Found this on Craig's List tonight, thought it might be a good follow up to my post earlier. No, I'm not the author:

Are you a coder?

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Reply to: job-314517196@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-04-18, 6:59PM MDT


We are looking for idiots who are willing code for hours and hours with asbolutely no compensation. We might, MIGHT, give you some Red Bull and Mountain Dew. If you stupid enough to waste your college education and professional skills on a free job that will lead to nowhere, and deflate the salary range of every programmer in town, we may have a job for you.

Seriously. Please keep working for free. Hurt yourself and the industry. We beg of you.

If you don't have enough self esteem to demand the salary you are worth you are perfect for our company.

Please apply to......

NO MORE FREE WORK!

I've noticed an interesting trend over the last several years, working with small businesses and non-profits and their websites.

I get contacted because they have been dissatisfied with their current web designer. Best part had been: it was free. Church members volunteer because they want their church to have a good website, and businesses often compensated with barters and trades, giving away some small service so the web designer will work for free.

I thought these volunteers must have really been jerks to drop off like that.
My opinion has changed.

As I started getting into business on my own, I did a couple of projects as part of barter agreements, over craig's list. Yes, I was working for free, receiving some barter but no payment for my services. This is what I found out:

When they got something for free, they expected to get everything for free.

Suddenly, my free clients were the most demanding people I worked with, constantly barraging me with e-mails about additional work to be done (which wasn't part of the bartering agreement), and wanting the work to be completed yesterday (while I was still waiting for them to provide access information).

This sense of entitlement probably creeps up everywhere when we get things for free. When I managed the doctor's office, the most manipulative and abusive patients were on Medicaid - getting their medical care for free. People are unsatisfied with their churches where every benefit they receive is totally free of charge. Once married and in a "free" stage of relationship where you don't have to buy the other person's affection with gifts and dates and poems and appearance, many become much more critical.

Not everyone on Medicaid, not every church-goer, not every spouse is like this, but it's a trend I'm noticing.

• What does this mean for soup kitchens and charity?
• What would this mean for socialized government-run health care where everyone is essentially on Medicaid?

And I wonder...

• What am I critical of, or have excessively high expectations of that I get for free?
• Do I now totally avoid doing work for people for free?

I saw a book on Dan's shelf tonight, Inspired by it's spine , I began designing the book cover for
Dan's next publication. Here is the spine of the book:

Great article today in Business Week about the US immigration policy.

On Apr. 2, the gates opened for applications for the H-1B visas that high-skill workers from other countries use to come to the U.S. By early afternoon one day later, all 65,000 of the prized visas for the entire fiscal year 2008 were claimed.

The problem with the immigration system is that we punish people for biding by the rules, and reward people for breaking them. Why are we allowing anyone willing to violate immigration laws to enter the country and refusing the vast vast majority of those who go through the process?

The fix? Make legal immigration easier. And enforce the immigration laws.