[kev374]

Prostitution being illegal is based on a religious aspect which is unacceptable. Whether it is bad or not is a moral issue and personal morality is none of the government’s business as long as both adults are fully consenting and there is no coercion.

Separation of church and state has not fully happened in this country unfortunately.

While I think solicitation on the street should be illegal because the street is a public place I think what two consenting people do in the privacy of their own homes is their constitutional right.

[kev374]

was thinking of spending a week in Yellowstone but when I priced the trip it was coming to $3000 for 2 including hotel/air/rental car, holy cow!!! Can’t even afford to take vacations to domestic destinations anymore…

[kev374]

[quote=flu]For J222 and .NET I’d take it if you can get 110k in L.A. . Because there isn’t much demand for this now.[/quote]

and in your opinion what is the area of high demand now in terms of pay?

[kev374]

people are just way too rich in Southern California, I laugh because they buy half a million dollar homes but then whine about $5 gas…strange!

[kev374]

The Sr. Enterprise Architects I know in the Java EE space are making around $80/hr, nothing more. Sr. developers make around $60-65/hr but I have seen as low as $50/hr. which equates to around $100k/yr with no benefits, so equivalent “with benefits” pay is around $75k/yr. In Southern California that is a pretty low pay for someone with over a decade of experience.

In my view development work is going overseas and/or performed onsite by L1 resources shipped here by companies like Infosys. This is the trend.

Given the skyrocketing cost of obtaining a college degree it would be foolish for anyone to obtain a Computer Science degree with the hopes of getting a development job for any money that will be worth their time.

If a person with over a decade of experience would get $75k/yr a person just out of college would probably be paid $40k/yr, that is the current reality…and that is IF there are entry level jobs in the first place.

[kev374]

[quote=dumbrenter]I pay IT consultants for their services and always thought their rates are too high for what they do. The worst are the IT service companies.[/quote]

What exactly do you mean by “What they do”, IT is a HUGE field, some professionals are worth their weight in gold, others not so much and are indeed overpaid but that can be said for any field. Why do lawyers charge $200/hr to file paperwork? Why do real estate agents make 3-6% per deal, which amounts to tens of thousands, for work that *I* personally think is ridiculously easy. Is driving guests to a house and blabbering about it’s features worth a $15,000 commission? Exactly!

Secondly, IF you think their rates are too high then why aren’t you getting cheaper folks? It’s the open market right? You are not paying these “too high” rates because of your generosity correct?

There is an old adage…you get what you pay for 😉 I know some ignorant people in management think that Software Engineers are nothing but glorified typists and these are the folks that waste millions trying to cut costs by sourcing underqualified and cheap resources resulting in wasted efforts… bottom line, there is NO free lunch! Many learn this the hard way!

[kev374]

I haven’t got a raise since 2007, I work in IT as a Sr. Software Consultant.

Actually the contracts rates have plummeted around 10% since ’07 but somehow I have managed to hold on to what I was making BUT that means in REAL terms my pay has actually fallen 10-20% in the last 4 years.

THANK off shoring and L1 visa abuse for that. The problem is getting worse with IT wages falling and the HUGE influx of cheap L1 labor, the government does nothing about this.

The lucky ones are the full time employees of companies that have managed to avoid layoffs, they have gotten cost of living raises over the years and it’s become so out of wack that at the company I work the total compensation package of full timers now exceeds what consultants make!

[kev374]

$290/rt with taxes/fees still seems like a decent deal for an international roundtrip ticket.

[kev374]

I’ve been reviewing Salary.com data recently for Sr. Software Engineers with Enterprise Java and the salaries seem to have dropped significantly. The median in Los Angeles now has dropped from $115k in 2009 when I checked to $103k a 10.5% drop and closer to 18% inflation adjusted.

A concern is if this is a temporary anomaly due to the economy or if this is a permanent trend due to the huge influx recently of cheap L1 labor from the likes of Infosys and Wipro.

People in existing jobs seem to be fairing well and getting 3% raises based on the wage they got when they were hired which may be much above the current market wage…but if they ever get laid off they would have to take a huge pay cut.

Any comments on this?

[kev374]

Galaxy Nexus… a friend just got it and it’s amazing! I got an iPhone 4S because the Nexus was not out when I got it otherwise I would’ve gone for the Nexus no doubt. The Nexus is so light it makes the iPhone 4 feel like a brick! It’s also full 4G on Verizon unlike the iPhone and Ice Cream Sandwich is sweet!

BTW, CNet rated the Nexus “Outstanding”, it’s the only phone with that rating right now.

[kev374]

Here is the interesting thing… if the price of goods increases (inflation) and the wages do not keep up with it then i’m guessing essential goods will be prioritized by people and there will be severe cutbacks in non-essential goods.

So, in essence demand for non-essential goods will drop like a rock causing deflation in those asset classes…correct?

Now, given that our economy is 70% spending there will be a sharp overall contraction in GDP due to pullbacks. A hike in inflation may be brief and overcome with serious deflationary forces. What do you think?

So, you say the government comes in and dumps money… however, what could the government do? Lending money to the banks isn’t going to change much as banks are unwilling to lend money to people in the first place and if sentiment is low and employment is shaky.. people will not want to borrow in any case. Unless the govermnet throws money from helicopters which is unlikely I don’t see how “printing money” actually would work.

The only other scenario is extreme where the government effectively cancels everyones debt…which seems to be what the government is attempting to do indirectly. Acquire toxic assets through FNM/FRE/FHA and then bail them out. Also let people declare BK on their credit cards and then shore up the balance sheets of the banks…of course that has the exact same problem as above.

The government cannot pursue bailouts without increasing the national debt/deficit… therefore to overcome these deficits somewhere down the road there has to be increase in taxes or austerity measures. These will once again result in a severe recession, unemployment, deflationary forces etc. BACK TO SQUARE ONE except it has only DELAYED THE INEVITABLE 🙂

Comments?

[kev374]

The more I look at what is happening in America I find a striking parallel to Greece… since we don’t want to accept the pain of reality we just create bailouts like these and increase the nations debt and try to extend the fantasy – just like Greece has done for years. We too will have our Greece moment in the near future.

[kev374]

this is an absolutely terrible idea. It gives people who are current on their underwater mortgage the incentive to default so they can be helped unless of course they plan to reduce everyone’s principal regardless of standing LOL!

[kev374]

My Taylor 514ce guitar is made right here in California 🙂 We still make the finest musical instruments in the world…Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Fender to name a few and also Steinway & Sons pianos are rated the world’s best and made in New York.

[kev374]

interesting, I just watched the documentary of this on Netflix.

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