Well part of the reason I mentioned cost is that consumer electronics are so 
cheap these days.  Back when I bought my first computer (PC variety), after 2 
years the multi-I/O card failed, since everything else worked, I ended up 
replacing the motherboard, processor (upgraded 486 to pentium) and memory.  
Those bits carried on working for another 3 years.  But at that time it was 
cheaper to buy replacements for the failed parts and do it yourself.

2 years back my wifes PC had some parts fail, including motherboard and 
graphics and PSU.  I went and sourced the replacement parts and quickly hit 
$500, for $300 I could replace the entire box with a system that had 
better graphics, hard drive, memory and processor.  We'd had 5 years out of 
the original unit, and the cost meant it made more sense to buy new.


Back in the 90's (just after China opened its borders) a US stock broker 
bought himself a BMW motorcycle and rode it across China.  Near the end of his 
trip he hit a rock and seriously damaged his front wheel.  Here in the west 
the remedy would be to buy a new wheel and tyre and part with $1200 cash.  
In the backwoods of China he didn't have that option, and was faced with 
aborting his trip.  As it was some locals happened to drive by in an old 
pickup truck, they loaded his bike on the back and took him to their village.  
There the blacksmith hammered the (alloy) wheel back into shape, found an old 
inner tube put that inside of the tyre and our stock broker was back on the 
road.  To these local villagers there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the 
vehicle it just needed a little bit of fixing.


All this does get me to wondering how the US would fair with an Apollo 13 type 
of problem - both now and 10 years from now.


All said, I think we're better at blaming than we are at arguing or for that 
matter fixing.  Watch the news, we get the "bad guy" packaged up, tied with a 
bow for almost every story they present.  Not only are we not taught to 
problem solve, we're not expected to think for ourselves.  There's is no 
question about the gulf disaster being a perfect storm accident - BP was 
negligent, the CEO was 100% responsible, now get out your stones and prepare 
for some biblical justice!  Someone slips and falls in a grocery store, it's 
not their fault, it's the grocery stores fault.  Someone tries to steal 
electricity from their neighbour using jumper cables, it's the electric 
companies fault when they go up in a puff of blue smoke.

Sure, we have many spoiled kids who have grown up not knowing how to think for 
themselves.  We have kids who had the misfortune of having to attend a crappy 
public school and do not have the education they need to even work in fast 
food.  

Then we have issues like laziness and the biggest problem is that even if most 
people have the ability to solve problems they can’t because no body seems to 
want to accept any change that will affect their lifestyle, so we have 
selfishness being another major problem with our society.

And like I said before, our wonderful technology has contributed to some of our 
problems, and I am sure television and video games would top the list.  

Neil, I think you're talking about Problem Solving skill. 
My first computer book, was "Problem Solving with Computers" which was added to
my other favorite (and first math book) "Keys to Mathematics".

Both of those books showed problem solving methods.

Today, daddy buys you a new iPod when you break yours.
Whereas, my iPhone broke, Apple said "too bad" so I took it apart and fixed it
myself. Yes, it still works today.

My iMac broke, Apple said "too bad, that'll be $685 to fix it. I can buy a
new one for $1100 so why fix it, right? So I ordered $20 in capacitors
from DigiKey and got out the soldering iron and had at it. Not finished yet, but
in my spare time, I'll get it working.

My daughter's friend's car had a flat tire in the parking lot of their Appt
complex several years ago. He friend was on the phone "calling daddy to come
save her". Guess what my daughter was doing? She was changing the tire for her
friend, and referring to her friend as a "useless ass" or something like that. 

Look at this Oil Spill and the current Financial Crisis. We (i.e., America)
can't problem solve. We seem to only know how to argue, which of course
districts some from the point--solving the problem in the first place.

Back when I was in upper elementary school, my grandmother leant me her math 
books.  All the problems were some form of measurement - gallons/quarts/fl.oz, 
yards/feet/inches, l.s.d (pounds/shillings/pence), etc.  And the answers had 
to be given in correct form - thus 20 apples at 2d each wasn't 40d, it was 
3s.4d (12d = 1s).

Incidently this had me in good standing when I began learning about 
computing.  In fact all this base2, base8, base16 stuff was simple - only one 
base for the entire sum, rather than a different base for each column. :)

All this new fangled decimal stuff spoils kids these days.

Neil, it is very clear that Coders are not the only skill we're destine to
loose. But it is the one area we (you and I and others in "i" world) can do
something about.

Fish,

The rocket center has really improved over the years. There is even a space camp
for kids (and once or twice a year for adults). I was there in the early 1980s
and again in the late 1990s. I believe we put a Challenger Center workshop there
too. Have a great time.

Nothing written by a lawyer is at a 12th grade level!  And back when I had a 
credit card I didn't understand my credit card agreement because I didn't take 
time to read all that crap.

I guess those 5000 people had been out of school for some number of years and 
were not allowed to use a computer or calculator for that test.  Simply put, if 
you don't use it you loose it and in today's high-tech society we rarely need 
to use those skills.  The funny thing is that if they got the job they still 
wouldn't have to use those skills.  The test should be to determine if people 
now how to use technology.

Schools are also a very big part of our problem, but I am not going to let my 
children become a victim. My son starts the 3rd grade this year...all summer 
he's been working in several work books to get him ready for 3rd grade.  He is 
already doing division, geometry, reading, and spelling at a 3rd grade level.  
I am doing a lot of extra work at home with math and science (in my opinion, 
the two most important subjects).  In fact, tomorrow we're going to the Us 
Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL.  He has been reading about rockets and 
our solar system for the past week, I am hoping that will be a way to bring 
some of what he's been reading about to life and keep in interested in the 
subject.

But does this not also bend to our level of education.  Last week I heard that 
only 20% of americans understand a credit card agreement.  These legal 
agreements are written to a 12th grade level - qed only 1 in 5 americans reads 
to a 12th grade level.  In fact the average american only reads to a 9th grade 
level.

A corporation in Cleveland, OH, was looking for 100 workers to produce green 
power generation products.  They received over 5000 applications, the 
applicants were given a general math & english test - only 45 passed, and were 
selected for interview.  45 out of 5000 applicants for 100 jobs!!!

Manufacturing moves on, nobody in the US needs buggy whips any more (ok, the 
amish do), but there is no reason to have mass production of buggy whips 
anymore.  Advanced manufacturing requires a higher level of education.

While US schools are churning out individuals who are only qualified to 
ask "do you want fries with that", but demand the latest in electronic 
gagitry, the US will not be leading the way to the future.  Once upon a time 
we would repair broken stuff, now we throw it away and buy a new one - partly 
because it's cheaper to do it that way, but I'm sure part of it is due to the 
average american not understanding how a thing works or where to start trying 
to repair it.

It's sad, but it's not just coders that we're destined to lose....

While I have seen programmers stuck in the 80s and 90s and refuse to learn and 
use newer techniques (ie- service programs), they are still able to code.  We 
(our company) use a group in India to work on many of our projects.  I see that 
they too have developers who are not very savvy.  Their code is often worse 
than the code created by these guys who refuse to use the newer techniques.

I have seen several big projects that would have been fun and interesting 
projects to work on sent to India.  It wasn't because we don't have 
the "ability" to write the code, it's because of the money.  Our company, like 
many other American companies, think they are saving a butt load of money by 
offshoring.  Another reason our company uses an offshore group is because they 
don't have to worry about maintaining a staff in a community where it's hard to 
find RPG developers.  

By the way, from what I have seen there is no real saving in offshoring.  In 
fact, I see it as unnecessary risk.

This is a cross-post of a response to a comment to my most recent RPG Coder article:

Thank you for your comments. You are right, there are reasons why RPG developers
don't advance. However I think those that want to, do advance. But there are
many who simply got into IT during the "dot com boom" in the late 1990s because
that's where the money was. And perhaps they are feeling like they made a good
short-term decision but now feel discouraged. These programmer's hearts aren't
in programming, unlike many of us, but rather in their wallets. When the money
stopped coming in... So they're feeling discouraged and don't bother doing
anything except what is necessary.

But also the opinion of relko is right on. The reason there are fewer and fewer
RPG developers is that the fundamentals about programming i, and the
ease-of-entry to programming (too expensive) are blocking the way. There have
been thousands of new RPG programmers over the last 5 to 8 years--just not in
the United States. But the U.S. Markets (corporations and government) decided
long ago that they don't want high tech jobs in the U.S. because they don't want
to pay the salaries--they still want that level and quality of work, but are
more interested in buying private boats and jets than employing smart people.

But believe me, there are many, many new RPG programmers coming on board every
year--just maybe not in our own back yard.

I should also mention that I believe the U.S. and Canada face a crisis in IT. I
have observed that we are loosing our ability to code and are becoming too
dependent on foreign software. Much like the issue with foreign oil. At some
point we my need our software created here and if the current trend
continues--within 1/2 generation we may loose our ability to write code.