Wipro's Azim Premji - 'The man who wants to take your jobs'

[Derek Martin]

On Mon, Mar 22, 2004 at 08:45:30PM -0500, Robert La Ferla wrote:
> In 90's we were spoiled.  As a result, we are now the fatted calf.  

There may be some truth to this, but I think we should reject this
idea.  Most of us became "spoiled" by investing a great deal of time
and money into obtaining our skillsets.  To be good at IT is often
EXPENSIVE.  Our employers usually demand a great commitment from us in
terms of the hours we work and our availability after work (especially
for us support types).  This should be rewarded.  Maintaining our
skills so that we do not become obsolete generally requires a great
expenditure of time and/or money.

We deserve high salaries; we work as hard as doctors or lawyers, and
obtaining our skillsets is at least as expensive.  Our skills are in
high demand, even if that currently means importing cheap labor.  We
deserve to be compensated appropriately.  In my opinion, this SHOULD
add up to six-figure salaries for most experienced and talented IT
workers.  But we're being jilted because of the availability of
cheaper labor elsewhere, and dishonest businesses who abuse the
system.

In many cases, Indians (and others) are being paid by our government
to attend our universities, in the form of financial aid.  Those who
don't receive money from US financial sources, as I understand it, are
often paid by the Indian government to go to our schools.  Then
American businesses hire these workers on false pretenses, paying them
less than American workers doing the same job.  This does three
things:

  1. reduces the number of high-paying jobs available to Americans
  2. causes a reduction in pays of the IT industry generally
  3. Since many of these foriegn workers send a large chunk of their
     salaries to their home countries, it removes a lot of money from
     our economy, to the benefit of those other countries.

If you believe in the free market system, then maybe your response to
this is, "as it should be."  But at the very least, you must realize
that it is unquestionably detrimental to the American economy.  It is
worse than the case of manufacturing jobs, because these jobs are
high-paying jobs, yeilding a lot of disposable income to IT workers.
That income is spent directly on goods and services, fueling growth;
or it is saved in financial institutions, improving the supply of money
for loans to build businesses with capital expenditures.

That was before.  With the export of our labor, and the export of many
dollars to the countries of foriegn visa workers, the economy will
suffer.  And it has.  Outside of IT, it seems to be getting better,
but I think that trend will reverse itself in about a year or so, as
fewer and fewer Americans can find these high-paying jobs.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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