NYCPHP Meetup

[Mitch Pirtle]

On 7/2/05, Faber Fedor <faber at linuxnj.com> wrote:
> 
> No argument there.  I just want to know what I have done wrong by
> offering and retaining a person at $15 per hour.

This is not directed personally toward you Faber, but more a general
ethical issue that I have. Begin rant ;-)

If the going rate for something is $20, and you want one, and you have
$20, then you should find a good one that is suitable to your purposes
and pay the $20. If you automatically offer $rate - 20%, then you are
cheap.

And I don't mean cheap as in "getting a good deal", but cheap as in
"screwing somebody and taking a selfish stance that ultimately lowers
the quality of living on a gradual decline for all of us, even
yourself".

And I am not big money either - I spend more than 50% of my time
working on open source projects (writing code, running servers,
evangelizing etc). So I am not one who has unlimited funds when I need
something done.

But when I do need something done, I look for someone with the right
skills and expertise, and pay them a good price, absolutely fair
market rate.

Any other approach just perpetuates the misconception that internet
developers are cheap and disposable, and that hurts all of us. This
attitude is why we get those dork posts in nyphp-jobs where they want
someone with 8 years programming experience, 5 years project
management experience, 7 years database experience, and oh by the way
we can only afford $20/hr. Fuhgeddaboudit!

$cheaper != $better, and I openly detest the short-minded, selfish
people that pollute the world with lousy food, garbage products, and
refuse to pay for the value that they want.

Don't be a consumer, be a producer! :-)

-- Mitch