[Frost1x]

>Also I think it's pretty disingenuous to assume that MS wants to see computer courses taught in school to drive down the cost of labor.

So, what's another good explanation as to why software heavy businesses want more software engineers? It seems to me that it's to increase supply to lower costs. If the claim is that they can't capture enough, they can raise comp even more to capture people who don't work in their businesses, train them on the job by reestablishing employer/employee loyalty, etc. Plenty of options there that aren't being pursued, the most obvious explanation as to why is because those options are costly.

Such businesses have been trying to lower expensive technical labor costs for decades now, trying all sorts of strategies (non-compete hire agreements, outsourcing/offshore teams, pushing more towards capturing recent grads with lower expectations, FLSA overtime exemptions for computer professions, reducing employment mobility by increasing hiring barriers, institutionally and indirect built in ageism, ...). I tend not to give 'the boy who cried wolf' too many chances, and that ship has long sailed.

[makomk]

Remember that Microsoft also benefit from more other businesses becoming software businesses, and it seems like more people in the workforce knowing at least the basics of computers would help with that.

[nivenkos]

You mean the basics of Microsoft products, not computers.

In Europe they've bribed most of the school systems so computing is basically just Word and Excel.