"Innovation" Shilling at Stanford Part 2
"Innovation" Shilling at Stanford Part 2
Date: Monday, November 20, 2006 3:32 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1592 -- 11/20/2006 >>>>>
Last week the "Innovation" summit was held at Stanford. The purpose of the
summit was to push for an increase in the yearly cap on H-1B visas by
passing the Skil Bill. Probably the most notable aspect of the event was
the complete lack of protest by the American workers who will lose their
jobs and their middle class lifestyles if the robber barons that attended
this meeting have their way. In an area that has more displaced high-tech
Americans per capita than anywhere else in the USA, Bill Gates and his band
of traitors were able to lie and to plan for our destruction with impunity.
Bill Gates stated his theory of worldwide economic redistribution. It
sounds like something Karl Marx would espouse.
``The United States has been spoiled by being a global leader for
so long that there may be an adjustment,'' Gates told the
audience of nearly 2,000, a mix of suit-and-tie executives and
college students in hooded sweatshirts. ``We've got to get used
to the fact that our relative share of everything -- our ability
to exercise unilateral decisionmaking, military power, and
economic power -- won't be as out of line with our 5 percent
share of world population as it is today.''
But, he [Bill Gates] added, that's not a zero sum gain. As
India's standard of living rises, the U.S.'s won't suffer as a
result. "We can say if they are as rich as us today, the world
is way better off because of that," said the richest man
in the world.
P.J. O'Rourke, an American satirist, writer, and journalist warned of this
kind of utopian thinking: "The poor of the world cannot be made rich by
redistribution of wealth. Poverty can't be eliminated by punishing people
who've escaped poverty, taking their money and giving it as a reward to
people who have failed to escape."
The entire summit was nothing but a transparent excuse to push for more
H-1Bs and to promote the Skil Bill. This is a clever bit of propaganda that
doesn't stand up under scrutiny because Sergey Brin and Andy Grove didn't
come to the U.S. on H-1B visas. Andy Grove came to the U.S. at the age of
20 as a refugee from the Hungarian revolution while Sergey Brin immigrated
from Russia at the age of 6 with his family.
The executives also lamented government policies limiting student
and work visas, warning that this shuts out people like Google
co-founder Sergey Brin and former Intel chief executive
Andrew Grove.
Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang's diatribe is just as bad. First off, there is nothing
in U.S. immigration policy that excludes smart people from immigrating
here. He should be made to explain exactly what he meant by this.
Yang wasn't an H-1B either. He immigrated with his family from Taiwan when
he was 10 years old.
``We have this crazy policy in the U.S. that says, `Smart people
can't come here.' I think we all agree it makes absolutely no
sense,'' said Yang. ``Are people going to want to build a
company in the U.S. ... or in the new talent centers?''
Yang's false choice is called a Morton's Fork. It's a logical fallacy
designed to obscure us from any other choices. H-1B helps to facilitate
offshoring but Yang hopes to make people believe that if we restrict H-1B
we will force more companies to offshore. Yang isn't as smart as he thinks
he is, but he probably fooled most of reporters and politicians who
attended that summit.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/16021675.htm
Posted on Wed, Nov. 15, 2006
Tech leaders gather for innovation summit
GATES, YAHOO'S JERRY YANG AT STANFORD EVENT
By Ryan Blitstein
Mercury News
Some of technology's biggest names shared the stage at Stanford University
on Wednesday to discuss the future of American innovation.
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and legendary Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
venture capitalist John Doerr were among the members of two panels
moderated by talk show host Charlie Rose, who also led Microsoft co-founder
and chairman Bill Gates through a question-and-answer session.
The third annual innovation summit, where industry leaders talked about
emerging trends and government technology policy, was organized by TechNet,
an advocacy group that lobbies on behalf of tech executives.
Much of the discussion Wednesday centered on how American companies and
workers will compete in an era of rapid innovation and globalization.
``The United States has been spoiled by being a global leader for so long
that there may be an adjustment,'' Gates told the audience of nearly 2,000,
a mix of suit-and-tie executives and college students in hooded
sweatshirts. ``We've got to get used to the fact that our relative share of
everything -- our ability to exercise unilateral decisionmaking, military
power, and economic power -- won't be as out of line with our 5 percent
share of world population as it is today.''
As developing countries like China and India become global powers, the
American economy faces several risks, including a lack of interest in
engineering among American students.
``We're all seeing the danger signs -- if industry doesn't solve the
education issues, those affect our standing in the global marketplace,''
said Brian Halla, chairman and chief executive of National Semiconductor.
Halla compared the situation to the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik
in the late 1950s, when the Eisenhower administration authorized $1 billion
toward science research and education. ``We need to start kids in fourth
grade and say, `You're going to be one our future scientists,''' he said.
Those kids might also be the founders of tomorrow's tech giants.
``There's almost no chance one of us will invent the next big thing,'' said
Reed Hastings, founder and chief executive of NetFlix. ``It's always youth
questioning assumptions. They have the courage and willingness to do so --
we have mortgages.''
The executives also lamented government policies limiting student and work
visas, warning that this shuts out people like Google co-founder Sergey
Brin and former Intel chief executive Andrew Grove.
``We have this crazy policy in the U.S. that says, `Smart people can't come
here.' I think we all agree it makes absolutely no sense,'' said Yang.
``Are people going to want to build a company in the U.S. ... or in the new
talent centers?''
This country's woeful technology infrastructure might further hamper
innovation. Because of favorable telecommunications regulation and
government investment, citizens of countries like Japan and South Korea are
far more likely to have broadband Internet access in their homes than their
American counterparts. This larger market for Internet services fosters the
creation of new businesses.
``They are developing fast-growing, large companies that wouldn't have
existed without that level of broadband penetration,'' said Charlie
Giancarlo, senior vice president and chief development officer of Cisco
Systems. ``We're relying on policy developed 50 years ago for the telephone
system.''
Nevertheless, many of the leaders saw economic growth in developing
countries as a gain for America, cutting prices for local consumers and
creating more foreign buyers of American goods.
``China and India are not our threat. We should help them develop a strong
middle class. That's going to be great for the whole world,'' Hastings
said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a surprise guest, concluded the event with a
speech celebrating California voters' approval last week of a $40 billion
package of bonds aimed at shoring up infrastructure statewide.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3644271
Gates Talks Tech, Health and Education
By Andy Patrizio
November 15, 2006
STANFORD, Calif. -- Even though Bill Gates has left day to day
responsibilities at Microsoft, the company he co-founded with Paul Allen in
1975, he remains excited about technology.
The chairman of Microsoft (Quote) spoke before an audience of potential
future employees (computer science students) here on the campus of Stanford
University.
He was the third and only solo discussion here at the TechNet Innovation
Summit series of interviews, all of which were taped for Charlie Rose's PBS
interview show. The chat between Gates and Rose alternated between
technology and his new love, medical research and philanthropy.
Gates described being late to a market as "the worst. I hate those. If
you're early, that's ok. We can keep improving it and wait for the trends
to come together. If you're late, then everything coalesces around who is
doing and you have to wait for a paradigm shift before you can come into
the market," he said.
He said he'll miss being a part of the day-to-day work at Microsoft, but
said that Microsoft was in good hands. Many hands. "I think the people who
will remain will do a great job finding the twists and turns. There's
always been this illusion of one person playing such a key role. It's
always been thousands of people playing little roles," he said.
On the subject of health care, his new passion, Gates compared cutting
through the red tape to get drug trials done faster to the changes that
took place when the microprocessor came along. To take advantage of the new
technology required a whole different way of assembly.
He also knocked the press for its focus on disasters like a plane crash,
but not daily events of greater tragedy, such as thousands of times more
children dying from disease.
"I understand there is no news, no big angle, and also it doesn't have the
visual element of a crash site. But the big, stunning thing is to not only
to be there but see how common these situations are," he said.
He also spoke on the emerging international competition and what that will
mean for the U.S. "The U.S. has a lot of things that are good for it in
this global economy and a lot of things that will hold it back. We need to
renew our strength, our fantastic universities," he said.
Unfortunately, he sees fewer students going into math and computer sciences
than he did years ago, and that's going to be a problem for the U.S. if it
wishes to remain competitive.
"We will have a better future than present no matter what. The question is
will we do as well as we should have. The only jobs left in a high-cost
economy require a much higher cost of education than they did 20 years
ago," he said
He also said the U.S. will also have to accept that as the rest of the
world increases in wealth and living standard our relative share of
everything, our ability to make decisions, our nation's power and influence
"won't be so out of line with our five percent of world population as it is
today."
But, he added, that's not a zero sum gain. As India's standard of living
rises, the U.S.'s won't suffer as a result. "We can say if they are as rich
as us today, the world is way better off because of that," said the richest
man in the world.
He's finding it more difficult to have an impact on education in this
country than having an effect on global health.
"Once you've got a vaccine, no one can come along an uninvent it," said
Gates. "Even when you prove new [teaching ideas], they won't necessarily
get adopted because things are not black and white."
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