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America’s Descent Into the Third World
Chronicles Magazine ^ | Monday, July 25, 2005 | Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on 07/27/2005 6:21:50 AM PDT by A. Pole

The June payroll jobs report did not receive much attention due to the July 4 holiday, but the depressing 21st century job performance of the U.S. economy continues unabated.

Only 144,000 private sector jobs were created, each one of which was in domestic services.

Fifty-six thousand jobs were created in professional and business services, about half of which are in administrative and waste services.

Thirty-eight thousand jobs were created in education and health services, almost all of which are in health care and social assistance.

Nineteen thousand jobs were created in leisure and hospitality, almost all of which are waitresses and bartenders.

Membership associations and organizations created 10,000 jobs, and repair and maintenance created 4,000 jobs.

Financial activities created 16,000 jobs.

This most certainly is not the labor market profile of a First World country, much less a superpower.

Where are the jobs for this year’s crop of engineering and science graduates?

U.S. manufacturing lost another 24,000 jobs in June. A country that doesn’t manufacture doesn’t need many engineers. And the few engineering jobs available go to foreigners.

Readers have sent me employment listings from U.S. software development firms. The listings are discriminatory against American citizens. One ad from a company in New Jersey that is a developer for many companies, including Oracle, specifies that the applicant must have a TN visa.

A TN or Trade NAFTA visa is what is given to Mexicans and Canadians who are willing to work in the United States at below prevailing wages.

Another ad from a software consulting company based in Omaha, Neb., specifies it wants software engineers who are H-1B transferees. What this means is that the firm is advertising for foreigners already in the United States who have H-1B work visas.

The reason the U.S. firms specify that they have employment opportunities only for foreigners who hold work visas is because the foreigners will work for less than the prevailing U.S. salary.

Gentle reader, when you read allegations that there is a shortage of engineers in America, necessitating the importation of foreigners to do the work, you are reading a bald-faced lie. If there were a shortage of American engineers, employers would not word their job listings to read that no American need apply and that they are offering jobs only to foreigners holding work visas.

What kind of country gives preference to foreigners over its own engineering graduates?

What kind of country destroys the job market for its own citizens?

How much longer will parents shell out $100,000 for a college education for a son or daughter who ends up employed as a bartender, waitress or temp?


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To: nyconse

A common myth. Foreign-born professionals are just as aggressive in negotiating competitive salaries as native-born.

Do you really think someone from India DOESN'T want to make $100,000 a year if he can?


81 posted on 07/27/2005 8:17:49 AM PDT by frgoff
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To: superiorslots

"US corporations that are home grown have no allegiance to the US workers or the US in any way. "

And the free marketeers will tell you that's a good thing!
Bring up patriotism, or Christian values, and they will tell you you're behaving like a lib.

Odd, very odd.


82 posted on 07/27/2005 8:18:52 AM PDT by brownsfan (It's not a war on terror... it's a war with islam.)
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To: A. Pole

The sky is falling.


83 posted on 07/27/2005 8:19:43 AM PDT by Casloy
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To: A. Pole
employers would not word their job listings to read that no American need apply and that they are offering jobs only to foreigners holding work visas.

I work in the software industry and that's not what these ads are saying. They want citizens OR these special visa. I have even seen ads that just want citizens only, because they do not want the visa hassles.

84 posted on 07/27/2005 8:20:32 AM PDT by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: frgoff
The best and brightest U.S.-born students will never have a problem getting good paying work in this country.

The mediocre and average, on the other hand...

And of course everyone here is from the first group.

The posts make that evident. ;-)

85 posted on 07/27/2005 8:20:41 AM PDT by iconoclast ( "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive")
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To: frgoff
Do you really think someone from India DOESN'T want to make $100,000 a year if he can?

Do YOU really think he'll push for it before he gets more than his nose under tent?

86 posted on 07/27/2005 8:24:14 AM PDT by iconoclast ( "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive")
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To: iconoclast; Maria S
"What kind of human being relishes sacrificing his fellow Americans to satisfy their own short sighted ideology?"

Excellent question. I think you and I know the answer. The standard answer from those who do such things:

Why is an American better than someone else?

Bring up nationalism, and patriotism, and the reply will come:

Nationalism - that's a code for communism, go back to the DU!

But let their businesses have trouble overseas and they come running looking for the American people and the government to come to their aid.
When their city is attacked by islamics and they want protection, then nationalism and patriotism is a good thing. They want other people's children to fight and die for them.
Disgusting parasites. But they'll tell you that they are the real ones who make things happen.
87 posted on 07/27/2005 8:24:31 AM PDT by brownsfan (It's not a war on terror... it's a war with islam.)
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To: Modernman
We manufacture more than we ever have.

For some reason they don't carry many of these goods in Walmart or anywhere else I shop. I have a hard time figuring out just what these American manufactured goods might be. If we make so much how come it is almost impossible to find anything American made to buy?

88 posted on 07/27/2005 8:24:35 AM PDT by jackbenimble (Import the third world, become the third world)
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To: NRA1995
I think no small part of preferring foreign-born engineering graduates to home-grown is in their scholastic performance. Too many here are content to just squeak by on math and science.

it has to do more with choice of career. When I went to engineering school, over half the students were foreign. Science and engineering are tough things to study and you will miss out on a lot of parties and socializing. I would say a lot of Americans students would rather have their fun instead.

89 posted on 07/27/2005 8:25:30 AM PDT by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: Bertha Fanation
How can the U.S. be third world when we produce so many intelligent, productive attorneys?

So true. I'll know that all is right with the world, once again, when my attorney is waiting tables at my country club to make ends meet and solicit clients.

90 posted on 07/27/2005 8:26:16 AM PDT by elbucko
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To: riverdawg
As for the alleged dearth of high-paying jobs for recent graduates, my father-in-law says it's extremely difficult for his small architectural/engineering firm to find qualified new hires for less than $100,000 a year.

My dad's is an engineering consultant for various automotive industry companies. Finding well-trained workers with a good work ethic has always been a problem for the companies he has worked for. Everthing from welders to design engineers.

I know this is going to seem terribly old-fashioned, but there is still value in a diversified, rigorous liberal-arts background

I tend to agree. Pushing your kids into a highly specialized field doesn't seem like a great idea, IMO.

91 posted on 07/27/2005 8:27:36 AM PDT by Modernman ("Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." -Bismarck)
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To: Paul Ross

"Every time one of you pop off with your dithering anti-U.S. industry misreprentations, they are smiling widely in Bejing. You are very useful to them."

But, but, your facts don't fit with the dogma here.


92 posted on 07/27/2005 8:27:54 AM PDT by brownsfan (It's not a war on terror... it's a war with islam.)
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To: GingisK
The difference is that American companies, practicing the "United We Stand" mantra, have sent the jobs offshore.

Because the American consumer wants the cheapest software. Which video game would you buy for your kids, the $50 one or the $100 one?

93 posted on 07/27/2005 8:28:16 AM PDT by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: iconoclast

He'll do it like everyone else in the work force. Start at entry level and work his way up.

If he's good enough to qualify for $100K a year he'll push for it.

I didn't start at $70k my first day out of college, either.

Really, sometimes the expectations people have...


94 posted on 07/27/2005 8:29:19 AM PDT by frgoff
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To: auntyfemenist
This may be far afield of our topic, but while we are on it...If American colleges and universities would not devote so many resources to "fun days," all

You are right on point. Colleges have become social and party centers, not centers of higher education. Some of these universities look like frikkin resorts with all the amenities they've got. Cut the "fun" stuff out and I'll bet you'd bring down the cost as well.

95 posted on 07/27/2005 8:31:35 AM PDT by A Ruckus of Dogs
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To: jpsb
Yea, that's why we had to buy bullets from China for our troops in Iraq.

There is a serious surge of demand for bullets due to the Iraq war. Bullet manufacturers in this country don't sit around with spare manufacturing capacity just in case a war breaks out. They manufacture enough bullets to meet standard demand. So, it only makes sense that in such a situation, we would need to turn to foreign manufacturers.

What would have been your solution? Government subsidies to bullet manufacturers to allow them to keep lots of unused manufacturing capacity, just in case?

96 posted on 07/27/2005 8:32:03 AM PDT by Modernman ("Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." -Bismarck)
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To: Alberta's Child
Anyone who assumes that a loss of manufacturing jobs is automatically an indicator of a decline in manufacturing has a serious credibility problem.

Then it should be easy to find products made in the USA on the shelves of local stores, right?

97 posted on 07/27/2005 8:33:05 AM PDT by lucysmom
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To: iconoclast

"What kind of human being relishes sacrificing his fellow Americans to satisfy their own short sighted ideology?"


I didn't realize I gave the impression that I "relish" sacrificing anyone! And if expecting someone to give a day's work for a day's pay is a short-sighted ideology, I'm guilty. When I can hire a legal alien (especially those working diligently to learn English AND become citizens), I'll just continue to be short-sighted. Besides, who wants to bother those spoiled little Americans, just out of college, with their brains full of liberal mush...many of them are too busy wandering the malls and still trying "to find themselves".

My great-grandparents came over from Scotland, England, and Ireland with tremendous work ethics and without college degrees; is it too much to expects today's so-called well-educated graduates to work for their pay?


98 posted on 07/27/2005 8:33:23 AM PDT by Maria S
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To: frgoff
Start at entry level and work his way up.

First redefining entry level salary, of course.

99 posted on 07/27/2005 8:34:47 AM PDT by iconoclast ( "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive")
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To: riverdawg

"but there is still value in a diversified, rigorous liberal-arts background"

Well you should hire this particular skill set and at the same time tell us the buildings that they will design so that we can avoid them.

Garbage can only design more garbage.


100 posted on 07/27/2005 8:35:58 AM PDT by nairBResal
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