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Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
It's also worth pointing out that one of Boeing's engineers (no doubt a grossly underpaid engineer by Boeing CEO compensation standards) pointed out exactly the outsourcing dangers that the company eventually ran into. But his "prescient warnings" were ignored by the Corporate bankers. "Hart-Smith, who had worked for Douglas Aircraft and joined Boeing when it merged in 1997 with McDonnell Douglas, was one of the elite engineers designated within the company as Senior Technical Fellows. His paper was a biting critique of excessive outsourcing, a warning to Boeing not to go down the path that had led Douglas Aircraft to virtual obsolescence by the mid-1990s. The paper laid out the extreme risks of outsourcing core technology and predicted it would bring massive additional costs and require Boeing to buy out partners who could not perform. Albaugh said in the interview that he read the paper six or seven years ago, and conceded that it had "a lot of good points" and was "pretty prescient."— March 28, 2011 6:30 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
The term gross incompetence comes to mind...— March 28, 2011 4:48 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Yes! The union busting that happened in Wisconsin and the other mid-western states is completely interrelated to what is driving companies to reduce skilled wages through immigration. Basically the only possible threats to the Wall Street juggernaut are the Federal Government and the Unions. So if they bust the Fed through deregulation and also bust the Unions, they will have the rest of us just where they want us - Competing for all of the "good" jobs at Wal-Mart. Who would have thought that the end of the Cold War and the East/West propaganda mills would have given way to the rise of The Global Robber Barons and the domestic propaganda programs (also known as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal) that are used to further the corporate agenda. The Tea Party, for all of their well intended activism, seem to be the most duped, if not completely brainwashed. Here is a case in point from an article today. "In southeast Florida last week, first-term GOP Rep. Allen West, a tea party favorite, called for changes that some might consider radical: abolish the Internal Revenue Service and federal income tax; retain tax cuts for billionaires so they won't shut down their charities; stop extending unemployment benefits that "reward bad behavior" by discouraging people from seeking new jobs." (. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/… .) We all know that the system can't possibly work properly unless the billionaires can keep their tax cuts. Because as we all know, we are heavily dependent on their charity and good will. Also never mind the fact that it was the GOP and Bush administration that got us into the entitlement mess in the first place through the unfunded expansion of the medicare and medicaid programs. Meanwhile, the Social Security system that the GOP wants abolished has been relatively well funded for years and would be completely funded if we extended the Social Security tax to those making over $106K per year...— March 28, 2011 4:46 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
"One bracing lesson that Albaugh was unusually candid about: the 787's global outsourcing strategy — specifically intended to slash Boeing's costs — backfired completely. "We spent a lot more money in trying to recover than we ever would have spent if we'd tried to keep the key technologies closer to home," Albaugh told his large audience of students and faculty. Boeing was forced to compensate, support or buy out the partners it brought in to share the cost of the new jet's development, and now bears the brunt of additional costs due to the delays. Some Wall Street analysts estimate those added costs at between $12 billion and $18 billion, on top of the $5 billion Boeing originally planned to invest. (. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sundaybuzz/… .)— March 28, 2011 4:02 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
I didn't know about the Delaware law. If I were a worker at Boeing and a shareholder, I would be all over that. Why Boeing? Because in the interview that I posted in the comments above, their exec said that their outsourcing zeal cost their shareholders about $10B to $15B on what should have cost $5B (if the company didn't outsource). Even in the short-term, outsourcing doesn't necessarily pay.— March 28, 2011 12:14 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Does the inherent inequities in the H-1B Visa program lead to the displacement, if not discrimination of American workers? According to the testimony of Dan Sullivan, Qualcomm's SVP HR in 1998, "legal immigrants make up only 5.5% of QUALCOMM's workforce". (. http://judiciary.house.gov/legacy/6097.htm .) 10 years later we have the interiew in Wired.com, where the CEO of Qualcomm states that the companies workforce is 60% foreign born. An increase from 5.5% to 60% in only 10 years..... The 60% number was from 3 years ago and it makes one wonder what the current pecentage is and what the next 10 years will bring.— March 28, 2011 11:16 a.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Thanks, I'll give it a read. Talk about a disastrous situation for this country. America loses jobs, employee tax base and corporate tax base all while corporations reap massive benefits, which they in turn use to influence government figures and dupe the public, so that they can game the system even more.— March 27, 2011 1:19 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Retain by definition does not mean indentured servitude. But the statement that they are utilizing the H-1B program to RETAIN workers, implies that there is some inherent retention benefit provided by the H-1B program, correct? If so, then name a retention benefit that is provided by the H-1B program other than the indentured servitude duration required to obtain a green card?— March 27, 2011 1:15 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Here is another article that came out today that shows just how screwed up the system has become. (. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-p… .) As the story describes, companies are incentivized to eliminate American jobs by outsourcing work overseas so that they can claim less or no income tax. Also described in the article, GE had income of $14B and paid no US Federal Taxes. The final clincher though, the CEO of GE is also Obama's "point man on jobs and economic growth".— March 27, 2011 12:22 p.m.
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Coming back to the indentured servitude issue that we've discussed. Did anyone pick up on this from Qualcomm's own abbreviated comments to Don? "After several days of cogitation, the company would only say, “Qualcomm utilizes the H-1B program as necessary to recruit and RETAIN the best talent in the world. " "recruit and RETAIN"... Ask yourself this - How can the company "utilize the H-1B program" to "retain" workers if not through the indentured servitude process? Clearly, this is an unintended, but frank admission of the importance of the H1B indentured servitude process to Qualcomm. This shows just as clearly why the Visa creates disincentives for companies to hire Americans and Green Card Holders. Incidentally, this sentence should have been vetted by someone with half a brain in Qualcomm's management. As we know from Qualcomm's H-1B statistics, the vast majority of Visas were used for engineering/IT (probably over 95%). Perhaps the company should give some thought to flooding the HR and Management ranks with imported foreign talent as well. The "musical chairs" competition that the company is intent on creating in engineering, might have proven beneficial in this case, had it been applied to the ranks of management and HR. Indeed, Qualcomm's execution has been questioned by many anaylsts following the purchase of Atheros for $3.1B. WiFi is a pretty well understood technology and Qualcomm's own internal WiFi development stumbled so badly that they were forced to dump it and spend $3.1B to buy a company to supply this expertise. $3.1B could have gone a long way towards nurturing and advancing domestic American STEM fields.— March 27, 2011 11:38 a.m.