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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (257962)	11/1/2005 10:51:35 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 1574589

Bushie corporate elitists want the middleclass to eat cake, no good manufacturing jobs, few health care benefits, just Walmart and McDonalds jobs, or maybe you're lucky enough to work in the oilfields (whites only need apply) while they in the country clubs run everything and pocket huge profits. Such corruption we haven't seen in over 100 years.

To: bentway who wrote (257962)	11/2/2005 12:19:18 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574589

"There is high unemployment in the tech [programmer, engineer] area" Let's get real. High unemployment for engineers is about 3%. I don't think it is there, but... H1-Bs just make the general picture for engineers more complicated. The problem with engineering is that employers tend to RIF the older ones and hire new grads. The rationale is that the new grads are cheaper and have more up to date skills. H1-Bs are then same. Given that a greater fraction of the new grads are H1-B material, that is the real pressure for raising the limit, to capture new grads. Electrical Engineering tends to be a burnout career path, you have to be willing to continually update your skills and eventually move into management or you go back to flipping burgers or being a greeter at WalMart. Some do, some don't. Now ask me why I am a grad. student at age 49. Programmers are a little different. For one, it depends on what you term a "programmer". In certain fields, like embedded, there is a whole lot less pressure. Mainly because to do it right, you need experience and a certain mindset. Other areas are very dependent on exposure to the latest tools. Entry is fairly easy, you need to be a recent graduate. But a lot of people tend to flock to those areas because it is easy and they get churned. H1-Bs only make their life more miserable. For the record, I don't particularly care for H1-Bs. But that is mainly because some companies use their status to really abuse those poor souls. To say they contribute negatively in any substantial way to job holders in this country is not correct. At most, they only make worse the problems that are already in the system. Engineering and programming is a lot like teaching. You do it because you love it. If you want a stable, long-lived career that pays decently, become a plumber. Or a cabinet maker. No, H1-Bs aren't the problem. Outsourcing is. Especially outsourcing that doesn't recognize the limitations. But that is a different issue.