On 07/06/2010 03:50 AM, azotic wrote:

"You could say, as many do, that shipping jobs overseas is no big deal
because the high-value work -- and much of the profits -- remain in the
U.S. That may well be so. But what kind of a society are we going to
have if it consists of highly paid people doing high-value-added work --
and masses of unemployed?

Consider this passage by Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder:
"The TV manufacturing industry really started here, and at one point
employed many workers. But as TV sets became 'just a commodity,' their
production moved offshore to locations with much lower wages. And
nowadays the number of television sets manufactured in the U.S. is zero.
A failure? No, a success."

I disagree. Not only did we lose an untold number of jobs, we broke the
chain of experience that is so important in technological evolution. As
happened with batteries, abandoning today's "commodity" manufacturing
can lock you out of tomorrow's emerging industry.


The first task is to rebuild our industrial commons. We should develop a
system of financial incentives: Levy an extra tax on the product of
offshored labor. (If the result is a trade war, treat it like other wars
-- fight to win.) Keep that money separate. Deposit it in the coffers of
what we might call the Scaling Bank of the U.S. and make these sums
available to companies that will scale their American operations. Such a
system would be a daily reminder that while pursuing our company goals,
all of us in business have a responsibility to maintain the industrial
base on which we depend and the society whose adaptability -- and
stability -- we may have taken for granted."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-0...ndy-grove.html


Seems some people are begining to think that steering america towards a
service based eccomony
may be the biggest blunder in the last 30 years. The theory has not
lived up to reality, in fact we are now
feeling the effects. Trickle down theory has left most americans living
under wall streets dinner table
getting ****ed on by wall street bankers as thier jobs are be sent off
shore, grobbling for the crumbs
that fall off the bailout table.

Best Regards
Tom.

How about something even more basic: Make it so that I can hire just
one employee. Right now if I hire one to do work, I have to hire
another one to check all the rules, cover my ass, fill out forms,
withhold wages, etc., etc., etc.

So I'm just not going to hire the one, unless I get a clear and present
opportunity to hire two or three at once. Even then I'll hesitate.
Think about that.

Granted, I could do what most small business owners do, and just try to
muddle through without reading that stack of regulations that's bigger
than my living room. But I'd much rather be a single contributor,
limiting my business to what I can do personally, than to ever hassle
with all the crap I'd have to go through to hire

just

one

person.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html