Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?

A) Trump is president and he has made it clear the US will be taking a backseat on NATO in Europe.

B) Even the polish government thinks this more than possible. They instituted mandatory weapons training for all teenage school kids recently.

I would say it has never been more probable than anytime since the last time Russia invaded Poland in WW2.

These companies outsourcing there have got some serious wishful thinking going on. They are right next door to a madman who uses nuclear material to poison his enemies anywhere in the world.

I think it suks that your job got lost to a foreign worker. It's certainly no consolation that you are merely the latest casualty of globalization, along with your US manufacturing workers.

I say that sincerely- losing your job suks.

Of course the root of the problem, for you and steel workers, US that American consumers care more about money than where something is sourced. They buy the cheapest car, cheapest steel, cheapest computer etc. So to survive companies have to reduce costs, which inevitably means off-shoring.

Tarifs are a solution, but are simpler to do on physical imports than on remote labor. Basically though they help by driving up local prices, allowing say American Steel to compete.

Yes, prices going up (inflation) is a side effect, and yes salaries have to remain fixed (else the import is still cheaper) so disposal income, and hence standard of living have to come down. That's a feature not a bug.

Alternatively taxes could be slashed, requiring massive reductions on spending on military, social security and Medicare. That would mean some job losses in the military-industrial sector, but frankly that's probably a good thing.

Social Security and Medicare are unpopular to cut, but its easily done, and a necessity to make significant cuts. I think the electorate has given a mandate to the govt to do this, do I expect they'll do it. (Trump campaigned on this, so its pretty much what people clearly want.)

I know attempts at American isolationist policies have not worked in the past, but I expect it'll be different this time.

The alternative to this approach would be higher taxes on companies and the mega rich - along with reduced military spending and increases to the social security net. That's the route most of the other countries took, but how many billionaires can Poland boast?

Sure they're sucking up programmer jobs, but there aren't too many companies complaining about that.

They would’ve outsourced regardless of remote or not. It’s all about cost. Employers are hedging after they felt they lost control during the “Great Resignation” and the labor cost pressures they faced from it. Remote also makes it too easy for workers to find other opportunities, versus being restricted to opportunities within a commute distance. Unless it’s offshore remote of course.

This is not without peril due to structural demographics. You can only outsource so much.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/hard-to-find-a-job-... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42361817

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-18/us-faces-... | https://archive.today/Lyr5t

They brought back the weapons training program they had in communist times which is just weapons assembly and disassembly. They don't even shoot them which seems like it misses the point the firearms.

> most of them claim to be white males

There’s really no need to call this out repeatedly as if something sinister is happening. Despite ongoing efforts, the overwhelming majority of tech workers are… white males. So yes, the largest number of voices complaining about joblessness are unsurprisingly going to be white males.