Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
I think it would work for companies to be solely interested in profits if some how the stockholder and managements compensation was based on a long term window (at least 10 years) rather than immediate profits. I don't know how to do that, but the problem now is that we are trading future viability (by destroying our future workforce as well as our future customer base) in exchange for profits today. From the country's long-term perspective that is just stupid. Of course it would be even better if corporations could a principle other than greed as the principle driving force.— January 9, 2011 8:59 a.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
Ponzi said: "What is happening is they are being trained here, to go back and manage over there. As the corporate turncoats like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Cisco, Intel, Motorola, Sun and others build office campuses in India and China, they are training Indians and Chinese here. When they return, they have the language and management culture down to deploy overseas." Ponzi also said: "There are other considerations as well. We are actually doing countries like China and India a disservice by causing a “brain drain” for their economies. If we are taking their best and brightest, how will they develop their economies?" ============================================================== Well, we have now come full circle. If you argue long enough and argue in favor of all sides, then you must be correct somewhere along the line, right?— January 8, 2011 9:21 p.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
Surf Pup, Ponzi is claiming that H1B visas are used to hire workers at a discount rather than using american workers. True or not, his example is a different case. In his example Ponzi's company knew exactly what they were getting with the woman (not much) and weren't trying to save money on this woman at all. It was a package deal to get her husband. I'm not saying it is not fraud, but it is a different kind of fraud that happens with americans as well. Simple nepotism. Sorry, but that is apples and oranges to what we are talking about here.— January 8, 2011 9:05 p.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
"So are Indians and Chinese smarter than Americans? No. It’s just because they have such massive populations that the bright and hardworking are developed in leagues. Americans (misguided by corporate greed) no longer focus on their citizen’s education." ================================= I agree with this 100%. It is interesting that Ponzi now points out the true root of our problem, that we aren't producing the number or quality tech people that we need (SP, are you listening?). That is not the claim he made earlier. This is a very real problem that I wish the government would take seriously and work to reverse. We need to encourage Americans to pursue the hard sciences and then fund the research and technologies to keep them gainfully employed so that it is a desirable career path. Personally I think the sole advantage of the Chinese and Indians is numbers and incentive to rise out of poverty, not any language advantage. The Germans, Russians and Jews as groups all do extremely well in science without speaking chinese or hindi. As to Ponzi's "curry smelling buddies" comment, my foreign co-workers have been English, Australian, Italian, Egyptian, Iranian, Korean, Kazak, so not a lot of curry.— January 8, 2011 8:59 p.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
"You cannot argue with someone who has first hand knowledge." ==================================== And yet you are arguing with me, so obviously your statement is false on its face.— January 8, 2011 8:30 p.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
Don, As I said, there is nothing racist about opposing outsourcing. However, are you really defending Ponzi's reference to my "curry smelling buddies" as appropriate and not the least racist? The term "schmuck" is meant to be a bad insult and was intended as an insult in this case, so I am baffled how you can say it is not insulting. The personal crap aside, Ponzi then just made a piss poor argument. I am not in favor of outsourcing and have never argued in favor of it, yet that is what Ponzi argued against. I don't particularly care bout the juvenile name calling, but I do get annoyed when somebody paraphrases me in a way that is 100% wrong, and then argues against the claim they made up.— January 8, 2011 8:20 p.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
Ponzi, Your issue with the non-JAVA woman sucks for you, but has nothing to do with H1B. The problem you ran across is the same problem faced by companies big and small across this country (and every other country) every day; nepotism The problem of tailoring a job description so that only one pre-selected candidate meets the qualifications is also SOP at companies and government agencies all across the country. It is not exclusive to H1B.— January 8, 2011 9:37 a.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
You are blending a lot of issues. There are not a lot of highly educated technical people sneaking in from Mexico. I really don't know much about H1B in particular, and don't know the status of all my co-workers. Some may have green cards, or have other status. I know one became a citizen (but was then recruited away by Google.) I do know that H1B visas are capped at about 50,000 this year, while there are between 12 and 20 million illegal immigrants (total). Its a different problem. You keep referring to them as the same issue, and throw outsourcing in as well. To recap, I think outsourcing is horrible for the country. I think illegal immigration is bad (but am in favor of a guest worker program with proper documentation, taxes and working conditions). I am in favor of allowing talented people from abroad to come her for school and to work, be it green card, h1b or some other mechanism. It helps with the talent pool. It helps with the culture. I agree that wages should not be undercut so that there is no incentive to hire a foreign worker over an equally qualified native worker.— January 8, 2011 8:49 a.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
"When people like me complain about the illegal immigration and the H-1B scam, we are called “racists.” I prefer to call myself a nationalist and a patriot" =========================================================== No, its not when you complain about illegal immigration and H1B. Its when you refer to people as "curry smelling buddies".— January 8, 2011 8:31 a.m.
Comparatively, Tech Workers Haul in Bucks in San Diego
Ponzi, I actually know the recent EDD well. I hired a nanny to care for my kids from 2 until kindergarten. I am one of (apparently) the few who actually did it above board, hiring a very qualified, college educated english speaker at a real wage rather than giving my kids over to an uneducated, undocumented non-english speaker to save money. I am sure there are abuses of H1-B and I am sure it could be improved, but I would much prefer bringing talented people from around the world to do work here, then to outsource the jobs overseas. If they come here they work and live here, interacting in the community, spending money locally and paying taxes. There should definitely be some sort of wage control so that you can't dramatically undercut the market. I have no problem with that. I am sure Big corporations do lie and bastardize the laws with lobbying. My small firm doesn't have the means or the clout to do that. I am not lying to you when I say even in the economic climate of the last few years it has not been easy to find qualified engineers for what we need.— January 8, 2011 8:24 a.m.