From: d@d.d   
      
   Hello..   
      
      
   I said just before that:   
      
   1. We can reduce the payroll without laying off, by lowering wages. It   
   will be argued that lowering wages will reduce purchasing power. But   
   this is not certain since the effort of competitiveness is driving down   
   prices. We could theoretically keep the same standard of living with   
   lower wages and lower prices!   
      
      
   2. We can increase competitiveness without reducing the payroll or the   
   number of workers. This requires basic research, applied research to   
   develop new manufacturing processes or new products, investment and   
   training. It is in fact the best solution, that which leads to increased   
   production, wages, employee skills and standard of living.   
      
      
   So now read the following about R&D that is so important for   
   "competitiveness":   
      
      
   Why Silicon Valley Wouldn’t Work Without Immigrants   
      
      
   There are many theories for why immigrants find so much success in tech.   
   Many American-born tech workers point out that there is no shortage of   
   American-born employees to fill the roles at many tech companies.   
   Researchers have found that more than enough students graduate from   
   American colleges to fill available tech jobs. Critics of the industry’s   
   friendliness toward immigrants say it comes down to money — that   
   technology companies take advantage of visa programs, like the H-1B   
   system, to get foreign workers at lower prices than they would pay   
   American-born ones.   
      
   But if that criticism rings true in some parts of the tech industry, it   
   misses the picture among Silicon Valley’s top companies. One common   
   misperception of Silicon Valley is that it operates like a factory; in   
   that view, tech companies can hire just about anyone from anywhere in   
   the world to fill a particular role.   
      
   But today’s most ambitious tech companies are not like factories.   
   They’re more like athletic teams. They’re looking for the LeBrons and   
   Bradys — the best people in the world to come up with some brand-new,   
   never-before-seen widget, to completely reimagine what widgets should do   
   in the first place.   
      
   “It’s not about adding tens or hundreds of thousands of people into   
   manufacturing plants,” said Aaron Levie, the co-founder and chief   
   executive of the cloud-storage company Box. “It’s about the couple ideas   
   that are going to be invented that are going to change everything.”   
      
   Why do tech honchos believe that immigrants are better at coming up with   
   those inventions? It’s partly a numbers thing. As the tech venture   
   capitalist Paul Graham has pointed out, the United States has only 5   
   percent of the world’s population; it stands to reason that most of the   
   world’s best new ideas will be thought up by people who weren’t born here.   
      
   If you look at some of the most consequential ideas in tech, you find an   
   unusual number that were developed by immigrants. For instance, Google’s   
   entire advertising business — that is, the basis for the vast majority   
   of its revenues and profits, the engine that allows it to hire thousands   
   of people in the United States — was created by three immigrants: Salar   
   Kamangar and Omid Kordestani, who came to the United States from Iran,   
   and Eric Veach, from Canada.   
      
   But it’s not just a numbers thing. Another reason immigrants do so well   
   in tech is that people from outside bring new perspectives that lead to   
   new ideas.   
      
      
   Read more here:   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/technology/personaltech/why-s   
   licon-valley-wouldnt-work-without-immigrants.html   
      
      
      
   Thank you,   
   Amine Moulay Ramdane.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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