The IT talent "crisis"

[Renew Deal]

If recent empirical and anecdotal evidence is any indication, computer science is about as trendy with college students today as phone-booth stuffing and pet rocks. According to a recent survey from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, the number of freshmen indicating that they plan to major in computer science declined by more than 60 percent between 2000 and 2004. Industry luminaries such as Bill Gates are pushing the U.S. government to lift limits on H1-B visas to meet the perceived shortage of IT talent in the United States. Is the IT talent sky falling? I don’t think so, because I feel the importance of a computer-science degree is overstated.
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http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/05/03/19OPconnection_1.html?source=NLC-BUS2005-05-04

[bemildred]

1. Not bad.

Right as far as he goes. I have never seen any correlation between
formal credentials and the ability to produce systems that do what
they are supposed to, and do it well. Nevertheless, if you are serious,
at some point you have to learn the theory. It is also essential to
avoid getting sucked into the army of the dead that populates the
dinosaurs (large and small) of the Capitalist economy. One cannot
simultaneously maximize quality and profit.

[Deja Q]

3. And in the world, as we made it, profit means more to them.

So be it.

[Deja Q]

2. Gates can shove that visa up his @$$. He offshores too. That creep

should be encouraging US students to enroll, give scholarships, and then open up his fucking predatory company to graduates.

Anti-american filth, Gates is.

There is no shortage of talent. Just angry people whose certifications are worthless, who see the offshoring, who see their fellow countrymen abandoning them. All for the sake of more profits, anyone who dares tell me how money is so great can use it as toilet paper for all I care anymore. The whole system is a SHAM.

How the fuck would anyone else feel in this situation?!