OBVIOUS:

Why should we care?  

Because immigrants are critical to the country's long-term economic health. Despite the fact that they constitute only

12% of the U.S. population, immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley's technology companies and contributed to

more than 25% of our global patents. They make up 24% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce holding

bachelor's degrees and 47% of science and engineering workers who have PhDs. Immigrants have co-founded firms

such as Google (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News), Intel (NasdaqGS:INTC - News), eBay (NasdaqGS:EBAY - News), and Yahoo!

(NasdaqGS:YHOO - News).


http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090303/bs_bw/feb2009tc20090228990934

Omonla:

The operative question is indeed "Why should we care?" Immigrants leave because there are better options elsewhere.
I have no problem with America, but the fact is that the life cycle of a world power always comes to an end. America is  reaching its decline sooner rather than later. It looks like the EU will be taking over, as it increases with the strength of its member countries and their respective currencies.

Down the ages, one would note that Egypt was a world power for a certain period. Then Rome followed somewhere down the line. Then the U.K (among others). Their dynasties ended, and the closer each civilization got to the modern age, the shorter its lifespan.

This is not hate propaganda, but the fact is, other countries are attracting the best immigrants and those countries have more to offer than America in this new climate.

Omonla:
It looks like the EU will be taking over, as it increases with the strength of its member countries and their respective currencies.

ekt_bear:

^-- almost as if they should split the EU into two parts.

One for the deadbeat southern Europeans and another for the fiscally prudent northern Europeans.

Yeah I don't see why anyone is taking shots at the US given that Europe has far bigger problems, at least right now

Kobojunkie:

Katsumoto:

The consequences to Greece of being kicked out[b] is estimated to be between 45-55% of Greek GDP.[/b] The cost to Germany of leaving the Euro is approximately 20-25%; even that is a steep cost for a solvent and strong country like Germany.

The third option is to restructure the Greek debt which will negatively affect the ability of most countries to raise capital from the bond market. Restructuring Greek debt will also take down a number of European banks with high exposure to Greek debt. French and Spanish banks have huge exposure to Greek debt.

The social problems arising from any of the above will affect all European countries as people move to bouyant countries. Crime and other social vices will go up. Immigration will become a big problem.

ekt_bear:



Man, I didn't know it was that bad! Damn. And I thought we had it bad here with 9% unemployment.

Which of these three options do you think is most likely? I'm guessing #3?

Katsumoto:

That sort of migration is unlikely to increase German GDP due to the different working culture of Northern and Souther Europeans

Akanbi_edu:

Useless immigrants, mostly economic parasites. They finish your economy and run to the next. All they know is taking, they don't give.

ekt_bear:

Lmao

In other words, Southern Europeans are lazy, indolent, and not as productive

Anyway, very interesting stuff.

ekt_bear:

Dell has basically sucked @ss as a company for a while now.

They chose the wrong path and now cannot differentiate themselves from the low-end PC guys.

Didn't they fall to #3 in market share behind Lenovo recently?

IBM on the other hand was brilliant in choosing when to leave the PC business.

ekt_bear:

US at least has everyone else by the balls.

If the US goes down, then so does everyone else.

This is the best way to do it.

How does that saying go?

"If you owe the bank $1000, the bank owns you. But if you owe the bank $1,000,000, you own the bank."

ekt_bear:

Lmao

In other words, Southern Europeans are lazy, indolent, and not as productive

Anyway, very interesting stuff.

Jenifa_:

lol
what happened to the "hardworking immigrant" stereotype?

ekt_bear:

They have to leave the US. PCs at this point are a commodity. You cannot afford to produce commodities in the US any more. Have to shift your manufacturing over to China or Asia.

So you either play the game Apple is, by selling essentially "luxury" computers (with very fat profit margins), or play the game IBM did. . . sell off your computing business and focus on higher-margin businesses like services.

This is why HP (the current #1 computer manufacturer) may or may not be screwed going forward. They have some very difficult choices to make over the next few years.

SEFAGO:

^ why are u laughing? You are not even a skilled immigrant- probably on welfare

Iya oloshi yi

ekt_bear:

@Ileke-IdI:

Err, yeah, maybe I misunderstood what you are saying.

Anyway, I was just explaining why Dell has to shift production overseas. So maybe this quite doesn't address what you raised.

Katsumoto:

I don't agree with the reasons for shifting production abroad. Greed was responsible for that.

At the end of the day, most US corporations will pay for that because they will be at the mercy of consumers in other countries. These corporations will have very little influence in these markets and will be exposed to downturns, currency fluctuations and government regulations and the US consumer will buy less of these products over time. They had a good thing going until they started to outsource.

ekt_bear:

Err. You have to. Otherwise you won't be able to compete price-wise with these Asian manufacturers. Even the Asians are shifting from Taiwan over to China. You have to go to where your goods can be produced more cheaply, otherwise you are at a disadvantage.
Ah. I mean, shift my manufacturing over to China, but then ship and sell the goods to customers in the US. So not Dell manufacturing for Chinese consumers, but for American ones.