🚀 go-pugleaf

Rising from fathoms unknown to the minds of men,
smanes@NOSPAM.HEREmagpie.com (Steve Manes) intoned (and nyc.general
quaked):
>On Sat, 17 Oct 1998 05:03:04 GMT, ElocutusOfBorg@hotmail.com
>(Elocutus, First Borg Son) wrote:
>>3400 worldwide, 600 in New York City.  Incidentally, Merrill Lynch is
>>*hiring* programmers this week, even as it cuts staff elsewhere.
>
>Sure they are.  I guess somebody forgot to tell M-L's preferred
>recruiting vendors.  I spoke with all of them this week and they're
>definitely not hiring now.
>
>Let's see, first it was "anecdotal evidence" that the downtown
>financials had implemented hiring freezes.  Then it was the
>sensational mainstream press misreporting lay-offs in the financial
>industry.  Then you disputed the lay-off numbers reported on both
>CNN-FN and the Walk Street Journal (5% worldwide, 3400 in NYC).  Now
>in the midst of lay-offs started just a week ago, they're hiring
>again, eh?

Steve--

You have misrepresented and exaggerated my position from the beginning
of this thread.  You obviously have an axe to grind.

I have never known a time when one or more investment banks haven't
had hiring freezes.  Merrill Lynch was particularly badly hurt by the
collapse of the Russian good-faith debt market.  The condition of
Merrill Lynch is not indicative of the state of NYC investment banks.
"Merrill Lynch is laying off 5% of its workforce" is only anecdotally
related to the argument that native-born programmers are getting
pushed out of jobs because of special-need visas and even less related
to the idea that "IBM Is Importing Low Wage Employes To Avoid Paying
American A Decent Wage!"

I am willing to listen to a well-formed argument against my position,
but you seem to prefer to mock my position and throw more tangential
details in my face.

I would consider compelling a documentable citation that demonstrates
either that the current market downturn has caused a dramatic shift in
the number of technical jobs available in New York or that a previous
increase in the number of special-need visas caused a reduction in the
compensation of programmers already in this country.

You have provided neither.  You make blanket assertions, backing them
up with details that don't add up to proof of your original position.
I make a case for why special-need visas are a *good* thing.  You
respond by making fun of my request for relevant evidence.

Give me a meritorious case and I will argue or agree with it on its
merits.  All you've given me so far is rhetoric and fear-mongering.

--Elocutus
===
"I have the necessary qualifications to 
 speak on behalf of Jesus."
  --Ted Kaldis