Jobs Americans Won't Do

Well the tidal wave of criticism against Bush and his pro-immigration, anti-american worker policies has hit. The Cohen & Grigsby video got pulled by an embarrased set of attourneys, but not before two Congressman got ahold of it and started the questions.

In the spirit of piling on, I'd like to list the "jobs that Americans won't do", you know, the ones that are outsourced and heavily insourced...

Financial Advisor
Legal analyst
Programmer
Engineer
Research lawyer
Radiologist
Architect
...

Construction worker
Nurse
Teacher
Waiter
Soldier
...

Of course, reality is that there are no jobs Americans won't do. There are just a lot of jobs that employers refuse to pay enough money to attract resident workers.

Its About Cheap Labor, Stupid

The cheap labor lobby and immigration lawyers are usually very, very careful to not actually say that "its about cheap labor." Every once-in-a-while, they slip up. Here is a quote from a video at a recent conference that reveals all:

And our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker. And you know in a sense that sounds funny, but it's what we're # trying to do here. We are complying with the law fully, but ah, our objective is to get this person a green card, and get through the labor certification process. So certainly we are not going to try to find a place [at which to advertise the job] where the applicants are the most numerous. We're going to try to find a place where we can comply with the law, and hoping, and likely, not to find qualified and interested worker applicants.

Thanks to Rob Sanchez for finding this and Norm Matloff for notifying us.

A Very Rare Moment of Honesty

Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University was interviewed on Morning Edition today (4/30/07).

He says that the "US is far ahead by any milestone" when asked about the quality of U.S. engineering graduates versus those from India and China.

In a not-so-indirect way, he thus acknowledges that behind the scenes company executives admit that Americans are the more capable workers (just too expensive), that H-1B visa is all about cheap labor, that companies like Microsoft are definitely gaming the system with their claims of worker shortages.

He says that "outsourcing R&D jobs is not good for the USA".

In closing, when asked "if you were a tech entrepreneur (starting up a new company), what would you do differently?" , he indicated he would act in his company's best interest and get the cheapest labor at the best quality (i.e., he would offshore jobs).

Quote:
"That's capitalism - the system rewards you for doing what's in your own interest. Bill Gates
interests as chairman of M$ are different than Bill Gates' interests as a philanthropist. He doesn't get paid to worry about US competitiveness and to worry about social issues as the chairman of M$".

(posted for AmericanProgrammer)

Strange Bedfellows

As I have stated in a previous posting, not too long ago, I considered myself a liberal Democrat. My times have changed. Below is a citation of an article by Phyllis Schlafly. Now in my previous life, I considered her to the right of Atilla The Hun and would be embarassed to share anything in common with her. Now all I can say is that her article hits the issue dead on - I couldn't agree with her more. The political landscape is changing. Neither the Republicans or Democrats have a clue...

Tech Industry Has Ulterior Motive Regarding H-1B Visas
by Phyllis Schlafly
Posted Dec 18, 2006

The technology industry has dispatched its fat-wallet lobbyists to demand that the new Congress vastly increase the number of foreign computer software techies and engineers who can be imported on H-1B visas. This demand is based on the claim that we suffer a labor shortage in those fields, but that's a bare-faced lie to erect a smoke screen around the real reasons.

(follow link above for complete article)

Shame On You, NPR

Date : 5/24/2007 10:03:49 AM

Dear NPR,

A few minutes ago, I heard a piece on the "immigration reform" going on in Congress. You gave the ITAA, which represents most of the large corporations, a lot of airtime, giving their usual spin about "industry shortages". Anyone who spends at least a little time researching this subject is well aware of the "shortage shouting" that has occurred over the decade (yes, I said decade).

I am forced to conclude that you have either not done your homework, that you consider the corporate point-of-view as the be-all of the issue, or that you cant be bothered interviewing anyone on the other side of the issue, like Professor Norm Matloff, who might give your listeners something closer to the truth on the issue.

When the Republicans had control of Congress, the threatened to cut the funding to NPR. I was very vocal in defending you. Next time I think Ill just tell them to "go ahead and cut because itd make things better for everyone."

Very Disappointed,

Disgusted in Austin

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NPR Services responds:

Thank you for contacting NPR's Morning Edition.We regret that our programming has not met your expectations. We strive to offer the highest quality of news and information available. Listener feedback helps us to accomplish this goal. We welcome praise, as well as criticism, and your thoughts will be taken into consideration. Thank you for listening to Morning Edition, and for your continued support of public broadcasting.

Hillary's Great Sellout

Until about three years ago, I was a Liberal Democrat. But that was before the Great Awakening. Now I consider myself an independent progressive. I cannot stand what the Republican party has become. I am repulsed by much of the Democratic party's stance on issues.

To wit: look at Hillary Clinton's stance on visas and offshoring. She recently announced her "innovation agenda," which is an industry buzzword for strongly supporting the industry's stance of "the more visas the better." Her adament support of companies like Tata Consulting is established, but thanks to an indiffernt press, not publicized much. Norm Matloff has written extensively about this.

I used to cheer for Hillary, when Bill was in the Whitehouse. Now she turns my stomach. If she is the Democratic candidate, then I'm staying home on election day.