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From: mjk@tty3b.UUCP (Mike Kelly)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: employment estimates in high-tech
Message-ID: <516@tty3b.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Sep-84 15:26:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: tty3b.516
Posted: Tue Sep 25 15:26:37 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Sep-84 03:36:50 EDT
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 >From: falcone@erlang.DEC (Joe Falcone, HLO2-3/N03, dtn 225-6059)
 >Lately, there seems to have been a "yahoo backlash" of articles knocking
 >the computer industry and high-technology industries in general for 
 >allegedly not delivering on their "promises" of employment.
 >These articles are pretty ridiculous when you consider that firms such as 
 >Digital and Hewlett-Packard each employ over 70,000 people in jobs which
 >largely did not exist before WWII.  

The estimate I've seen is 900,000 new high-tech jobs by 1990.   The articles
I've read are not "knocking" high tech.  They are simply pointing out that,
with 200,000 unemployed auto workers *alone*, high-tech is hardly the
salvation some people expect; or do you believe that Detroit is about to
become the new Palo Alto to employ all those unemployed auto workers?  That
doesn't even address the steel industry and other heavy manufacturing, where
many of the jobs lost over the past decade are permanently gone.

Employment is a tough issue.  No one wants to "stop" high-tech development.
On the other hand, a blase attitude towards 8 million unemployed Americans
seems pretty unconscionable to me.  It's one reason I'm voting against Reagan.

Mike Kelly