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| Subject: | RE: GISList: New outsourcing laws.... |
| Date: |
02/25/2003 05:17:49 PM |
| From: |
Dimitri Rotow |
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>
> You are right about it not being un-American to outsource. In
> fact it is the
> American way to find new, cheaper, better ways to do things. I
Not only that, but whether we like it or not the US high tech economy is
critically dependent upon outsourcing math, science and much high tech
engineering to foreigners. That's one of the many prices we pay for
destroying math and science education in the US over the last few decades.
I used to work at Intel as a general manager and was surprised to learn that
the 80386 was the last Intel chip designed mainly by Americans. With the
486 already over 60% of the designers were foreigners (Chinese, Indians,
Pakistanis, Israelis, Koreans and Russians). With the "586" [which was
introduced as the "Pentium"] over 90% of the designers were foreigners.
The 486 was the last project managed by an American, Pat Gelsinger, with the
586 being run by Vhan Dam, who I believe is Indian.
Intel now has about 3500 software and design engineers in China, hundreds in
Russia and I don't know how many in India and Israel. I'm less familiar
with other high tech companies, but I think the numbers for the others would
be similar. The most important item in all this is that Intel didn't import
foreigners to build the next generation of chips here in the US or hire them
overseas because they were cheap, they hired them because it was getting
nearly impossible to find Americans with the requisite math and science
skills. I know that for a fact because I was one of the Intel managers who
started the extensive programs doing work abroad. If you look at the
population of grad students in "hard" sciences in any major US technical
university, you'll find that half or more are foreigners. As one MIT
professor once told me about their math department, "Without the Chinese we
would not have a program."
So, if New Jersey and the various other states who joined them can resist
for a moment from trying to legislate "pi" into a nice, round "3.00" value,
perhaps if they wish to be honest they might consider outlawing the
purchasing of any high tech gear that was created using foreigners or that
was foreign made. They could then go back to their main business of taxing
money from working people and redistributing the funds to buy votes, all the
while making their calculations by counting on their fingers and toes, since
it is not likely they could find even an abacus that's made in the US any
more.
I predict that all this will wash over as the politicians get a reality
check as a result of the mammoth deficits they've run up. Once they
discover that such foolish laws constrain their ability to tax and spend as
they see fit they will change the laws. In the meantime, all those of us
who would like to see a good user base for GIS should do our best to
pressure our local school districts to establish serious, drivel-free math
and science curricula beginning in elementary school. The US is dead last
(well, 26th out of 27 places) in "civilized" countries in math education.
In a high-tech world you can't neglect fundamentals like that for many
decades and not expect to see negative consequences as a result.
Cheers,
Dimitri
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