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MSN has got to be one of the most despicable organizations on the web, next to the infamously "fair and balanced" FOX News. I don't use Internet Explorer very often these days, but when I do, to see how it renders my web sites mostly, it opens up to msn.com. And somehow, they always seem to present me with eye-catching headlines on top of the screen. These "top stories" are never important news events, but rather they are human-interest, self-help type garbage, or editorials on current events. So I click, just to see what they have to say. Without exception, I become outraged at what I am reading. For example: a few days back, the top headline read something like, "Despite the slumping IT job market, Tech is still the fastest growing industry in the U.S."

Oh! Wait. What??

But the jobs that used to pay $75K and up are now being offered at minimum wage. I know firsthand, because I have had a few offers that amounted to $7.25 per hour. Jobs that require engineering skills, 5 years of hands-on experience and a secondary education.

So, the "article" goes on to say that some reputable-sounding non-profit organization performed a study and found that every single one of the top ten growth industry jobs are all in InfoTech. Funny thing though -- about halfway down the page I notice (or more accurately I am hammered over the head by) a giant intrusive "rich media" advert telling me to enroll in IT classes at some fly-by-night online trade school. Where's that CLOSE button?

And about a split second later I put two and two together. This "article" and this ad are one and the same. The "article" is an invention, made to go with the trade school advertisement.

Today they are regurgitating the same tired, pro-free trade "offshoring is good for you" pablum. The savings gained by offshore outsourcing means more profits and higher productivity for US Corporations, which in turn means more jobs here in the States. So says the ITAA, the Information Technology Association of America. The same group who lobbied for the L1 and H1-B work visa programs, which allow companies to hire foreign workers (at a low wage of course) for a usually indeterminate duration, as contractors, with no benefits. This began in the middle of the IT boom of the late 90s, when even a "no-talent assclown" (in the words of Michael Bolton in the movie Office Space) could hold down a six figure job in IT. Companies had money fairly dripping from their noses, and could and did hire all the IT workers they wanted. The argument for the visas was that there was a shortage of IT talent in this country, which is obviously a gross misstatement, seeing as how there is now a glut of unemployed IT people in the US.

As I read this "article", I find two conspicuous ads. One for home equity loans, presumably for the unemployed IT workers reading the story to get some cash to pay off their overdue bills, and another for H&R Block, advertising their electronic tax filing services. Guess who files your returns for H&R block? I would bet it's someone in Bangalore, India, fresh out of college, for $1.75/hr. I can bet the company is saving quite a bit there. But I don't recall seeing any job openings at H&R Block.

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