Posted On: Wednesday - February 6th 2019 7:46PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Internets Artificial Stupidity Big-Biz Stupidity
... checking one typo-fix took 15 minutes,
we got REAL output on REAL (green & white) paper,
AND WE LIKED IT!
That's a meme - memes are not always images with or without bad-ass frogs. From 3 minutes of reading, it seems the point of this phrase is to parody people, especially in the Lyin' Press, that have been on the immigration-invasion, population-replacement, middle-class destroying bandwagon, with their own jobs safe for the moment, well previously. They exhorted those hard-working Americans formerly in manufacturing and other areas in which huge numbers of jobs have been lost to just simply "learn to code". I don't like the term "code" to begin with, but "coders" themselves use it, so, whatever.
As a quick digression into this, Peak Stupidity has bad-mouthed the "geeks" before and rightfully much of the Artificial Stupidity that many of them create. On the latter, a job is a job, and not everyone can work on a project that's really a good thing for everyone and/or saves mankind. As far as the field of computer science/programming, we have emphasized that computer programming IS NOT engineering, and we really need to crank out that post about it. However, that is not at all the same as saying that there are not very difficult fields involving software development. It's a different kind of thinking than engineering, but can be quite challenging. Kudos to the geeks, then ... those remaining.
That brings us back to the point - yeah, we're told that all those working men whose jobs have been outsourced can just simply program computers for a living. Not all are of the mindset to be able to, but I don't know if that's the main reason for this parody meme. As John Derbyshire wrote on VDare the other day, employment for Americans in this field has been shrinking drastically.
I can look back myself to a time ~ 15 years ago, when there jobs abounded, even for those with no college degree. The fact is, as mentioned in Human Resources - scourge of the Big-Biz world (Part 2 and Part 3), the basics of programming just requires smarts, particularly orderly, logical thinking, and any of the small pieces (new languages, databases, programming environments, etc) can be learned on the job, at night, or over a weekend. (Of course, it takes much longer to have real expertise and be faster at it, but one can get a job done.)
At that time, even though the internet 1.0 bubble had burst, young people could find computer jobs easily. Sure, people realized that a company that built a database-backed website to sell toothpaste on-line was not worth that $500 million capitalization, along with thousands of others. Times were not as heady in that "space". Still, things were being steadily in so many areas of endeavor with advanced software, and worthwhile uses of the world-wide-web were still being developed. I knew a guy at work who told me he was moving to Dallas (a ways across the country from our worksite). "Oh, you got a job there?" "Nah, I got a good friend that lives there ... I'll find a job no problem... maybe I'll hang out a week or two first though." That's how it was, readers! Nowadays, it's about like a 1975 graduate in Art History - better go hit the pavement.
The Immigration Stupidity topic key that we have well over 100 posts on is indeed the major factor in the big destruction of these jobs over this short period. The H-1B work Visa program is nothing but a system of indentured servitude, very much like that of 1700's America for white people. The only difference is the type of work being done. It lowers wages and reduces the job market for a family-supporting American, who could have been all set back in 2005. At the same time, much of the work itself has been outsourced to India, where, out of a billion people, you're gonna find some half-way (OK, 1/4 way decent programmers) to work for 1/2 to 1/4 of the money. One final, possibly smaller factor has been the automation of the software programming and development itself, a job that the smart ones do.
"Learn to Code.". Yeah, well see, that's the ironic thing: Mr. Derbyshire's article refers to the layoffs of programmers at some of the ctrl-left big web-sites. These are the sites that would tell people not to worry about the big changes in the American economy, just learn to code. Upon reading his article, I was amazed at how many programmers you would need to begin with to make a 15% cut at BuzzFeed anything to care about. I'd have thought they'd have 3 or 4, making a 15% cut kinda hard to arrange. There must be many more than that, with 15% out on the streets. What's next for them? I GOT IT! LEARN TO MEME! Yeah, that's the ticket for our new China-beating economy. We can all meme each other, in between all-hands meetings with the super-duper young entrepreneur who is arranging the IPO, and free M&Ms on Wednesdays!
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