Elon Musk is "African-American". Doe he count?

If we're going to force "diversity" why not have the stats represent the output statistics of U.S. computer science graduates and the likes? Simply forcing a "color count" and a "gender count" makes no sense when a job actually needs to be accomplished. Otherwise, we get folks hired for window dressing that have no ability to perform the needed tasks.

The term "African American" is a joke. It refers to a geography not a race. I guess Elon Musk is "African American" because he came from South Africa and immigrated eventually to the U.S.

I wholeheartedly agree. I haven't watched commercial TV in about 30 years or more. When I go to womble nzb matrix and look at what's playing, the titles are so inane that I have no regrets. Pure garbage.

Three of my son's principals stopped being principals and went to "assistant superintendent" jobs at the school board. Higher pay, lower responsibilities. My sister and two of her kids are teachers. There's plenty of money in the school district but there isn't enough flexibility with state mandated laws/budgets to funnel the money where it is actually needed. Too much of "we can't use the money for that purpose because it has to be used for (fill in the blank). They can't even provide basic supplies like copy paper, pencils and classroom supplies because of inflexibility of the budgets for various reasons. My son's school is the same. They want the parents to come in on weekends and maintain the school grounds. Shit! They have union groundskeepers and they can't maintain the school. Then I went to my old elementary school to see weeds growing up in cracks of the pavement. It was NEVER that way when I attended. It was impeccably maintained. Yet, the school has obtained a magnitude of funding increases. Every time I see the school trying to shake me down for basic supplies and programs, I look at their requests with disdain. Now, we even get "suggested donation" sheets (Mount Diablo Unified School District) and If I were do donate what they suggest, it'd be nearly $800! What is this crap? The school district has some of the most-expensive homes in the county yet they can't manage their money! No thanks. The problem is a management and a government regulatory problem. Not a funding problem.

I've seen a few CEOs whose positions would have resulted in a better outcome if they were initially replaced by blow up dolls. Take Carly Fiornia, Mark Hurd and Leo Apotheker (and add to that, Whitman) for example. These cretins have been destructive, not constructive employees. Sometimes, doing nothing is better than "doing destruction".

The true test regarding whether or a job should exist is to ask "would the customer be willing to pay for the position in the cost of the product?"

I have to agree with you. I bought a Sony BR player and it wouldn't play the BR discs I purchased. Needed an upgrade of firmware. I tried to do that and the process repeatedly failed. I called Sony and they said "it won't update properly via WiFi, use a cable. I ran a LAN cable 50 feet to my router. Same error. Returned the deck. I tried to play BR on my PC. More DRM crap. I'm not buying Blu Ray discs anymore. They are a pain in the ass to play (or "attempt to play").

There is a lot of variability throughout the years with Sony VHS players. Back in the early '90s, the quality was very good (and I paid 700 dollars for a VHS/HiFi deck). Later, when they started outsourcing to China, their quality went to crap (early 2000 vintage). I own both decks FWIW.

Using an Android tablet right now. Listening to my favorite radio station over internet sitting in a chair under a shade tree. I don't have to worry about stuff falling is a keyboard but typing on a piece of glass is awful and inefficient.

Things could be worse. You could be me. Rural area with only option satellite internet with a 10 GB cap.

Dang! You did it again! Incorrect assumption. Have you ever thought that I was well-paid? If you look up my other post regarding technical workers being paid over 100K, you'll notice I was in that bunch. New hires were paid about 40% less than I. Come on now! Stop making such uninformed comments. Stop jumping to conclusions. You don't know what you're talking about.

I've been in engineering all of my career. I stayed in the same company (a good one I'll add) for my 35 year career. I only moved when I wanted to move. I worked in the Bay Area and later Colorado and moved (my choice) back to California. I spent most of my career outside of the Bay Area FWIW. As I mentioned, my niece was laid off 3 times in her 5 year teaching career (and reinstated each time). I am not "sadly misinformed".

I tried to talk my niece in to going in to engineering. She was a pretty bright person. One semester after taking chemistry (not engineering) and she commented "it's really hard, the math is too difficult for me". What did she end up doing? She got a teaching credential and is now teaching algebra. I'm disappointed. She (frankly) took the easy way out and is making about half what an engineer could have made. She's been "laid off" three times with various government cutbacks in California. If she just stuck with it (and she could have) she'd have a good job.

I just retired recently. EE degree with a "big computer company" and had no problem making the proverbial "six figures" in California (peaked out at about 130K). Fortunately, I moved out of the Bay Area a bit East to lower cost of living. Housing costs dropped to about one third. Better living environment too. It can be done with perseverance and without going in to "management" if one has good technical skills. In my case, I just love technology but it doesn't run my life. It is fun though :-) It started out a "hobby" and later became the "big thing" of the future. I was lucky my fun became my profession. Now I get to play again on my own time. Life is good.