<p>I feel like if some people would stop feeling a sense of entitlement they could maybe stop pitying themselves and start looking for a solution. A lot of people are legitimately getting screwed in this economy but it’s the ones who quit whining and start working for a solution that land on their feet.</p>
<p>Whining won’t sole the problem. Sitting around expecting the government to fix everything won’t solve the problem. Ultimately, the solution will have to come from the people.</p>
<p>^^^Indeed.</p>
<p>You know, it’s not THAT difficult to get appointments to shoot the breeze with your state senate representative. It’s a little more difficult to get a meeting with your House rep, but you can meet with their staff. You can ALWAYS write your senator… I’ve gotten many very intelligent response letters from Kay Bailey Hutchison in the past, with regard to letters I’ve written about concerns.</p>
<p>Find a cause you’re interested in and go out and campaign a little. We just got a proposition passed here in Houston that’ll provide a funding source for pay-as-you-go infrastructure improvements around the city. It’s going to eliminate a lot of the need for future bonds for infrastructural improvement, which is great… Cuts down on the financing costs a TON, and the infrastructure here is doing just terribly. I can guarantee you that it was the footwork of local civil engineers that got this thing passed, simply because we’re working with the infrastructure every day and we actually see how bad it is, and what needs to be done… We believed in the cause (and not for personal financial gain-- any lawyer or car mechanic knows that the most money is to be made when everything’s just left to fall into a shambles of a mess!), we campaigned for it, and it passed.</p>
<p>Start locally. Upgrade your own skills. Get out there, figure out what others have that you don’t, make yourself more marketable. Join Toastmasters. Get involved in your local professional organizations. Learn another software package. Research companies before you apply to work for them, see if they have a history of offshoring their work, and don’t just send your resume into the black abyss of HR. You say, “you need some leaders with vision to go forward”… Well, for the love of Pete, BE THAT LEADER. Don’t just sit around and talk about it.</p>
<p>Government doesn’t solve anything, it just codifies it. Individuals are the ones that effect change. You just have to believe that you can change things and then tirelessly plow into brick walls until you get the change you want. Life’s tough; there are no two ways around it.</p>
<p>I agree that government doesn’t solve anything, but it sure can muck up the works, as we’ve found in Maine. I’m happy that now I will have people in government I can call who may actually listen and care what I think! I haven’t had much luck in that regard before now. It will be interesting, though - a woman on our street was just elected to the Maine House, and she’s a Democrat. I hope I can talk to her, at least!</p>
<p>Well, iff we can work as a team, and not competitor… i.e. ends the political drama already!</p>
<p>ps: I miss Homer. He lights my world.</p>
<p>Competition is healthy. Arguing to an impasse is not. There is a difference. Having a difference of opinion between the two political parties makes the system work. Failing to EVER compromise is what mucks things up. Problems arise when one party has a super-majority and can’t be held in check by the other.</p>
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<p>I don’t understand Roderick, why won’t your kids be able to go to colleges that match their potential?</p>
<p>^we won’t be able to pay for it since I am making significantly less $. So, yes, they can go to community colleges or they can also use loans, I guess. </p>
<p>I am advising my son to follow his skills and heart into hi tech. we need to roll up our sleeves and fight. Try to elect leaders who will fight with us instead of flying to Mumbai after the election.</p>
<p>Engineers are a smart set of people and should be able to dispassionately look at the problem and then try to figure out ways to fix it. This is their temperment. My experience and Homer’s description are statements of problems, not outlier and anecdotal. Engineers should be able to take some rain on the parade. It is a problem in certain IT industries and will - may - only get worse if we are not diligent about correcting it (see mathauburntutors analysis of BLS data in this and-or related threads for a confirmation that certain IT industries are outsourcing alerts). The first thing we have to do is recognize the problem as a problem - as all of us problem solvers know is the first principle of problem resolution.</p>
<p>I asked about college majors, the subject of this thread, and someone brought up Homer’s point of view (again). He is not a lunatic fringe or a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>I didn’t break it, I didn’t buy it, and I sure as hell am not going to stick around to fix it.</p>
<p>I encourage everyone to take the diploma and get a job overseas while the diploma is still reputable. In Romania, until recently only diplomas issued before 1989 were reputable because after the government collapsed, the schools became corrupted. The grass is going brown and there are greener pastures abroad.</p>
<p>someone above said that we (americans) should be inspired to compete with our the overseas entities. Agreed! Let’s do it. But another oddity in all of this is that I recently saw a former work mate who told me that I would nt want to work for what my ex company is now paying (overseas) programmers, $30 / hr . Huh? I sure would work for that. that’s about 60k a yr. But my company and their brethren will not listen to me.</p>
<p>SO now I am in the strange position of trying to compete in my own country with out-of-country folks for ‘american’ employers and not being able to get a chance, a listen to, since the whole status quo and landscape in americanm business IT has changed and is rigged for an off shore/outsource model - aided and abetted by the fed gov’t not providing the proper oversight to enforce its own laws concerning H1b use.</p>
<p>THe fed gov’t is apparently more interested in keeping Mumbai middle class growing than the USA’s middle class as seen in Obama’s photo opps today. What kind of msg is he trying to send to us?</p>
<p>This is MY other <em>individuals’</em> experience and frustration. Maybe we (american IT folks) need to organize ourselves so that we can collectively better compete with the TATAs. This is an example of addressing the problem long term --Stuff that smart kids with open eyes coming out of school might influence.</p>
<p>[Nation</a> & World | High-tech jobs next phase of outsourcing? | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013373970_outsource08.html]Nation”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013373970_outsource08.html)</p>
<p>Sorry for being so naive on this topic (aspiring engineer here) but isn’t the reason we outsource is to get the same work cheaper? I think the problem is the American people. We want and want but don’t want to work very hard for it. At my high school the kids are soooo lazy yet they all have cars and ipods–even the immigrant’s kids who live in government housing have ipods and iphones! We want to consume, it’s our culture. Why do engineers make so much money? Because they do the job the lazy people don’t want to. I am certain that if people were hungry and all they had to do for a better life was get A’s in math classes, we’d see a big change.</p>
<p>I am guessing that the outsourcing to India will eventually stop once they too, get greedy. Their kids will be spoiled and not want to work so hard in school. It will be about stuff not an education. Maybe by then more people in the US will desire to work a little harder and put in more effort for a better quality of life. And India will need to outsource to us! Just MHO.</p>
<p>1st) Homer was a ■■■■■. Whether or not the subject he trilled about was true, he was still a ■■■■■ because of th fact that he di it to tick people off and he didn’t know what he was talking about and wouldn’t listen to people with actual experience (for example when told the issue is nonexistent outside of computer related industries).</p>
<p>2nd) You get more respect because you have been there and aren’t just spending all day googling things you don’t understand to attempt to prove a point.</p>
<p>3rd) I am sorry you lost your job, but that doesn’t mean everyone is doomed. I know a lot of CS/CompE people who are still employed in great positions. Outsourcing happens but it (as of now) isn’t the end of the industry in this country. Do I think it should be a concern? Yes. However, I don’t think it should dissuade people from going into those fields.</p>
<p>The goal is not to dissuade people from entering those professions; the goal is to raise awareness and ensure individuals make informed decisions. The statement “I know a lot of CS/CompE people who are still employed in great positions” is meaningless without proper context; are all these people located in a specific geographical area? Attended the same/similar universities? Had excellent social connections? And what is a “great position” anyways?</p>
<p>Articles, journals, reports, etc. from reputable sources provide objectivity. </p>
<p>What needs to be understood is that, while the US remains the dominant power, other countries are closing in on us. Simply consider the fact that we accept many foreign students, mostly India and China, into our institutions of higher learning. This constitutes a transfer of knwoledge. We also sent a good portion of our manufacturing capacity to other countries, mainly India and China. Is it a coincidence that precisely India and China are generally considered the next big powers? Does anyone honestly think that in a globalized economy, India and China won’t eventually produce the same quality products we “produce”? In some ways, they already do (“made in China/Taiwan/Japan/India”). In time, their engineers will be just as good as our engineers; then the real competition begins.</p>
<p>I am not arguing that because I know a ton of people with jobs that there isn’t a problem. I am simply saying that, contrary to what the Homers of the world advocate, getting into those fields is not a one-way ticket into a professional black hole.</p>
<p>Is not a ticket to professional paradise, either.</p>
<p>NOTHING these days is a free ticket! Engineering is a good field to enter.</p>
<p>I never said it was a ticket to professional paradise. Never implied it, either.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as a free lunch.</p>
<p>As long as the prospective engineer makes thoughtful, well-informed choices, engineering certainly is a good field to enter.</p>
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<p>Okay:</p>
<p>**WHEREAS the community of the College Confidential Engineer Subforum hereby is in agreement that the global market is closing in on the relative American dominance of technical industries; and</p>
<p>WHEREAS we are aware that there is currently an unemployment problem in this nation; and</p>
<p>WHEREAS we are further aware that the engineering and technological community of professionals is not exempt from the aforementioned unemployment problem; and</p>
<p>WHEREAS an engineering degree, though it is not an easy thing to obtain, provides a solid and versatile educational background;**</p>
<p>(Add your PROCLAMATION here, if you have anything to add, but we all seem to understand and agree upon the points listed above. Please avoid anything remotely reminiscent of fearmongering. Productive discourse is the hallmark of a civil and educated society!)</p>
<p>Boneh3ad, I know you did not imply thus yet it was conspicuous by its omission. The main problem with these boards is that engineering is always presented as a path with little to no pitfalls (e.g. MaineLomghorn’s vague statement above).</p>
<p>It would be more beneficial for all if engineering is presented in a more objective manner. </p>
<p>This engineering > other professions meme is old.</p>