I seldom have a solid few minutes to myself these days to ruminate on the ills of the world. I managed to string together a thought that has been eating away at my frontal lobe.
Let me start by pointing out that after the fall of communism in Russia there was a glut of talented computer programmers and IT folks in general that had no way to make a buck and no way to put food on the table. Over time a lot of them managed to find work of some description but, a large swath found themselves being put to work in the binary mines for the mob. Almost overnight we saw a malware enterprise spring up that was profitable and continues to be. Sure, there are busts of the occasional high profile ne’er do well that make the front pages. A token gesture. This pales in comparison to the depth of the problem. As I spin the wheel of analogies I land on “tip of the iceberg”.
Now, taking into account the historic model of Russia we see the economic vomit inducing roller coaster ride that we have today. Dissimilar? Not really. Both were/are failing economies. Some examples of companies that are laying off staff are IBM (16,000), Microsoft (6,000), Intel (5,000), AMD (1,100), Sun (1,300), Sprint (8,000) and Motorola (4,000).
These are only some of the examples. Hell, just this morning Caterpillar announced 20,000 layoffs. Albeit not a tech outfit per se but, would it not be safe to assume that maybe, just maybe, history is about to repeat itself?
There are a lot of well qualified tech people out there looking for work. There are foreclosures everywhere. People have to eat. People need shelter. Are they all going to work for Home Depot? Nope. They just announced that they are going to let go of 7,000 employees. How long until the US emerges as the new clearing house for its very own MPack? Have we managed via this economic meltdown to spawn a digital Capone?
Yes, this is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. Or, has it already begun? What’s your take on this?