08 Jan 2004
Tech Chiefs Defend Overseas Jobs

I referred to this study yesterday, but the article linked below from Wired has so many more outrageous quotes from the report (and the folks responsible for it) that I had to post this item as well. Here we go:

"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," Carly Fiorina, chief executive for Hewlett-Packard, said Wednesday. "We have to compete for jobs."

Gee, Carly - I wonder if we could find a newly minted MBA in Madras to replace you for a fraction of your salary?

Really going over the edge is Intel's Craig Barrett. I can hear him now, being confronted by the unemployed American engineers whose jobs he's just shipped to Malaysia: "Let them eat silicon!"

[Intel's Craig] Barrett complained about federal agriculture subsidies he said were worth tens of billions of dollars, while government investment in physical sciences was a relatively low $5 billion. "I can't understand why we continue to pour resources into the industries of the 19th century," Barrett said.

I hope you weren't speaking at a luncheon engagement with this one, buddy. People who complain about farmers really shouldn't do it with their mouths full!

Generally, I'd say that all subsidies from government to business are a bad idea, but characterizing agriculture as "so 19th century" kinda misses the point. Humans can't subsist on silicon alone!

And finally, someone who gets it:

A vocal critic of moving jobs overseas, Marcus Courtney of Seattle, dismissed the latest report. "This is not a recipe for job creation in this country," said Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. "This is a recipe for corporate greed. They're lining up at the public trough to slash their labor costs."

The heads of several leading technology companies, worried that lawmakers may clamp down on 'offshoring' of U.S. jobs, urge Congress to reject new restrictions on moving jobs overseas.

(link) [Wired News]

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