> tech doesn't attract young black men and women because studying math, science, tech, and computers in school isn't cool.

No, because the jobs are all going offshore. And what isn't going offshore is being done by visa workers.

The future for tech jobs in the USA is grim.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/29/Real-Unemployment-Rate-Is-at-Least-18-Percent

Friday, the Labor Department is expected to report the economy added 235,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate remained steady at 6.1 percent, but that hardly tells the story.

The jobless rate may be down from its recession peak of 10 percent, but much of this results from adults, discouraged by the lack of decent job openings, having quit altogether. They are neither employed nor looking for work.

Only about half of the drop in the adult participation rate may be attributed to the Baby Boom generation reaching retirement age. Lacking adequate resources to retire, a larger percentage of adults over 65 are working than before the recession.

Many Americans who would like full time jobs are stuck in part-time positions, because businesses can hire desirable part-time workers to supplement a core of permanent, full-time employees, but at lower wages. And Obamacare’s employer health insurance mandates will not apply to workers on the job less than 30 hours a week.

Since 2000, Congress has enhanced the earned income tax credit and expanded programs that provide direct benefits to low-income workers, including food stamps, Medicaid, Obamacare, and rent and mortgage assistance.

Virtually all phase as family incomes rise, either by securing higher hourly pay or working more hours, and impose an effective marginal tax rate as high as 50 percent. Consequently, these programs discourage work and skills acquisition and encourage single parents and one partner in two adult households not to work. Often, these motivate single people to work only part-time.

Undocumented immigrants face more difficulties accessing these programs, and lax immigration enforcement permits them to openly take jobs that government benefits discourage low-income Americans from accepting.

Employers can, intentionally or unintentionally, abuse the H-1B visa program, which permit businesses to employ foreign workers when qualified Americans are unavailable. Americans may be overlooked because they demand higher wages or are not networked with immigrants that are already employed in technical and managerial positions.

The economy has created only about 6 million new jobs during the Bush-Obama years, whereas the comparable figure during the Reagan-Clinton period was about 40 million. A recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies indicates that virtually all the new jobs created since 2000 went to immigrants, whereas none were created for native-born Americans.

Adding in discouraged adults who say they would begin looking for work if conditions were better, those working part-time but say they want full time work, and the effects of immigration, the unemployment rate becomes about 15 percent—and that is a lower bound estimate.

Many young people are being duped both by unscrupulous for profit, post-secondary institutions—as well as accredited colleges and universities with low admission standards—to enroll in useless programs. They would likely be in the labor force now but for easy access to federally sponsored loans and will end up heavily in debt.

Adding in these students, the real unemployment rate among U.S. citizens and permanent residents is at least 18 percent.

Since 2000, GDP growth has averaged 1.7 per year, whereas during the Reagan-Clinton years, it was 3.4 percent. The reluctance of both Presidents Bush and Obama to confront Chinese protectionism and currency manipulation and open up offshore oil for development have created a huge trade deficit that sends consumer demand, growth, and jobs abroad.

New business regulations, more burdensome than are necessary to accomplish legitimate consumer protection and environmental objectives, exacerbate these problems.

All of this suppresses wages except for the most skilled and talented workers.

No surprise, average family income, adjusted for inflation has fallen from about $55,600 in 2007 to $51,000 even as the gap between families at the bottom and top widens.

Cut out the useless publisher, and the author gets 70%.

Why do you need a publisher to sell an ebook?

Idunno. Maybe a publisher does have some use. But does an ebook publisher deserve a whopping 30% ?

It is a bit of a bother. But, it is not unusual to be able to sell a book for the same, or even more, than you paid for it.

Does MS want "great" people? Seems to me that MS wants people who are cheaper, and easier to push around.

MS just churns out re-hashed products. Nothing that takes any great creative minds.

As a side note. The announcement of the huge Microsoft layoffs come one week after Bill Gates calls for more imported labor.

Break the Immigration Impasse
By SHELDON G. ADELSON, WARREN E. BUFFETT and BILL GATESJULY 10, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/opinion/sheldon-adelson-warren-buffett-and-bill-gates-on-immigration-reform.html?_r=0

So the iron dome gets about 90% of the rockets, and the rest get though. And the missiles used for the iron dome cost nearly 10X as much as the Hamas rockets.

Is the iron dome "working" or not?

Wrong.

Israeli airstrikes are a response to Palestinian aggression. Were it not for the rocket attacks, Israel would not have launched air strikes.

The entire thing started because Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered.

Hamas is committed to the death of all Jews - it's right in the Hamas charter.

Israel may not be perfect, but let's not pretend that the Palestinians are just innocent victims in all this.

Israeli Jews are hardly free loaders.

There be reasons to dislike Israel, but what the Jews that have accomplished there is incredible. Especially whey you consider that they do it all under constant terrorist attacks.