G.B.S.

[Plane]

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt
the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.
—George Bernard Shaw

[Michael Tee]

<<Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.>>

George Bernard Shaw was also the man who thought "fish" should be spelled g-h-o-t-i.

[The_Professor]

Well, MT, he is pretty bright as can be seen here:

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. "

[Michael Tee]

I was just kidding, Professor.  Do you know why GBS thought "fish" should be spelled "ghoti?"

gh pronounced as in "rough," or "tough" = "F"
o pronounced as in "women"                 = "I"
ti pronounced as in "station"                  = "SH"

GHOTI is the phonetic reproduction of the word "fish" accounting for the peculiarities of English spelling.

He WAS a pretty bright guy, alright.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Shaw's example was about the irrationalities of English spelling. The problem is, of course, that the English language has many more distinguishable sounds (39 to 45 in standard pronounciation typre) than letters (26) to express them.

Shaw offered a prize of £50,000 to anyone who would devise a phonetic alphabet for the English language. The prize, plus a whole lot of interest, was paid to someone in the 1950's. The new alphabet does not resemble the Latin alphabet at all, and has never been adopted.

Shaw was a Socialist, by the way.

[The_Professor]

It's okay, no one is perfect, XO.

[Xavier_Onassis]

It's okay, no one is perfect, XO.

=============================
This is a malicious lie spread by Christians, who want their guy to always come in first.

But Jesus wasn't exactly perfect. He required a LOT of help by Paul to even become known, and after 2000 years, he still has a lower degree of Brand Awareness than Coca-Cola, which has been around for under 200 years.

Coca-Cola's promise of a "Pause that Refreshes" has also proven to be more accurate than Jesus' promise to return 'before the last of ye have left this world' and establish a perfect world.

One would expect a greater degree of perfection from a Deity than from a patent medicine turned soft drink.

I sunbmit that Karl Marx was dead-on in his diagnoses of what is wrong with capitalism, as manufacturing races ever closer to the bottom. He just wasn't right about the solution. And neither are any of the assorted ratwingers.

[Plane]

"I sunbmit that Karl Marx was dead-on in his diagnoses of what is wrong with capitalism, as manufacturing races ever closer to the bottom. He just wasn't right about the solution. And neither are any of the assorted ratwingers."




Yes ,look how dismally manufactureing has raced twards the bottom constantly ever since he said so.

Hehehehehe


What was the advradge European or American Wage in Karls day?

[Xavier_Onassis]

What was the advradge European or American Wage in Karls day?

Your spelling is ever so quaint. average spelled advradge, indeed.

My guess is that the average wage in 1879 in the US and Europe wouild buy just about what the average manufacturing wage will buy in China at present.

If wages are higher in other places, it is not because of the glorious magniminity of the boss, but the development of  tools that make the individual many times more productive.

That, and the fact that todays's worker needs to be a lot better educated than in the 1870's to use the new tools anmd machinery. The history of unions in raising wages also figures in here.

But my point is that there is a race to the bottom for ever-lower wages and ever-higher productivity, that crosses international boundaries ever seeking the lowest wages.   

[The_Professor]

"But my point is that there is a race to the bottom for ever-lower wages and ever-higher productivity, that crosses international boundaries ever seeking the lowest wages.  "

I do not disagree, but, from the typical American's viewpoint, what is a suitable solution for THEM?

This has happened in IT. Many US-based IT jobs are now in India and other less expensive foreign locations. So, the US employee goes to the soup line or ends up taking a less-paying job here. Won't this reverberate throughout the economy negatively?

[Amianthus]

Your spelling is ever so quaint. average spelled advradge, indeed.

My guess is that the average wage in 1879 in the US and Europe wouild buy just about what the average manufacturing wage will buy in China at present.

If wages are higher in other places, it is not because of the glorious magniminity of the boss, but the development of  tools that make the individual many times more productive.

That, and the fact that todays's worker needs to be a lot better educated than in the 1870's to use the new tools anmd machinery. The history of unions in raising wages also figures in here.

But my point is that there is a race to the bottom for ever-lower wages and ever-higher productivity, that crosses international boundaries ever seeking the lowest wages.   

Your spelling is also very quaint. Spelling would as "wouild", magnanimity as "magniminity", and as "anmd".

If you're gonna complain about other's spelling errors, perhaps you should use the spelling checker yourself. Especially on the post in which you make the comment about the others' spelling.

[Plane]

"But my point is that there is a race to the bottom for ever-lower wages and ever-higher productivity, that crosses international boundaries ever seeking the lowest wages.  "

I do not disagreee, but, from the typical American's viewpoint, what is a suitable solution for THEM?

This has happened in IT. Many US-based IT jobs are now in India and other less expensive foreign locations. So, the US employee goes to the soup line or ends up taking a less-paying job here. Won't this reverberate throughout the economy negatively?

What have the people who used to be IT professionals in the middle ninetys moved on to?

I know exactly four people who would fit this description and one of them is you.

[The_Professor]

Well, IT didn't fall apart until I went into teaching full-time. I now have tenure, so, like you, I have some job security anyway...

IT is now coming back, as is evidenced by our slow rise in enrollments. We had a steep rise but have held steady for the past two years.

As far as others...

According to what I have read (and a few friends...sigh), it mainly affected those who had not been as willing to keep up technologically. As you know, the path of least resistance and all that means it is easy to rest on your laurels, and in this case, not bothered to learn the new stuff like php, Java, etc. The ones who retrained themselves have come out okay, the others took semi-IT jobs in sales, administration, etc. A few went and started their own non-IT businesses. This is well-documented on the Net and in newspapers.

It is not as devastating as the MSM would make it, but it does present a point that one always needs to keep up with the technology.

[Plane]

There is no way to prevent the rest of the world from catching up to us in standard of living and level of tecnology without committing some outragiously large crime.


The solution is to continue to develop and keep mooveing on just as you have done.

After we have developed something and the patent period is over , we can teach that thing to all comers and develop something new to replace it.


Pretty soon nano tech will flood our lives with new devices that none of us can live without , Carbon Nanotubes will allow new electronic devices to be developoed and new materials of amazeing strength and weight , nano machineing will allow analog elements of computeing to operate at better than digital speed .

The wave is rolling and we are still on the surfboard , we can ride the wave as it grows and not worry that the wave is too small to carry more surfers.