Vista to Create 50,000 Jobs in Europe 270
prostoalex writes "A Microsoft-sponsored study found that Vista will be a boon to European economy, as it 'will create more than 50,000 technology jobs in six large European countries and will lead to a flood of economic benefits for companies there,' News.com reports. Europe will see a total of 1.2 mln paychecks thanks to the new operating system: 'In the six countries studied, more than 150,000 IT companies will produce, sell or distribute products or services running on Windows Vista in 2007 and will employ 400,000 people, IDC said. Another 650,000 will be employed in the IT departments of businesses that rely on Vista.'"
Well, in that case (Score:4, Insightful)
That's like saying... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's like saying hurricane Katrina was a boon to the New Orleans economy, as it instantly created thousands of search & rescue, demolition, rebuilding and emergency management jobs.
You can spin anything any way you like.
in other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
But how does announcing this help their business? (Score:5, Insightful)
Too complicated (Score:5, Insightful)
Vista is so complex that it's going to be a nightmare to try to get a handle on it. These new jobs are glaziers making glass for windows broken by boys throwing rocks. False industry, and a burden on resources. These people could be doing something productive but instead they'll be put to work holding Vista together.
Obviously bollocks (Score:5, Insightful)
Same goes for those that "will be employed in the IT departments of businesses that rely on Vista." Because previously they were using XP.
Vista brings nothing to Europe, but this is just about the EU actually making a stand against Microsoft's illegal actions.
Broken window falacy of economic activity (Score:5, Insightful)
Now while I could probably be convinced that Windows Vista has _some_ productivity benefits over current systems I doubt it's really that large. In many cases the net contribution of these 650k people is going to be in fact negative as their disruption and need to prove their own continued usefullness actually decreases productivity of society as a whole - fixing things that aren't broken for example.
Re:This is great (Score:3, Insightful)
Decline? (Score:2, Insightful)
On the other hand ... (Score:4, Insightful)
If I were an IT decision-maker in Europe I might read this differently. Hmmm, 50,000 jobs is a lot of Euros. What exactly are we getting for that huge expenditure? Maybe we should think a little more carefully about doing this upgrade and consider the alternatives.
Re:Obviously bollocks (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That's like saying... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Thats it? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:That's like saying... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:that's economics for you (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you've confused marketeers with economists. Economists (at least the smart ones) ask a fundemnetal question:
This activity occurs at the expense of what?
Evert transaction occurs at the expense of another - if I buy a sweater then I don't buy a TV. You can't just look at any one action but need to look at the impact of that action.
Politicians and marketeers trumpet job creation - those pork barrel projects - they create jobs and pump taxes back into the economy (which I will use to buy more votes) - forget what the original taxpayer might have done with the nmoney had we not taken it in taxes; spent some percent running the government (a deadweight load of sorts) and actually put less back in then we took out.
If Vista makes companies more productive then they can create more jobs - if not then teh net effect is zero (or less because of switching costs)
So basically it's an economic disaster (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:that's economics for you (Score:3, Insightful)
I was going to take it a step further: shouldn't the more productive companies be able to cut jobs because they can produce the same output with fewer people? (Yeah, ok, I know this is a stretch for something like Vista, but it was someone else's fantasy to start
Still, I'm sure M$ would not have paid for a study that produced the headline "Vista to Cost 50,000 Jobs in Yerp".
Re:This is great (Score:5, Insightful)
You are so wrong. You just need to be asked to run small company with all bureaucracy done on paper with typewriter. Absolutely w/o computers. You would understand why the boom happened really: computer market stabilized, became commodity and business at large went from paper-based work flow to computer-based one. In fact, computers now allow small companies to increase business volumes: only because bureaucracy is magnitude cheaper now. Many small/private businesses were often running into NOT limit of productivity - but inability to book all orders properly. Now they can. Computers made that easy.
Though I hardly expect the average underage offsprings of computer era - which are made majority of /. readers /posters - to really understand what really computer and data networks did for small/middle/big companies. We already take all the goods for granted.
Just to give one example, especially important to USA with its large populace of public companies. Before computers came, public companies were really run by few people close to board of directors who have had slight majority of shares. For most of little/private investors it didn't made much of a reason to fly across continent just to participate in meeting/voting regarding some current maters. Now, with advent of computers networks, anyone with no matter how small share of company, can participate in voting - remotely & cheaply. That meant to the public companies whole a lot. Exec officers are now under more scrutiny, since large number of small investors really play role: sum of their votes often is large enough to influence decision making. The sum, to calculate before computers came, was impossible.
Vista will cost 2.5 Billion dollars? (Score:4, Insightful)
How is spending an additional 2.5 Billion Euro a good thing?
Or did they do this to draw away from the 5 Billion (100k new jobs) later in the article.
That 5 Billion is money that can't be spent on other things, is it really a good idea to flaunt how much vista is going to cost us?
Re:This is great (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been running small businesses since well before the MITS Altair was introduced. I've hand wired vacuum tube bistable multivibrators. As a child I learned to type on a Salvation Army Remington. I'm no disco era baby.
Since I not only run small businesses, but often do so as a sole propriator (or on a bonus basis when running someone else's) I see the money flowing out of my pocket. I know where it goes and I know what it buys me.
That's why I'm running Linux on a six year old box (which I will continue to run until it physically dies beyond repair) and will not be "buying" Vista.
God bless the personal computer and its many peripherals, but the fact that computers can be a financial advantage is not the same thing as saying that all money spent on computers confers such an advantage.
KFG
Re:This is great (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is great (Score:2, Insightful)
You've gotta admire the spin though.
Re:Well, in that case (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Well, in that case (Score:2, Insightful)
Obviously been sponsored by Microsoft and said companies future in Europe been in the balance I would jump to the conclusion thats its just MS rhetoric hintng that vista will create 50k jobs in Europe as a means for Europe to stop attacking MS's mode of operations.
I dont think the EU will fall for yet another blatent attempt by MS to pull its own strings in Europe.
They hould stick to the US for that coz we aint playing.
Re:Mod Parent Up Informative (Score:3, Insightful)
50.000 jobs? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like an army of IT workers supposed to assist Europe's migration to GNU/Linux...
Yup, that's it. (Score:3, Insightful)