Portland Internet industry (was Re: [PLUG] Names Dropped from the Consultants' List)

[Preston Crawford]

On Tue, 8 Oct 2002, Patrick Beart wrote:

> 	Web Development is DEAD, particularly in Portland. Business
> tends to have lousy Web sites. Too many "young turks" (names
> withheld, to avoid potential lawsuits) and opportunists that "took
> the money and ran" with no thought to proper construction or
> "Information Architecture" on the sites that they butchered.

Who gave them the money? Suits who wanted to get rich. Why did they give
them the money? Because they wanted to get rich. I want to do business. I
want to do meaningful work for a fair wage. Not get rich. So don't blame
"young turks" like me who do web development, because the wealthy were too
consumed with their greed to use good business sense.

> 	Programming is going overseas at a fast clip. U.S.
> programmers are about as "in demand" as stale potato chips. Most
> large-scale programming is going to India, Pakistan, or the former
> Soviet republics.

Should we blame programmers here, or perhaps we can take a look at the
rich that control these companies, that make these decisions? EVERYTHING
is moving overseas. Crappy web developers didn't cause this.  Everything
is moving overseas here the labor laws are minimal or nonexistent. Where
the "elected" officials can be purchased more easily. Where environmental
laws don't exist. Where standards of living are lower and expectations for
wages lower. Not our fault.

> 	I keep wondering what it's going to take to wake these people
> up? ... some kind of high-tech "9/11" experience???
>
> 	:-(
>

Nothing will wake them up, probably. It's all about the bottom line. It
will continue to be from here on out. Not that it wasn't before, by the
hyperspeed greed that took over in the 90s is here to stay. The only time
it will go away is if the average guy wakes up and realizes that it's not
cool that he lost his job to someone being paid slave wages in India,
simply so his company could bump up the stock price a little higher for
the CEO to get a raise from $90million a year to $100million a year. Until
something jars the sheeple from their slumber it will continue. It will
probably take another Great Depression. That will no doubt come eventually
as the economy continues to stagnant under the weight of the income
descrepancies rampant in the economy.

Preston