Message I sent this week to Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's former Secretary of Labor:

From: AmericanProgrammer
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:09 AM
To: Robert Reich
Cc: Norm Matloff;
Subject: Econ 101 - Supply, demand . . . and an impending thud

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/05/30/PM200705305.html

Dr. Reich -

I listened with interest to your commentary on the U.S. market yesterday (30-May-2007) on the Marketplace program on NPR.

As you noted in your commentary:

"When the supply of something decreases while the demand for it stays up, its price rises."

Apparently basic economics must NOT be a factor when it comes to high-tech employment in the USA.

In the last few years, pay for IT professionals and engineers has NOT risen considerably - in fact, it has stayed flat or declined in terms of purchasing power, but the large American high-tech employers such as Intel and Microsoft keep shouting about so-called "shortages" of workers, lobbying Congress for unlimited H-1B visas.

Norm Matloff has written about this phenomenon on numerous occasions. He has also done considerable research that shows that the average H-1B worker makes at least 20 % less than a citizen or LPR in a similar job.

This must be covered in Econ 201...Do you care to comment publicly on this topic?

Regards,

AmericanProgrammer


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Reich's reply:

Dear Mr. xxxxxxx,

Please send me a citation to Norm Matloff's work.

Thank you.

Robert Reich

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Dr Matloff''s response to Dr. Reich's inquiry:

H-1B is not about "innovation," this year's buzzword of choice by the
industry lobbyists. I strongly support bringing in "the best and the
brightest" from around the world, but they comprise only a tiny fraction
of the H-1Bs.

Instead, H-1B is used as cheap labor by virtually every U.S. tech firm,
large and small. That is what drives things.

For links to some of my writings on this issue, see

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.html

Norm Matloff