IBM plans second Blue Gene supercomputer

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Point being?

IBM, as does every other publicly held business, operates to create a profit for its shareholders. Higher profits lead to more shareholders. More shareholders mean more capital. More capital means greater resources for R&D, expansion, and more jobs. There are several ways to create a larger profit.
1) Raise your prices. This generally will not work in a competitive environment.
2) Reduce the labor costs. Labor costs generally are the largest slice of the cost pie and the easiest to cut. Unions have driven labor costs to the breaking point. Current programmers, with their poor work ethic, have almost priced themselves out of the market in terms of salary and benefits demands verses productivity.
3) Reduce the costs of materials. Using cheaper materials will cause a decline in the perceived value of the finished product. Revenues will fall, jobs will be lost, and even more jobs will move overseas.
4) Reduce manufacturing costs. This generally involves large outlays of capital (see above).
5) Reduce the costs of packaging, storing, warehousing, delivering, advertising, and so on. These are usually already running pretty lean.

So if IBM (or any other company) can reduce costs with no loss of quality by shipping jobs overseas, it is their right. It is also their responsibility to do so for the shareholders.
Remember the jobs belong to IBM, not you, and certainly not the government. They should be filled by the most qualified worker that the budget can afford.

Posted by: Mr COBOL   Posted on: 02/24/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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