> One thing is certain. Mr Market will sort this all out. I am > skeptical that we can do anything politically to remove the power of the > Internet to move jobs around. If too many jobs go away,however, then > other dominoes will fall. Depending on what you read the economy is > on the brink of deflation, stagnation, stagflation, or inflation.
I was reading a book once, I don't remember if it was fiction or not, and there was a scene of a guy who pulled his money out of an about-to-fail Depression-era bank. As he left, he walked by this row of people waiting to get inside, and someone asked, "Did you get your money out?" He didn't answer, just kept walking, lest everyone jump him and mug him. The thing that got me in that scene was not the desperation of the people in line, but that the guy realized that the rules had changed and played it correctly. They weren't in a polite society. They were playing by lifeboat rules. This is part of the cycle. As knowledge and resources leave the hands of the privileged, there's going to be a larger pool to draw from. That 'Open Source Revolution' cuts both ways: it used to be hard to get hold of resources to learn tech skills. Now it's easy, and more people are going to be passably good at it, and take jobs. And, yes, some will be non-Americans. I'm sick of hearing about outsourcing as this huge bane of the geek's existence. It's rarely considered in any fashion other than "Them Thar Fur-ners Took Our Jorbs!!1!" that people take personally. It's rarely noted that knowledge always gets out and dilutes the monopoly of the innovator. The job market is a very large, complex game, and it's sad to see people not realize that the tech market is exceptionally volatile, not realize the rules have changed (and will continue to change) quite rapidly. So much for American Ingenuity: we've forgotten how to adapt and/or feel a Sense of Entitlement that we shouldn't have to adapt. -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
