While there are a few reasons for not hiring Americans in general, and black Americans in particular -- is racism among them, considering they scour South Asia for candidates?

Sure. Someone could be racist towards a very specific group of people, vs racist in general.

That's a fascinating answer. I wonder if that data from the IRS is shared so that action could be taken? I imagine it isn't made public (imagine the uproar if it was) - so any sort of social pressure on companies for hiring practices wouldn't have data to go on.

No company is so big that it's a significant portion of the economy... at least in America.

- A big company hiring specialists in a field could constitute a significant portion of the market in a given city.

It's not as if it's a good-ole boy's club over at the googleplex.

Source for that statement? What if it turns out it is? Is that "none of the government's business"? Is it up to brave consumers to decide if we care or not, and apply market pressure on google by not buying their products?

If google and facebook could find qualified black (or American employees in general) employees, wouldn't they do that rather than importing people from India/Pakistan/$wherever?

No. That's part of the problem. There are plenty of qualified employees here. When you import people, you get two very nice things from a corporate perspective: 1. Lower cost. 2. More control.

Fear of getting their visa revoked makes these workers easier to bully and manipulate. And they will work for less. That is the reason big tech wants to look overseas, not a lack of talent stateside.

Which brings us back to the original point - if a company is systematically passing over people because they are (black, female, the wrong kind of christian, etc) - it's hard to do anything about it if they never release those stats. For a company as big as google or facebook, that kind of thing could really put a damper in a qualified person's ability to find a job and feed their family. So we need to decide as a society - does that bother us? If not, then business as usual. But if it does, then we need larger companies (at the very least) to report who they hire, so we can try our best to identify potential trouble.

How much did it cost to setup their infrastructure to produce these cars? It seems like it would be a loss if they don't sell any at all. Why wouldn't they raise the price? This sounds like it's more about politics than sound business decisions. That makes me question Sergio Marchionne's ability to run the company effectively.

I live here. $300 won't even get you a shared room unless you are very far from the city. Rent is crazy expensive, even in previously less expensive areas in Brooklyn and Queens. Plus there is little connection between what we pay in rent and the "social safety net", unless you want to stretch the impact of low rent housing on surrounding rents. No wonder the original post was as AC.

What amazes me is that anyone considers it ethical to impose restrictions upon the poor the wealthy do not have to deal with. Want society's support? You better be willing to uproot yourself and move or you are out of luck. Surely we can do better.

"Most humans will be lazy if you let them be." Citation Needed.

"In NYC the average person pays $300 plus a month in rent just to cover the social safety net" - I don't believe you. Source?

We DO have an idea what happened. Read rabtech's insightful comment: http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

Harassment claims are not always he said/she said things - that is a pretty gross generalization. In this case there were plenty of witnesses, as well as admissions (direct and tacit) from the company itself!

If you are letting your religious views drive your politics, you have more in common with the religious right than with liberals. It's very hard to be "further left than the democrats" and not support a woman's right to choose because your personal religion believes it is wrong.

This is *before* those limits were lifted. As a citizen, I'm looking forward to seeing the power of the wealthy further cemented in this country, and so exquisitely draped in the pretense of democracy that my fellow citizens believe themselves empowered. It's gonna get better! (For the wealthy). How exciting for those of us who imagine ourselves upwardly mobile within the American caste system.

Why it's no secret where these traders and shops operate. The place where anything and everything you want is sold! I'm speaking of course about Portobello Road!

What you are citing is *collective* economic pressure. Big difference.

Exactly, it's near impossible. And these companies are lobbying hard to remove options that allow consumers to vote with their wallets. We need more than just individual economic pressure to have any realistic impact on companies this big.

A group owning different devices to the design elite is not a valid reason to neglect their needs.

A group spending less money on your app is a valid reason to prioritize other groups first, or exclusively (depending on the cost of development and potential money on the table).

Hopefully you aren't in charge of people at whatever job you work at, as it would be liable for sexual harassment lawsuits. A spurned love interest deleting your work in the way he did is - alone - serious. A non employee trying to exercise power over employees and intimidating one when it doesn't go as planned is serious. If I worked at a company and the spouse of a higher up pulled that on me, that would feel like a hostile work environment.

If you have a group of female programmers exercising at work, and a bunch of male co-workers lined up to watch them, it reinforces the idea that "you are here to be pretty objects for the men to look at". In combination with everything else, I can see why that would be the straw that broke the camels back.

A spurned colleague taking revenge for being spurned is textbook sexual harassment, actually.