[ale] OT: more info on where all the jobs are (going...)

[ChangingLINKS.com]

I value your opinion in this case. However, I don't think that corporations 
are short-sighted, blind or stupid.

"Buy american to save the economy?"
What does that have to do with "value" of the code? What other reasons should 
corporations buy American labor at higher prices? Should we also buy American 
MicroSoft - to save the jobs that it provides? 
No? At some point value becomes the bottom line - whether it be for 
"patriotic" reasons or just to get the service completed at cheaper prices.

I started ChangingLINKS by contacting American programmers first. I worked 
with one for awhile. Then I found a Romanian programmer. He had more 
programming knowlege, charged cheaper rates, worked extremely hard, was loyal 
enough to give me the source before payment - and just had a lot of "heart." 
If it weren't for him, I would have probably quit. 

There was a language barrier (he learned english by reading tech manuals) BUT, 
the problem was limited to consistently giving clear variable names. 
Contrarily, I found that american companies and individuals were like 
Microsoft. They had attitudes that were overconfident and overpriced - and 
had lower performance. The Romainian moved to Canada and now charges me 30% 
more. He was able to land sequential high paying contract jobs - like his 
older brother - and his experience and value have increased (partly because 
he already "knows" what my code is doing and why).

I see this argument related to cars. My best cars were *not* made by America.
Maybe IT jobs are not supposed to be American. Perhaps Americans will have to 
adapt and find other work. Perhaps programming labor is no more valuable than 
lower paying jobs. And, perhaps American programmers will be largely 
converted to "translators," a role you have played in the past. I still work 
with an American programmer - when the Romainian is not available.

With regard to the American code being more intelligable: Upper management may 
never see or understand the code. What they can see is whether or not the 
code accomplishes what it was written to do.




On Saturday 15 March 2003 07:41, Geoffrey wrote:
> ChangingLINKS.com wrote:
> > Forrester Research found that 88 percent of the firms that look overseas
> > for services claimed to get better value for their money offshore than
> > from U.S. providers,
>
> The only reason they are doing it.  Same old story though, who's going
> to buy their products hear in the states if everyone's unemployed
> because all the work is done overseas?  Short term solutions like this
> are going to kill this economy, not turn it around.
>
> > while 71 percent said offshore workers did better quality work.
>
> I think that's a crock of shit.  I believe the companies are saying that
> to justify going offshore with these efforts.  I've been on the
> receiving end of software produced overseas as well as by contractors
> who can't even verbally communicate.  The code works, but sucks.  It's
> not well written, it's not documented (if they don't have a command of
> the language, they can't speak OR write it).
>
> Call me prejudice, but the bottom line is, this country has provided
> opportunity to millions of folks over the past 200+ years.  It's now
> time, to recognize this global economy and start taking care of our own.

-- 
Wishing you Happiness, Joy and Laughter,
Drew Brown
http://www.ChangingLINKS.com
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