in Delhi and outsource the entire IT function as a subsidiary.
And if that company were a public one, they could then be subject to paying judgment to their shareholders as well.
Everybody's goin' serfin'...serfin' USA
I guess the idea that America can be strong when its inhabitants are poor and forced to compete with the Third world is gaining ground.
That's the nice thing about free markets...we get dragged down to their level, while they work and make the people that run their pathetic contires rich.
You don't think that if I were risking HUGE fines that I'd not be dissuaded from overseas outsourcing? Remember when it was a $10,000 fine to take the pencil from the Post Office? As a kid when visiting the post office I never can remember that pencil not being right there for me.
I have little use for the "no can do" attitude. If there's a will to fix this problem, then I can assure you there's a way.
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