Posted on 02/19/2005 8:21:07 PM PST by SausageDog
Americans are being sold out on the jobs front. Americans' employment opportunities are declining as a result of corporate outsourcing of U.S. .jobs, H-1B visas that import foreigners to displace Americans in their own country, and federal guest worker programs President Bush and his Republican majority intend to legalize the aliens who hold down wages for construction companies and cleaning services. To stretch budgets, state and local governments bring in lower-paid foreign nurses and schoolteachers. To reduce costs, U.S. corporations outsource jobs abroad and use work visa programs to import foreign engineers and programmers. The U.S. job giveaway is explained by a "shortage" of Americans to take the jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Right. And I just happen to know a headhunter for the past ten years who hasn't placed one American in a high tech job in two years.
Their clients run through a charade of interviews, inform the recruiter none of the candidates are qualified (which is a damn lie), then put in an official request for an H-1B guest worker.
That's a pretty low altitude skyrocket.
How about this as a thesis, provisions of the H1B (and more pernicious L1) visas violate the 13th amendment to the constitution by instituting involuntary servitude.
If you are for guest workers you should encourage the abolition of the visa provisions that force them to work for a single employer and let them compete in the general economy. After all, don't bind the invisible hand.
" let them compete in the general economy. "
Good point.
Whey my former company laid me and the rest of my team off they were careful to point out that the age distribution of those being laid off was equal to that of those being retained - across the company as a whole, not just in the IT group. The HR person who did my outplacement interview (who has herself since been "impacted" by a layoff) had no answer to my observation that all of the Indian contractors who were moving into our positions were ten to fifteen years younger on average than those of us being displaced.
Is it your opinion that companies should have the right to displace those of us who fall into the category of "older workers", ie 40+, in the interest of competitiveness or should there be age discrimination laws that regulate this?
"Who is buying all that stuff that keeps the GDP increasing and the economy booming? Maybe it is the illegals and guest workers."
Inflation will make GDP 'grow' all by itself. Of course governemnt numbers use all kinds of arcane, convoluted measurements to plower the official inflation number.
The most simple part of the equation appears to stump most FR economist types doesn't it!? Blackbird.
The American factory worker earning $10 per hour is not competing with an $8.00-an-hour Chinese worker. The American is competing against an $8.00- PER-WEEK Chinese worker.
It's not just a proportional reduction of wages equal to a proportional reduction in product cost. Entire towns and regions of our country are devastated. The dollar earned by an American factory worker flows through the American community with a multiplier effect. When the factory closes, the entire community, region and state suffers.
I remember when we were told factory workers thrown out of work could learn computers as a new profession. Now the computer field has been devastated by outsourcing to other countries.
It's funny how "free market" capitalists around here say, "Screw 'em, it's dog eat dog," about their fellow working Americans thrown out of a job.
To that I say, "They're gonna eat your dog all right. They are going to steal your possessions and they are going to revolt and install radical socialism, too."
You can't tell millions of unemployed American workers to go scrounge in garbage dumps to feed their families just so Wal-Mart can sell screwdrivers for 25 cents.
A seriously distrubing quote from that site:
"...Examples of benchmarks identified by the group included the following:
-- The proportion of U.S.-citizens in science and engineering (S&E) graduate studies within the U.S. is declining. From 1994 to 2001, graduate S&E enrollment in the U.S. declined by 10 percent for U.S. citizens but increased by 25 percent for foreign-born students. In 2001 approximately 57 percent of all S&E postdoctoral positions at U.S. universities were held by foreign- born scholars...."
">>Consumers must be wage-earners first.<<"
">The most simple part of the equation appears to stump most FR economist types doesn't it!? Blackbird.<"
LOL
I know of a person who, as a preschool age kid, conducted some type of toy trading game. Payment was in shells. Soon he had cornered all the shells. No more game, no more fun.
What he figured out was: go and sprinkle a bunch of shells around and suggest the other kids go shell hunting "one more time".
Andthere are adults who can't figure this out. By the way, far more shells were found than had been sprinkled.
Hi Frannie: The Old Geezer here.. Yeah, you're not old, just 82. My wife is 80, and I am right behind her. Young and younger...
Yep: we are the people who have been there and done that. We see things others don't because of our age.
I am a brickmason by trade over 50 years" experience as a mason, foreman, supt. and then my own contracting business. Today, I see it everywhere. Where I live, a booming GA city, you can hardly find an American worker. Only illegals. I see it in all the trades; sheetrock; cement; plumbing electrical; framing; landscaping etc. Not only that, nearly all jobs for the working class employee is gone.... totally gone; most manufacturing is done overseas... that's where the blue collar worker made his living. The high techs are gone overseas too. I get at least 5 calls a week by someone I can't understand; my credit card co's and banks all have foreigners making their calls. It is bad...especiallly for the unskilled workers who were unable to go to college. Something is bad when auto mechanics make $100,000 a year and a good craftsman who has spent four years as an apprentice, and then more years honing his skills must compete with $7.00 illegals. Our welfare rolls are filled with people who earn more than some craftsmen. It's happening everywhere. My wife has over 50 grandchildren, and I have a bunch too... and they are scattered across the country so we get a good picture of how the other half live... Not only that... we are retired and have the time to be on Free Republic all day and all night if we want to.... We get the picture...the whole picture. AND ONE MORE THING: BUSH HAD BETTER GET ON THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM BEFORE HILLARY OR OUR PARTY IS IN GRAVE PERIL OF BEING DEFEATED
Hi Frannie: The Old Geezer here.. Yeah, you're not old, just 82. My wife is 80, and I am right behind her. Young and younger...
Yep: we are the people who have been there and done that. We see things others don't because of our age.
I am a brickmason by trade over 50 years" experience as a mason, foreman, supt. and then my own contracting business. Today, I see it everywhere. Where I live, a booming GA city, you can hardly find an American worker. Only illegals. I see it in all the trades; sheetrock; cement; plumbing electrical; framing; landscaping etc. Not only that, nearly all jobs for the working class employee is gone.... totally gone; most manufacturing is done overseas... that's where the blue collar worker made his living. The high techs are gone overseas too. I get at least 5 calls a week by someone I can't understand; my credit card co's and banks all have foreigners making their calls. It is bad...especiallly for the unskilled workers who were unable to go to college. Something is bad when auto mechanics make $100,000 a year and a good craftsman who has spent four years as an apprentice, and then more years honing his skills must compete with $7.00 illegals. Our welfare rolls are filled with people who earn more than some craftsmen. It's happening everywhere. My wife has over 50 grandchildren, and I have a bunch too... and they are scattered across the country so we get a good picture of how the other half live... Not only that... we are retired and have the time to be on Free Republic all day and all night if we want to.... We get the picture...the whole picture. AND ONE MORE THING: BUSH HAD BETTER GET ON THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM BEFORE HILLARY OR OUR PARTY IS IN GRAVE PERIL OF BEING DEFEATED
It's much worse than that.
I can't disagree with anything you said above aside from adding another point ie "radical socialism". Right now Labor Unions are reeling, membership and other means of support are dwindling. All this is well and good from a Conservatives point of view. The downside? They'll be portrayed in the rush to radical socialism as the saviour to the working man again, and overnight will regain their marxist footing, and begin the cycle all over again. Rinse and repeat. Blackbird.
Well, I'm all of 45 years old, and I can confirm seeing everything you laid out here Stretch. I can't believe the turn I see in Conservatism to take on the mantra of "me me me", usually referred to as a Liberal trait. The current "me me me" crowds only real concern is their bottom line. Follow the money. Yes, business is in the business to make money. When does seeking legitimate profit cross over the line to being pure greed? I've yet to see otherwise Conservative people make that distinction. When the dims regain power, (notice I didn't say "if"), the decade of greed ramblings won't hold a candle to what's coming our way. You and frannie have a good day! Blackbird.
Self-reliance and the desire to be left alone are "liberal" traits? Do you mean small 'L' or big 'L?'
and I haven't seen a source yet that talks about what has happened from 2001 to 2004 - I imagine the trend described there has become even more acute as matriculating students choose their course of studies.
All the bots and free traders can do is claim "things will get better", "the theory says so", meanwhile more more bad news pours in. And more and more bad deals (CAFTA) get done. Persaonlly with so many people drinking the kool-aid these days I think it is too late to turn thngs around. The USA is finished as a super power and that fact will become crystal clear the moment that (protectionist) China or (protectionist) Europe wishes it too.
The USA has already lost super hi tect to (protectionist) Europe and has already lost bulk manurfacturing to (protectionist) Asia, nothing left for us but service industry and then only until (protectionist) India gets up to speed.
the other problem is a political one. right now, the republican party is winning on the issues of national defense and moral values. those are two good issues to have on your side. but we need to have a better economic message.
Agreed but it is to late to implemnet a sane national economic policy. The only thing we could do to buy ourselves a few more good decades is to replace the income tax with a sales tax. That would give the economy a temporary bump. But as long as our market is the only free marget we will continue to get our clocked clean and continue to lose industries and jobs to overseas competitors.
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