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“Headhunter” explains why USA high-tech industry is declining
The United States has lost 28% of its jobs in high tech since its peak in 2000, claims a study released recently by the National Science Board. This means 687,000 positions have been lost. Why has this happened?
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Posted by Cybernoetic Man on 02/20 at 08:27 PM
Here I am. On the other side of world, in China. Forget about all our explanations that we are interested in Eastern cultures or whatnot, fundamentally, the reason why I am living in China is because cost of living is so low! In the US, I pay a third of my salary just for the rent. You get burnt out after a while.
But I have to admit the real reason why I’m living in China despite my fondness of Bay Area culture depends on the technological condition. Internet provides me with abundance of knowledge and information. I would never sacrifice that if it had been in early 1990s, the Bay Area with its fusion of high tech and hippie culture is the equivalence of heaven on earth. But now, the entire library of human knowledge is in the palm of my hands whenever I go, even on the otherside of the planet. China’s low cost of living, ironically, provides me material abundance given my financial circumstance.
After all, what can you possibly ask from life other than abundance? Material Abundance + knowledge Abundance, only then will we move up the hierarchy of needs toward self actualization and transcendence.
I think Both the headhunter(as employer) and I (as freelancer ) are all sorta living the Friedman’s Flat world story (despite multiple possible objections). This is the story of fiber optics wiring up the massive human tech abundance in the developing world. It’s exciting!
Posted by hankpellissier on 02/21 at 02:31 PM
My brother - who is CEO of a tech company in Silicon Valley - asked me to post his comments. Here they are:
“Good article. Sad but true. I agree with Anonymous Headhunter. When we needed to hire some key design engineers about a year ago, we tried hiring Americans. We interviewed about a half dozen people, but they all wanted way too much $$ and their skill levels did not seem to be where we needed them to be. So, instead, we ended up hiring 2 Russian engineers as temps, and also joined up with an Indian design company, where we have 4 or 5 more engineers working in India on our project. This is working well for us, despite the language and distances.
I am strongly for buying and hiring American. But, if you really can’t find what you need, it is not possible to stick with that philosophy. We have to get things done. The temp engineers I was considering for the project, who did not seem really all that capable to us, wanted anywhere from $110 to $150/hour. The Russians are on site and charging us $65 and $75/hour. They are very dedicated and workaholics. The Indians charge us $35/hour, and are excellent engineers.”
Posted by futurist_2035 on 02/21 at 03:08 PM
It’s not surprising to me that it’s difficult to convince experts to emigrate to China. Cybernoetic Man asked what anyone could possibly ask for beyond material abundance and information? I assume he has some way around the Great Firewall, but what about the constant state suppression of information? Chinese authorities recently bulldozered over a train wreck to hide the evidence. What about freedom? Is he really comfortable living in a police state? What about rudimentary consumer and environmental protections?
It might be unfortunate that the US is falling behind in technology, but it seems to me that many Asian countries lack the foundational frameworks necessary for building really dynamic economies. Where is the rule of law or transparency? Also, I wonder why so many Asians need to come here to succeed. Is a free and open society necessary to allow creativity to bloom and people to realize their potential? Culture matters. To me, the lamentable things happening in the US are the erosion of the rule of law, transparency, and personal freedoms. These are our what really make us great. Who cares if American kids don’t care about engineering. Let the people who do care come here and do it.
Posted by CygnusX1 on 02/21 at 05:18 PM
What appears to be an ethnic disparity may be confounding the underlying issues, and it would be good to understand why IT careers are being rejected by some and favoured by others?
1. Is it because Asia as a whole sees opportunity for technological progress and future economic success?
2. Is it because individuals seek opportunity and success, and work just that little bit harder, seize the day, to pursue a better quality of life?
3. Is the disparity encouraged by big Corps like Apple and IBM?
4. Is there social stigma that is attached to geeks and nerds as opposed to jocks?
5. Are business executive and managerial careers favoured more highly than IT and technical posts by some groups?
6. Are some individuals/groups more willing to put in extra hours to solve difficult technical problems outside of the office?
7. Does it help if your culture rejects intoxication, socialising, in favour of more sober enterprise?
It may be none of these, or may comprise all to varying degrees?
Posted by CygnusX1 on 02/21 at 05:32 PM
Is the US really falling behind in technology? Is Europe?
Does America really have a shortage of IT and technical nerds?
When was the last time you upgraded to an Indian or Chinese computer operating system?
How is the best way to find out who chooses which career path at college/Uni and why?
How can we reverse disparity? Should we attempt to reverse disparity?
Questions.. Questions?
Posted by Cybernoetic Man on 02/22 at 01:49 PM
@futurist
Yes. I do have ways around GWF. Obviously my standards of living is higher than the average Chinese urbanites. But living in the Bay Area is very expensive, It’s just personal financial situation. If I had the money, of course I would live in the States. I don’t like the police state, but so far it has no personally intruded on my privacy. Besides, it’s not as awful as the media reports.
I was just raising a point about hyper-connected world made available by internet. The Friedman flatworld story, you know. I don’t have to be in the Bay Area to access the most cutting-edge knowledge in culture, philosophy, and tech now. Heaven on earth used to be there, but now I carry it with me wherever I go.
Posted by Cybernoetic Man on 02/22 at 02:01 PM
but the overall big picture is just the demographics. You can’t get every US college graduates to be mid-level engineers when China and India graduate more tech students than there are students in US. There’s no natural law that says SV has to be the ground zero of tech breakthroughs.
Overall, it’s a good thing to get distributed tech innovation. The only question is if you can attract the talents worldwide? Can you always be an accelerating brain-gaining country?
Different countries have different purchasing power the same dollar brings. the US still leads in the most cutting-edge, but sometimes the numbers, both financial and demographic, are tipping to the other side of pacific.
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