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Re: [pygame] wxPython



Tim Ansell wrote:
On Sat, 2006-07-29 at 15:00 -0700, Kamilche wrote:
Hey, offshoring has been the bane of this profession for the last few years. Maybe we should put it to good use and pay some poor guy in a foreign land $100 to recreate it in Pygame, what do you think? :-P

GUI libraries are a huge amount of work, even at an off shore rate it would cost many thousands (if not more) to develop.

--Kamilche

Mithro



Yeah, I know, it was a joke. That subject is interesting to me in general, tho - I've been a computer programmer since before PC's were invented, and have seen lots of things come and go. For a long time now, I've been seeing American companies offshore computer programming and other IT jobs, and using the excuse that there's a 'shortage' of American workers, when in actuality, American programmers all around me are unemployed. Some friends go work on foreign soil to reduce their living expenses, so they can keep their jobs and remain competitive against foreign workers. Most don't go to that extreme measure tho; they just give up looking for work, and eventually switch careers. I've known computer programmers with degrees, become nurses, truck drivers, computer salesman, etc., because too many IT jobs in America have been offshored.


I bring all this up whenever a young person expresses an interest in computer programming. I laugh and state that he will probably be competing for his job against a foreign worker who will work for 10 cents an hour; an exaggeration to make a point, but the gist of which is true. The amount of money they'd have to charge per hour to compete is so low, they wouldn't even make enough to feed their family, much less pay rent - they'd likely have to keep living in their mom's basement. I tell them 'If you don't have a severe love of programming, you should enter a different field, because this one is getting harder to find a job in.'

I remember when the main problem in the computer programming field, was most employers expected you to work too many hours for your pay. They'd hire you for 8 hours, but want 12 or 14 hour days out of you for that amount.

If you're interested in the topic, I can recommend http://www.washtech.org/reports/AmericasHighTechBust/AmericasHighTechBust.pdf , and that whole site in general. There's an interesting bit in that report, where chart the numbers of tech jobs in several large cities over several years, and you can see those numbers plummet over the years, in some cities by as much as 40%. If the jobs had stayed here, those numbers would be increasing, not decreasing.

--Kamilche