Reader Karo sent the following comment . . .

I would like to comment on this statement in the article:

"US corporations, always short-term in their outlook because of quarterly performance bonuses, have destroyed America's economic future."

This is so true. I have worked for several large companies in my working years. To increase their quarterly outlay, they would have a layoff of people that had higher pay due to their years with the company and their knowledge to be replaced with lower paid people and a lot less knowledge. Then the company would have the problem of not being able to meet deadlines on projects. One company had a salesperson come in and tell the execs that his company could produce needed the technology for the project. So there was a big layoff of programmers and engineers. Time for delivery, the company said they could not do it. So the company I was working for had to send people that had not been laid off to lying company to teach them what they had to do.

Another problem of companies is salesmen lying to get a contract. I was working on a request for proposal. I talked to 3 programmers and they said 9 to 12 months to develop what a client wanted. The salesman wanted me to put 3 months. I told him no. Putting such a short time means that programmers would have to work over-time and weekends under pressure and the product would not be delivered on time. I have seen this happen with so many projects. What happened to upstanding morals and integrity? They are gone.