Cyberpunked

First off, Disney is as Disney does.

Now, you would think American Express' experience with H-1B workers a long time ago would teach corporations anything. I read the story in a Notes in the Field segment of an InfoWorld issue, back when InfoWorld was still a print magazine. The person who was Cringely tried to access their account on the American Express Web site, but could not, because the site was down. Down for a long time. They learned that American Express hired H-1B workers to manage its Web site. The H-1B workers were thinking about fixing the site — and taking a long time thinking. They knew that they were cheap peons with no future in the company. Why should they care? American Express was forced to set up a shadow IT unit, with American workers, to fix the Web site and to continue to maintain it despite the H-1B workers.

If you multiply this by the many corporations that practice purging American talent in favor of cheap labor, you will see a corresponding decay in the services those corporations provide. Comcast, with its vile customer service, is the future of corporate America. With this decay will come one security breach after another, followed by one scandal after another, ending in scapegoats serving most of their lives in prison (the cheap labor is merely deported) while those corporations get off lightly. After all, what the gods get away with, the cows cannot.

It may reach the point one day when corporations will need American programmers. Such programmers will be few, and they will ignore corporate entreaties because they will not be hurt again. It will probably happen when Internet, telephone or even electrical service will decay so much that in some rural and semi-rural areas it will no longer exist. Then the United States will be the developed world's figure of fun. Europeans, East Asians, even Russians will point at us and laugh. And the task of rebuilding our network infrastructure and talent pool will almost impossible. Those with the talent will be so contemptuous of corporate suits and their government and marketing pets that they will just walk away.

The Internet has every virtue and vice you could possibly want. Enjoy it while you can.