Agreed. A Moog synthesizer is a musical instrument. For instance, Don Buchla insists that his synthesizers be called musical instruments.

"On average, over-65s earned 26-39% less than all other age groups, including adolescents — a finding that could partially explain their susceptibility to problem gambling and scams."

Might this have something to do with the fact that age discrimination is ripe in the workplace. Try landing a well-paying corporate gig if you are over 60, no matter your skill set. It's nigh impossible. And, with decreasing job opportunities for workers over 60, one can imagine that some significant minority of them become more desperate to the point where they begin to consider irrational alternatives to making ends meet. Of course, this doesn't eliminate the fact that very senior individuals - some with excess money to burn, use that money to fill the ever-increasing, yawning gap of boredom and disconnection in their lives brought on by the social isolation of the elderly in our culture. So, I think this is more of a structural problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqFkRwdFZ0

This is an excellent 30 minute documentary about texting and driving - very moving.

I have been watching this happen in Silicon Valley and other tech regions for years. It's an abomination and it's about time that it stop! I have seen L-1 visa holders from India who are here for "university studies", go to a place like Heald College for six months, come on board as *full-time* employees, with benefits (while professional non-Asian-Indian American IT professionals *with experience* were hired on as contractors). THen, I watched as the full time Americans with rock-solid skills got riffed after training the L-1 visa holder who didn't know jack, and *still* didn't know jack after a long training period.

I have seen these H1-B, L-1 and several other visa holders come to work on the first day and start hugging and chumming around with senior Asian-Indian supervisors who were their *relatives or friends* from back home.

I have watched as Asian Indian supervisors treat their American (and Indian) subordinates like chattel, not to mention looking right through female employees.

I have seen Asian Indian "consulting" groups establish domestic US connections so that their workers can claim "experience with a US company for 1 year", thus enabling the visa holder to emigrate to America.

I have listened to the likes of Bill Gates, John Chambers, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others LIE about the shortage of qualified American IT workers.

I have talked to DOZENS of IT peers who have been out of work for more than a year because every time they aplpy for a position thety are talking to guess who? - an East-Asian-Indian recruiter who can't speak clear English, does not have a clue about what the requirements are for the position, and spouts nonsense from the their doctored RPF's that list skills like "must know C++ and Ruby" for a BASIC QA position. Are you kidding me?

Now, our corporate overlords and these corrupt Indian companies (including the Indian government, whose corrupt officials are on the take from American corporations) want an increase in the H1-B quotas that would double those quotas AND let the spouses of these mostly UNQUALIFIED H1-Bs get an immediate right to work in America (which has not been possible by current rules). Are you kidding me.

The entire Hi-B whine is a SCAM, and a LIE, and a TRAITOROUS double-cross of the American IT worker, and other workers who would LOVE to have the same opportunity as an L-1 worker who doesn't know crap, and still won't know crap after s/he's trained.

Last, outside of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) why don't we hear about the PATHETIC level of instruction and talent that comes out of most of India's other universities, where professors don't even show up, and make their real $$$ arranging private tutorials with students that can afford to pay for private lessons. Why? Because the immoral, corrupt leaches that run the Indian government don't give a rat's ass about their own people, just like the corrupt, immoral leaches in the American government.

And still no senior bankers in jail.

Once you get outside the realm of graduates from the IIT schools, the quality is not very good. Don't believe me? Go ask almost anyone who has worked with an H1-B software engineer when they first arrived? Add to that the incredible inefficiencies and top-down authoritarian environment of most Indian software shops - independent thinking is not even considered.

Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. Bill Gates, John Chambers, Eric Schmidt, and many, many others - including the principals of the most prominent immigration law firms, who profit from this outrage, are lying through their teeth. There is NO shortage of STEM workers in the US!!

The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans **$10TRILLION** dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.

One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley: http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-about-h-1b-visas-could-hurt-us-all/

Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses

Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html

Also, little known is the tactic of creating many different kinds of sub-visa categories to "fool the system". There are almost TWENTY different kinds of work visas. The whole thing is a sham and a lie, designed to drag down wages and keep from having to re-train Americans. Never thought I would see this day!

Add John Chambers (Cisco) and Bill Gates to that list if traitors to the American worker, and Americans in general.

Spoken like someone who is probably either an H-1B visa holder, or someone who has hired H-1B's to drive down wages at her company.

@stenvar, who says: "So, Matloff is right to the degree that H-1B visas are about keeping wages down. He's wrong in believing that that's a bad thing, since the alternative to hiring the H-1Bs is not higher-paid IT jobs for Americans, it is losing IT jobs from the US altogether." _____________________________________

Is that all you can bring? Really? Maybe you should walk into some of the software development situations that I've been in, where HR *on purpose* will overstate the qualifications for a job, simply to disqualify qualified domestic applicants. Where out of 500-600 workers in Austin, TX, or Silicon Valley, 97% are South Asian H-1Bs. Who are you trying to fool?

Did you even take the time to look at the video I posted, where an attorney is advising corporations on how to do this? This happens *all the time*, with immigration attorneys ginning up the game.

Also, in many places, ex-H-1Bs are doing the recruiting!! They "hire their own". Try looking for a gig in Silicon Valley and then note what the ethnicty of most recruiters are.

Plainly, you didn't read the research, and you are biased.

Oh, and trying to drive down the cost of IT with UNQUALIFIED H-1B's is almost traitorous. I have seen too many of these types come in with their puffed up resumes from some unknown school in India, or China, and they don't know *anything*. The whole thing is a ruse. They end up getting trained by QUALIFIED Americans, and then either replace them here, in America, or go back to take over the position as an outsourcer. It's a well-known pattern. In addition, many of these H-1B incompetents are put on mission critical (medical, transportation, etc.) development projects. I have seen H-1B managed groups AVOID SQAssurance on mission critical items, just to get the product out the door.

In addition, they bring their own cultural preferences re: workplace ethics and treatment of women. I have seen the most staggering, and awful treatment of females, and others who are not of the same ethnicity of the H-1B boss - or watched as an H-1B boss treats his/her workers like lackeys, as if they were never learned how to spell the term "workplace harassment.

True, but bringing 100's of thousands of unqualified tech workers into this country to replace those who are already here is a bit much, don't you think? In fact, it's a direct attack on the American tech worker, no matter his/her ethnic origin. There is NO shortage of qualified tech workers in America; there is also no shortage of greed as professed by those in Zuckerberg's cabal of moneyed lobbyists.

Don't believe me? Here's some unbiased research and FACTS for you to peruse.

What's little known is that American corporations are using large-scale outright deception and manipulation in an attempt to displace American Workers.

Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.

One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley: http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-about-h-1b-visas-could-hurt-us-all/

Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses

Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html

Zuckerberg, Melissa Mayer, Bill Gates, John Chambers and the rest of that crowd PROFIT by encouraging this race to the bottom. It's disgusting, and a blatant betrayal of the American worker. These people made billions off the backs of American high tech workers, and they are using blatant deception and outright lies to support their cause to bring in more H-1B workers.

Here are some references that *accurately* put the lie to the claims made by these lying SOBs. Does that sound harsh? It's meant to. These so-called "American leaders" are betraying the very workers who helped them make their unreal wealth. They need to be called out.

http://www.epi.org/publication/bp356-foreign-students-best-brightest-immigration-policy/

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_23_2/tsc_23_2_nelson_printer.shtml

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/silicon-valley-h1b-visas-hurt-tech-workers

What's little known is that American corporations are using large-scale outright deception and manipulation in an attempt to displace American Workers.

Some of the information presented in the following links will shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.

Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses

Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html

From the perspective of a friend who lives in Silicon Valley, what is especially upsetting to her about the requested increase in H-1B and other visas (whose blatant goal it is to import more "high-tech" workers) is the support it receives from high profile high-tech leaders like Bill Gates, John Chambers, Eric Schmidt, and other. Those men made billions off the backs of American high tech workers, and they are using deception and outright lies to support their cause to bring in more H-1B workers. This is a pure race to the bottom, for salary, and skill. There is *some* need for H-1B's, but it's a mere fraction of the current 85,000 cap. This is an agregious attempt to displace qualified American workers, period. Read on if you want accurate information about this outrage.

Some of the information presented in the following links would shock most Americans, because American corporate leaders don't want us to know the truth, and they are paying off policy makers with contributions to keep the truth from us. The H-1B fiasco has cost Americans $10TRILLION dollars, since 1975 (fromProfessor Norm Matloff's study (UC Davis).. For anyone who wants to know the truth, read on.

One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley: http://www.cringely.com/2012/10/23/what-americans-dont-know-about-h-1b-visas-could-hurt-us-all/

Watch this attorney and his consultants teach corporations how to manipulate the law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

Here's more abuse of the L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg http://economyincrisis.org/content/l-visa-programs-brimming-abuses

Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html

Sounds like you're making the same mistake that the well-meaning philosophers of language who followed Wittgenstein's early work (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus ) made. Either that, or you are trying to reintroduce the failed project proposed by whitehead and Russell in their Principia Mathematica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Mathematica. There is something about trying to put everything to a number that seems to be wired into our brains, even though it never seems to pan out.