Don't let your babies grow up to be programmers

[Jorge Godoy]

alloydflanagan at comcast.net (A. Lloyd Flanagan) writes:

> I think the real problem is not so much that foreign programmers are
> paid less than US programmers.  Instead I suspect the problem (from
> our point of view) is that their cost of living is so much lower.  If
> I worked for the salary of an Indian programmer I would have no place
> to live, no insurance, and would have a hard time buying food to take
> back to my family living under a bridge.
>
> Meanwhile the Indian programmer is living like a king (more or less).
>
> This issue will impact a lot more professions than programming.  It's
> getting hard to find a function that can't be performed from the other
> side of the world anymore.  What the American economy can do to
> respond to this I have no idea.

Do you really think that the price of the things is really what it is
worth in the US or that it is like that to keep these high salaries? ;-) 

I think that this is a cyclic thing: things are expensive because they
cost more due to salaries and salaries are higher because things cost
more. 

Here we had experience with several *thousands* of percents of inflation
per year (something along the lines of 800% per month, prices went up
every day).  Now things are more stable.  I don't know for how long...
I hope forever :-)

> On the other hand maybe we should all just move to India.  We could
> teach them how to play football (the real kind, not that soccer
> stuff).

You mean the one that has the 'foot' on the name but is played with the
hands? ;-)  It seems to me like there's a contradiction somewhere :-)


Be seeing you,
-- 
Godoy.     <godoy at ieee.org>