[PLUG] Re: Jobs to Canada

[Phil Tomson]

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, Russ Johnson wrote:

> Phil Tomson wrote:
> 
> > Yeah, those job are going or already gone, but I'm not too worried about 
> > them -they're not really very good paying jobs.
> 
> What do you mean? I was making $38k per year when I worked for Symantec, 
> as a tech support engineer. $38k is a respectable income.

OK, that's about $10K more than I figured tech support folks were 
making...  

But let's look at it from a different angle:
I'm sure you'll agree that tech support call centers do very little to add 
to the 'state of the art' of the industry.  It's the innovation jobs that 
I'm more worried about.  Not only because they pay more, but because if we 
lose those jobs here then the 'tech center of gravity' will have moved 
elsewhere.  Right now the 'tech center of gravity' is still in the US,  
but as we lose the design jobs (software/hardware) it starts moving elsewhere 
and it becomes a feedback loop: as more innovation jobs are lost it speeds 
up the process of tech job loss.  Why?  One reason would be that the 
education infrastructure would adjust - who right now would recommend that 
a highschool student get a CS degree?  It's getting to the point where I 
would dissuade highschool students from getting engineering degrees at 
all unless that's what they _really_ wanted to do.  So our colleges and 
universities move away from CS & engineering as 
a focus and more to Marketing, Law, Dentistry, etc.  And from there the 
Highschools adjust as well... and you can see that the longer that this 
goes on, the worse it would get.

> 
> > create jobs.  Sure it will create something like 15 really good paying 
> > jobs for players (that's if they manage to get a team) who really have no 
> > connection to the area and then it 
> 
> What, pray tell, is a "good paying job" to you? $1million+ per year?

That's a _really_ good paying job ;-)

> 
> > will create another couple of hundred minimum wage jobs.  Of course it 
> > will also create construction jobs initially, but in the lone run it's 
> > minimum wage jobs.
> 
> Yes, it will create some minimum wage jobs, but it will also create some 
> jobs, besides players, that make significantly more than minimum wage. 
> Have you seen what it takes in terms of jobs to support those 15 players?
> 
> The estimates are around 100 to 250 jobs just in the stadium, then 
> there's additional business for surrounding businesses. Those truck 
> drivers that deliver beer to 150+ home games per year don't make minimum 
> wage.
> 

Perhaps, but what are the opportunity costs?  What other things could have 
been done with that money?  The imperical evidence for sports stadiums 
improving local economies is pretty spotty.  I really don't think the 
government should be in that business - but now we're going way off topic.

Phil