Coal Miners Not Likely to be Good Computer Coders

The following comment by presidential candidate Joe Biden this week shows how far out of touch politicians, and especially Joe Biden are from the "real" world.

“Anybody who can go down 300 to 3,000 feet into a mine sure as hell can learn how to program as well,” he said. “Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program for god’s sake.”

The following screed was provided by a retired programmer that illustrates the point that Joe Biden doesn't have a clue about the skills and temperament required for coding.

"Coal miners are probably short on the skills to become a good coder. Besides, folks like Disney let their American coders go to replace them with foreigners that make a fraction of the money. Other large employers did the same. So for coal miners, the switch isn’t worth the money, even if they were good coders.

To be good, you need to know your math tables, great grasp of algebra, be a perfect speller, and have strong logic and analytical skills. The environment is rigid and unforgiving, and in a crunch, the hours can be weird and long.

There were two instances in my career that I had to tell the analyst that "speced" the program I was working on that it wouldn’t work. They didn’t like it, but their data storage requirements were greater than the memory their very large computers contained even when running the program all by itself. I could make a program search 4-dimensional arrays when the computer can only handle 3. With the right data, 5 could be possible but the coding would be a challenge. Not everyone has that skill level to create or modify such a working program.

Coal mining coders was not a winner in 2016 with high unemployment. It’s even less attractive in a roaring economy that has use for coal miners mining."

The first point emphasizes the fact that US companies use H1-B visas to hire "cheap" foreign labor. In addition to Disney, there are many other companies that have used this tactic to enhance their "bottom line".

Congressman John Carter is our representative and is a strong supporter of the H1-B program at the behest of Dell Computer and other local hi-tech companies.

The other tactic used is to "offshore" company functions, including coding to again put company profits ahead of American prosperity for displaced American workers.

It's time for our disconnected politicians to get in touch with "real" people so that they can effectively represent them.