Re:They still work damn cheap... (Score 0)

..."(manufacturing...people)...are the equivalent of call center people"?!

Any more, perhaps, but long-time phone jockeys, who endured lots of training, paid lots of money for (and overnight-crammed for) certs and other post-surname letters, tend to take it in the crotch on statements like that.

But now all the highly-qualified service techs that Big Business squandered to India for a song can only get about $8.00/hr (in Houston, anyway) for swapping boards and "Ghost-imaging" drives, which is why we're all cable guys or envelope-stuffers or warehouse forklift drivers, or what-not.

...sigh...

Whose fault? Take this multiple-choice:

A: "WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! WE WANT CHEAPER MACHINES! WE WANT CHEAPER MACHINES! (oh, by the way, we stil want you to support 'em, but we're not paying for that)..."
B: "WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! THE SERVICE DIVISIONS ARE REVENUE BLACK HOLES, AND IT'S MAKING ME LOOK INCOMPETENT! WAAA- WAIT! - I GOT AN IDEA! OUR CUSTOMERS AREN'T PAYING FOR SUPPORT, SOOOooo ..."
C: "WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! YOUR SHARES AREN'T PERFORMING! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! YOUR SHARES AREN'T PERFORMING! WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
D: (the correct answer) ALL OF THE ABOVE.