[Coco] Re: I'm signing off - 6309 Microprocessor Enhancements

[John E. Malmberg]

John Collyer wrote:
> To all my coco friends that I never did meet in person. This is it! I
> finally give up on computers and programming. This includes the internet and
> every thing about computers. It seems The Controllers are winning and I
> can't stand it anymore. Nothing is the same and I will not support the
> shipping of American jobs to low wage Countries like China, Mexico, and
> India.

Actually almost all the computer manufacturing jobs that could be 
economically shipped overseas left at least a decade ago.

Doing or not doing programming computers will not change that.  That 
battle was over a long time ago.

CPUs are still primarily designed in the U.S., Final assembly of major 
computer systems are here.  Operating Systems, primarily U.S. 
Compilers, databases, and such, primarily U.S.

Most software development is still done in the U.S as far as I can tell. 
and I do not see it changing.  What is mainly seems to be moving to 
cheaper areas is maintenance programming.  This is where someone is 
basically making minor changes to a mature product.

<SNIP>
> Real information is getting harder to find on the
> internet, and you really can't trust what you read anymore.

Nothing has changed there for the past decade or more.

>  Not paying for
> my internet connection or buying new hardware and programs is my small way
> of supporting all the people that have lost their jobs to the over paid
> Benedict Arnold CEOs. I for one will never buy another thing that I can live
> without. Life is much more pleasant without these headaches.

I am also restricting buying things.  And yes, quite a few of the CEOs 
are overpaid and out of touch with reality that there has to be employed 
consumers to keep the money flowing in.  The loot and scoot ones want 
the big salaries and perks up front so that if things fail, they don't 
get impacted.

But computers are currently my lively hood, and the internet is one way 
I stay current on them.  I am trying to make sure that I live within means.

I would not throw my allegiance to any of the main political parties for 
more than what I decide to vote for the current election.  I have 
watched them for over 30 years, and have not seen either of them 
consistently deliver on their promises, except when it comes to finding 
more ways to take money out of my pocket.

Most of them will say anything that you want to here to get elected, and 
could easily be replaced with a parrot and no one would notice.  They 
pass laws that sound good, but do not actually accomplish anything.

The ones with integrity and actually get to a leadership are very rare.


And I have worked in a union, and in union shops, and when the union and 
management work together it works well.  And in many cases the union 
keeps management from making stupid decisions, like letting quality slip 
by hiring cheap unskilled employees, or allowing working conditions to 
become unsafe.

But in others, when management is doing dumb things and uses inefficient 
processes that results in more labor or other costs than what should be 
needed to do it, instead of the unions pushing management to fix the 
problem, the union tends to look at the extra people needed as a good 
thing.  And this means that the business is in danger if there is any 
competition in the market.  It becomes a short term victory for the 
union, but eventually if nothing else changes there comes a point where 
the business goes under.

I do not see the government fixing any of the problems regardless of who 
gets elected.  I expect more of the same as what has been going on.

If the Unions want to get strong again, they need to have a much better 
campaign than they do now.  They need to make sure that when a product 
comes out of a union shop, that the quality is the best in class, and 
not at the expense of cost, and the quality has to be there, not just 
said to be there.  But the cost must be met, as too many consumers will 
trade cost for quality, even when they do not realize that they are 
actually paying more.

To offset the jobs lost through efficiencies, the unions need to push 
the management into new products and markets.  But doing something with 
less people is something that for someone in union leadership to do is 
usually political suicide, so I do not expect unions to do this on any 
major scale.

And because of this, the unions are not going to be effective either in 
making a change or a comeback, or stopping job losses from off shoring.


I have seen examples of unions and management working together and 
producing high quality products, but when they are total adversaries, 
then it just seems to become a contest of which side can milk the most 
cash from the company first.  If the company has any effective 
competition, it is only a matter of time before it goes under, and the 
only thing that the government can do to stop such a company going under 
is to grant it an effective monopoly status.

With monopoly or near monopoly status, you can captivate a domestic 
market, but there are few industries that this can be done in, and in 
doing so you can shut your self off to an even larger world market.

I try to be balanced in looking at things, but I know that it is not 
possible always.  I have my ingrained biases.


The "Controllers" have been winning this game as far back as I can find 
recorded history.  Usually their victories only last a few generations 
before they fade out, leaving nothing left but their names on some 
buildings.

I do not have all the answers, if I did, I would not be a working stiff.


And in this area politics, the person with what appears the most 
groundswell of support is some guy names Frost Heaves. His supporters 
have these bright orange signs up everywhere, but none of them seem to 
indicate what he is running for.


-John
wb8tyw at qsl.net
Personal Opinion Only, probably too much personal opinion.