The white paper at the URL below, written by Dr. Norman Matloff, a Computer Science professor at U.C.-Davis, was last updated more than three years ago. It is a very organized and methodical presentation of issues with which anyone in IT has long since become familiar. These include the co-existence of rampant age discrimination - starting at 35 - with disingenuous complaints from the business world that "we can't find enough programmers to fill our jobs", recourse to cheap foreign labor either through off-source outsourcing or H-1B visas - and much else. The initial version was presented to the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, in April 1998. Eight years is, of course, an eon by IT standards. Nonetheless, this paper is still relevant today, as the situation it outlines is only getting worse. The scuttlebutt these days is that those Bastions of Mendacity, the Corporations of America, can't find enough Java programmers to keep their IT projects afloat - but be forewarned. If you are 35 or older - and especially if you are one of those expensive native-born Americans - they don't want you. All disgruntled techies should check out this classic text. It is a Blast From The Past that'll blitz away whatever shreds of complacency you've been able to knit together since the last recession and will only make you angrier.

Debunking The Myth Of A Software Labor Shortage