The Haves and Have-Nots

Ok, I just read a depressing article about the decline of jobs in America. The most distressing number to me was the huge drop of computer programmers and software engineers. That's a roughly 25% drop from current employment levels. My future is bleak. The article goes into the a possible reason as to why this is and that is the jobs are simply going over seas, to India. In this article from the AP, Indian programmers make $20 an hour compared to US average of $65 an hour. From the business point of view, I can totally see the sense of the $45 an hour difference. And I bet that the average programmer from India will probably put out more quality code than the average coder from the US. I'll chalk that up to culture difference: we are big fat piggies whining for this and that utill we get it. Mind you, that's just an observation. People get pissed when they have to pay $.25 for a cup of tartar (true story which I'm sure I've told most of you). The average person from India has it a little harder. As seen from several television programs/documentaries. So their work ethic is little bit better.

Well, I can see two things happenning and probably is happenning now. One, the US will mainly be a place where companies live and all their employees will live somewhere else. Imagine the landscape of Coruscant from the beginning of SW: Attack of the Clones or several other scenes. Just one huge landscape of buildings and structures owned by big businesses. As far as the eye can see, and not just in big metropolitan areas either. This is probably a far fetched posibility, but along with everything else, is conceivable.

The second thing that could happen, which is right along the lines of the the first thing, is that the US will be where the Have's live and everywhere else is the have-nots. Thus creating a huge amount of hatred towards what the US represents. More than what is now, if you can believe that. And it will be a hatred not based on religion. (of course by this time, I hope that religion itself becomes an artifact)

Now, something could occur as well and that is equillibrium will occur. Once all programmers go to India and other places of interest, they will want to have higher wages. So the minimum wage for them will go up to $65. They will turn piggie-like. Hence the cycle will begin anew.

So, something has to be done about this. What? I don't really know. I'm all for a big ol world economy but that can't exist until several things disappear, which I won't get into here. So, for a temp fix, the government can impose taxes on companies that have a certain percentage of people doing work overseas who are not US nationals. The percentage goes up, the tax goes up. I am almost certain that this would get shot down by the big companies before it ever got to the senate floor. They say it would be constricting the way they do business. Well, they're constricting the way we live first and foremost.

That's my two cents on this issue. It is an important issue, the issue of jobs going overseas, and something has to be started or my bleak future will come true.