You would think so, but it's more complicated.  We're not getting the top performers.  Those are being snapped up by governments and companies that directly interface with the educational institutions.  Also, take Argentina, for example.  Back in early 2000's (when i was working with george, small world), the company we worked for opened up outsourcing in Argentina and sent us down there to train them.  Driving through Buenos Aires we saw Sun and Oracle also opening up outsourcing locations.  All 3 companies wanted 10k people.  Though the high performers, those with education and experience, were on par with US staff, that totalled less than 2500 people in Argentina at the time (numbers from Argentinan government should stlil be available for the curious).  After a couple years, we had taken some of the educated but not experienced and given them experience, and this expanded the pool, but not the 30k wanted by just the 3 companies.  Also, those who could stopped applying for the 1/4 pay jobs (1/6 at the time) and applied for the better pay jobs, as you'd expect.  Because if you're worth it, companies will pay for it.

There's this rubber-band effect when a labor market is opened where it balances itself against cost very quickly, and then you end up with corruption in the system.  For example, many of the Indian outsource companies I worked with would send the educated, not experienced, people over here at low pay to gain experience, then once they had the experience they went back home and took a leadership or teaching role and we lost out on the gains of providing the training.  We didn't look down on this.  Who wouldn't want to be able to live a great life with their family where they grew up at the cost of 4-5 years living abroad?  But we had to factor it in.  Some did stay, but that wasn't the norm.  And often we got to work with them remotely, which was great.

By corruption in the system, I mean that the goals of outsourcing for the company were being gamed in ways we weren't anticipating (not political corruption, but more like fragmenting the hard drive.  it just gets less efficient over time).  Although there was also corruption in the political way once the people with that ability saw it as an opportunity.  This is not unique, but it's the norm with most outsourcing.  As you would expect, but at the time it was quite the surprise.  These days, doing research on the country you're considering outsourcing to is a must.

At this point, we've learned a lot about the globalization of labor and what expectations to have.  The HR people doing this are rarely dumb.  They know that if they're offering 44k/year, they're going to get educated, but not experienced.  Or educated and experienced, but unable to perform for some reason.  Or desperate.  And I think this last one is part of what makes our consciences twitch.

Anyway, I haven't given this enough thought to be coherent, but wanted to get a couple of my thoughts out there.

On Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 2:39 PM trent shipley via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
:So you're saying the Indians and Argientinans obviously deserved the job more than you since they would do the same work for less money?  Also, why would an American be better at the job than someone from anywhere else?  Or are you saying you are better than most of your peers in general, you're part of the 20% of your profession who generate 80% of the value.  I mean the competition to get into a third-world government university is fierce, especially if it's ranked.  The selectivity of admission rates match MIT and Stanford, theoretically Indian and Chinese computer scientists as a population should outperform their European, and even more their American competition.

On Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 2:29 PM George Toft via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
The only shortage that exists is technical people with Bachelors Degrees
willing to work for minimum wage.

Case in point.  My employer is required to post HR crap in the public
spaces (break rooms).  One of the posts showed Tata Consultancy was
providing a DBA for $66K/year.  Tata takes 1/3 (typical), so the
resource is getting $44K/year ($22/hr).  My kids make more than that
with a High School education.  This is what the young people are
competing against, so why go into this field?

Another case in point.  My job got outsourced to Argentina and the
resources were getting $6/hr.  I later heard it got raised to $10/hr. 
That was still 1/4 of what I was making.  Even if the Argentinians
screwed up and had to rework a task, the company still saved 50% over
hiring an American on that task, and they are elated at the cost savings.

Regards,

George Toft

On 6/7/2023 3:29 PM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> On 2023-06-07 13:59, James Mcphee via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>> Generally, if I hear it from cable news, there's a good chance it's
>> just someone drumming up support for something.  In this case, we'll
>> probably hear about some kind of H1B system to make sure the new fabs
>> get all the people they need, etc.  Same deal as when I was working at
>> a company that got bought by Dell, and they failed to retain most of
>> the new employees because they didn't have a structure that worked
>> with professionals.  Suddenly you saw Michael Dell doing an interview
>> on CNBC about the need to extend H1B 'cause they aren't getting enough
>> workers.  At the very least, there's plenty of incentive to drive down
>> labor costs.  And with the halts for new housing going out, there is a
>> LOT of incentive to manipulate the market.
>>
>> Am I being paranoid?  I probably need to touch more grass.
>
> Are you getting too paranoid?  Maybe not.  I quit following the news
> because I think most are fearmongering and not talking and working on
> the real problems.
>
> I personally do not like the H1B visas because I do not think they are
> necessary. If there is really a shortage of tech workers then why is
> there not a few major tech universities?  Why does Gates exploit the
> H1B and not create a really great tech university? And why do the
> politicians allow all of this?
>
> We have all we need right here in our 50 states, so why do we not do
> things that benefit ourselves and possibly others?
>
> These people like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, etc have forgotten where
> they came from.
>
> QUESTION?
>
> I understand TSMC produces the most chips in the world, and is located
> in Taiwan .  Where did they get that technology and who paid for that
> technology?
>
>
>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 1:15 PM Jim via PLUG-discuss
>> <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Don't believe everything you read on the internet.  I've read that
>>> Abraham Lincoln blames Donald Trump for giving the gun to John
>>> Wilkes Booth.
>>>
>>> On 6/6/23 17:45, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>>> Chip maker TSMC is moving to chandler and I have read they are a
>>>> sweatshop....
>>>>
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>>
>> --
>> James McPhee
>> jmcphe@gmail.com
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--
James McPhee
jmcphe@gmail.com