RE: FrameMaker Gets a Boost (news item in India Times, Nov. 24)

[KMcLauchlan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Stauffer [mailto:JStauffer@BeamReachNetworks.com]
> Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 2:28 PM
> To: 'KMcLauchlan@chrysalis-its.com'; becky@benchmarkpubs.com;
> Framers@FrameUsers.com; framers@omsys.com
> Subject: RE: FrameMaker Gets a Boost (news item in India 
> Times, Nov. 24)
> 
> 
> Ah, yes. The goals of free market, global capitalism... Make 
> a small group
> of stockholders rich by exploiting cheap labor all over the world.

"Stockholder" = somebody who invested in the company.
		  = somebody who took the risk that they 
		    might lose all or part of their investment, 
		    on the chance that the company would 
		    be well-managed and would do well 
		    (thereby increasing in value)
		  = somebody who ensures that your favorite 
		    software still exists

If one isn't one of those stockholders, there'd be a 
reason, wouldn't there?  If one thinks that holders of 
a particular stock are getting rich, all one need to 
do is to buy some of that stock, at which point one 
becomes one of the exploiters who is getting rich.

What's that, one says?  One has no money to buy such 
stock?  One should do as others have done, which is 
to make sacrifices in other areas, if one truly 
believes that the purchase of the stock will make one 
wealthy.

As a stockholder, one can take part in the decision-
making of the company, such as the choosing of the 
folk who will manage it. As a stockholder, with one's 
own money actually at risk, one often becomes ... 
conservative... fiscally careful... unwilling to 
spend a buck for something that's just as good at 
fifty cents...
If one dislikes how the selected managers (execs) do it, 
one can complain about it, or one can start one's own 
company to compete.
If one (along with all those unemployed 'Murrican 
programmers whom one is going to employ) will endeavour 
to make an FM clone for Linux as one's first priority, 
I promise to be one's first customer.

What's that about "exploiting" cheap labor?
Do you suppose the people who are getting jobs 
outside of god's-country are feeling exploited?

If what one does for a living is becoming a commodity 
(just as physical labor became, when many countries 
 industrialized), then one can:

a) move to where the jobs are, since one already 
   has the proven skill-set... after all, the cost 
   of living will also be much lower in the new 
   place, so no material comfort is actually lost

b) develop a niche that still pays top dollar

c) upgrade to a skill-set that has not yet become 
   commoditized, and is therefore still worth a good 
   salary where one currently lives

d) try to get government to raise artificial barriers 
   that keep prices high and availability limited for 
   the majority of consumers, so that one can keep a 
   cushy situation at everybody else's expense.

If my job moves, I'll either follow it, or make a 
new one, or prevail upon my wife to support me... 
that last one probably won't fly well...  :-)

/kevin

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