Re: Say goodbye to the American software programmer

From: av2003 (verbrugh_at_cableone.net)
Date: 10/18/04 

Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 16:05:48 -0500

zerge wrote:
> Richard <rh310@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<MPG.1bda322319b563b0989e8e@news.verizon.net>...
>
>>ixnayamspay_klaatu@earthops.net wrote...
>>
>>>Richard wrote:
>>>
>>>>zerge@hotmail.com wrote...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>MrPepper11@go.com (MrPepper11) wrote in message news:<57cfd534.0410150652.3c301a06@posting.google.com>...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>Endangered species: US programmers
>>>>>>Oct 14, 2004
>>>>>>By David R. Francis, The Christian Science Monitor
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Say goodbye to the American software programmer. Once the symbols of
>>>>>>hope as the nation shifted from manufacturing to service jobs,
>>>>>>programmers today are an endangered species. They face a challenge
>>>>>>similar to that which shrank the ranks of steelworkers and autoworkers
>>>>>>a quarter century ago: competition from foreigners.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Some experts think they'll become extinct within the next few years,
>>>>>>forced into unemployment or new careers by a combination of offshoring
>>>>>>of their work to India and other low-wage countries and the arrival of
>>>>>>skilled immigrants taking their jobs.
>>>>>
>>>>>At least the rest of us will get cheaper software.
>>
>>
>>
>>>>Not a chance in hell of that happening.
>>>
>>>http://www.gnu.org/
>>>http://www.kernel.org/
>>>http://www.netbsd.org/
>>>
>>>Whee!
>>
>>You're stating the obvious as if it were profound.
>>
>>
>>>I've got four servers and four laptops running with thousands of
>>>applications available and stability of which M$ can only _dream_ and I
>>>didn't pay a CENT for the software or operating system.
>>
>>Try to remember whatever it was you may have learned about logical
>>argument. The original comment was that we'd get cheaper software as
>>a direct result of US companies using cheap(er) overseas labor to
>>make their products. Your reply, supposedly positing that the
>>existence of good open source s/w refutes my statement about the
>>impact of cheaper overseas labor on US commercial software retail
>>prices, is a complete non sequitur.
>>
>>We are not going to see cheaper retail prices for software as a
>>direct result of US companies using cheap(er) overseas labor. Not
>>going to happen. We might get cheaper prices from M$ as a result of
>>competition from open source vendors, but what's more likely (and has
>>already started happening, so there's a precendent) is that M$ will
>>release its source. It'll be under deep restriction (right now, it's
>>only selected areas of Windows OS code, and only to US government
>>customers), but that'll probably loosen up if and as M$ transitions
>>into recreational/entertainment products and relegates its office
>>productivity products to "cash cow" status.
>
>
> As production costs lower, competition drives price down. No?

Depends on how many players are in the field and whether or not one
company is trying to drive the competion to ground. Pricing is also
dedicated to what the market one sells into will bear. Thus the American
market will subsidize the Asian market. You get the picture. I works
that way with automobiles from Japan, which traditionally were more
expensive here than Europe, fore the same model etc. Despite our plight
we are still a richer consumer than say China or eastern Europe and
companies will market keeping that in mind, immaterial from the cost of
production.

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