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Wipro's Azim Premji - 'The man who wants to take your jobs'



Mike Small wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 22, 2004 at 11:07:37AM -0500, Bob George wrote:
>> [...]
>>That's the nonsense that gets me going. Companies brining IN labor with 
>>the current market is shameful.
> 
> Why is it shameful?  This is the part of the argument I don't quite 
> get (granted, I'm not an American and have a strong aversion to 
> nationalism).  

As I wrote that, "shameful" was referring to the practice of brining in 
outside labor under the false pretense that local talent is not 
available to fill the job. It's a lie. Dishonest. In short, shameful, 
and the companies practicing such deception should be held up to public 
scrutiny. Nationalism has nothing to do with it. They break the rules of 
the game. Period.

 > Is it shameful if someone hires someone from Idaho
> when someone from Massachussetts could have done the job?

If done dishonestly, yes.

 > On the
> other hand is it shameful of the Idaho hire to leave Idaho without
> working long enough to pay back the taxpayers who paid for his or her
> public schooling?

Well, in this country, you're only talking about K-12. That's pretty 
standard everywhere, so no, I don't think that really applies. 
Presumably the parents paid as they went. I know I pay local taxes while 
my kid attends school, not repay later.

> I understand the concern - it would be nice to be assured a living
> programming for the foreseeable futue - it's a fun way to make your
> money.  So if someone came along and made some kind of law to keep
> computer jobs in the U.S. somehow, that would be fine by me, as I'd like
> to stay in this business and in this country a little longer.  

I agree that there's no way government can mandate employment, and that 
skill values come and go. When I entered the workforce years ago as a 
"PC guy", I replaced mainframe techs and programmers. Most of those 
individuals developed new skills. One poor guy was a programmer on a 
Unisys system that was old when purchased in 1967, but didn't bother to 
update his skills until that system was finally being replaced in the 
late 1980's. He had only himself to blame.

 > Do we
> who live here (or you who were born here) somehow deserve this special 
> treatment?  

No, but we don't deserve to be lied to by politicians who implement 
measures that let companies use deceptive practices to make a buck. Many 
of these programs were set up for valid reasons. Yet they're obviously 
bein abused wholesale. THAT is shameful.

> I don't know.  Seems like the only difference between 
> corporations lobbying for things to work in their favour and workers 
> doing it, in this case, is how widely the booty is spread around.

The booty in this case is the tax base upon which the country you enjoy 
residing in is based. If we allow it to be siphoned off, then there will 
be nothing worth coming here for.

> Either 
> way we're talking about one group of people pushing their 
> interests at the expense of another group.

It's all about self-preservation. There's a difference between boosting 
a CEO's stock worth a few $M and feeding the local workforce however.

- Bob




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