Bush urges US Congress to lift H-1B visa limit

PTI ^ | February 03, 2006 | Sridhar Krishnaswami

[nopardons]

Baloney!

[A. Pole]

Yeah, because we wouldn't want money to concentrate in the hands of citizens when it can go to the government instead.

You are playing games. There are "citizens" and "citizens". Poor laborers who toil at subsistence wage are not equal to the very rich who do not have to work and who can buy politicians. No republic can last long in the presence of extreme stratification.

How will that help America accumulate the savings and capital we need to compete again?

When you exclude majority of citizens (see my tagline) from controlling a large part of the wealth, you undermine the competitiveness of the nation.

[A. Pole]

Yeah, because we wouldn't want money to concentrate in the hands of citizens when it can go to the government instead.

In other words, the concentration of the wealth in the hands of the few is as bad as the control by the government.

The answer is that majority of wealth should be owned by the majority of citizens. This is what "ownership society is about". Still there can be some very rich and very poor, but the middle should dominate.

[Nowhere Man]

NAFTA, CAFTA, open borders, guest workers etc

Well, there IS a plan to merge Canada, Mexico and the US into a closer union, can't remember what it is called though but it is supposed to be voted on by 2008 or so. I heard of it on Glenn Beck one day. I got to say the tin-foil, conspiracy crowd are right on this one. We have a choice between "World Soviet" or "World Corporation" but as you put it (as well as my points), power and money in too few hands stagnates the process as well as create huge lumps of corruption.

[oceanview]

look, I've seen this first hand with my own eyes. you are essentially trying to convince me that the sky is green.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

RE: FR Socialists?

Free trade is a valuable thing. We've had free trade with advanced nations for decade after decade. Good!

"Free trade" IMO is free tradin' advanced-nations' techonology, wealth (FDI), and production for developing countries' "cheap labor." There's more to it -- like in real free trade? Say what? India and China have opened their domestic markets like we and other advanced nations have? When did that happen?

I don't know who the "socialists" are but I do know that lots of "world citizens" do like this redistribution process. To wit..

"Free trade" is highly favored by American New Democrat Third Way and most other "progressives," mainline Republicans (we used to call 'em Rockefeller Republicans), "American" transnational corporations, Hollywood, Davos' World Economic Forum, World Social Forum (with "social justice" safeguards), the ILO (with "social justice" safeguards), the WTO (soon with "social justice" safeguards enforced!), the U.N.(with "social justice" safeguards), the WSJ, the NYT (with "social justice" safeguards), ABCNNBCBS (with "social justice" safeguards), virtually all universities (with "social justice" safeguards). . . .

[nopardons]

You've seen it on a very small scale. I know about it on a far larger one.

Nope, the sky is seen through one wee pin-dot hole, in your universe; I'm just attempting to widen your horizon...not change the color.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

That seems ironic to me. The nurse field is filled with H-1C and even H-1B foreigners.

My wife works at a local hospital and she knows a number of people there who have told her that the field is screaming for intelligent, motivated, young white men to enter the field.
I have interacted with many here on FR with experience in the engineering fields and the reports from that sector aren't as rosy.

[SauronOfMordor]

I agree when I was in grad school I was shocked to find pout what a 'money maker' foreigners were for the school. Another thing to do is to stop US universities from treating foreign students as a form of 'indentured servants' by rigorously enforcing visas.

And if the grad student had no prospect of a US job (no H1B increase), he would have less incentive in coming to a US university rather than getting his grad degree in India or wherever

[SauronOfMordor]

Guess what, Indians have roughly the same bell curves on intelligence as do Caucasians.

India has a much bigger population than the US, which means that the absolute number of 170-IQ people is greater. And becoming a trial lawyer is not a route to great wealth there. So the really smart people go into engineering and science and try to come here, or perform outsources work for a US company

[A. Pole]

So the really smart people go into engineering and science and try to come here, or perform outsources work for a US company

Many smart people do not want to leave their homeland and to live as strangers in the foreign country.

It is easy to have skewed perspective as you see ONLY those who came to your place.

[SauronOfMordor]

But what I think is even more amazing is the fact that you went from no knowledge of C (did you know any other programming language???) to what i guess would be crackerjack C programmer in what...three weeks.

My first C programming assignment was in the 80's as well. I had no prior C experience. But I had several years experience in PL/1 and assembler, with some COBOL, FORTRAN, and Pascal as well. Once you know a few high-level languages, picking up one more is no big deal -- just different syntax to do the same thing.

In the 70's and early 80's college programming instruction was mostly Pascal or PL/1

[Czar]

"In-as-much as your culture and way of life is being threatened,..."

I take it yours isn't.

No surprises there.

[hedgetrimmer]

From the Candadian side:

"Can the prime minister tell us why he will be pursuing an agenda of deeper integration with the U.S., sacrificing Canadian sovereignty?

If CAFTA were really just about trade, the agreement would be little more than a few pages long, declaring that tariff treatment for U.S. and Central American goods will be on a reciprocal basis. But it isn't. In reality, CAFTA is about expanding a growing body of international law that supersedes our own.

From Mexico:

Recently, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez Baustista floated a "trial balloon" during a speech at the University of Texas, ominously revealing a possible answer. According to Baustista, Mexico and the United States should eventually become "integrated," thus forming what can only be construed as the hub of a "North American Union," no doubt eventually including Canada as well.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Poor laborers who toil at subsistence wage are not equal to the very rich who do not have to work and who can buy politicians.

Yeah, like that Bill Gates. Lazy bastard.

When you exclude majority of citizens (see my tagline) from controlling a large part of the wealth, you undermine the competitiveness of the nation.

You crack me up!! Does Bill Gates control too much of the economy? His work only employs 61,000 people. His work only helped several thousand of them become millionaires.

Taking money from him and giving it to Teddy Kennedy to spend is the best way to keep America competitive?

Do you think Teddy Kennedy is more careful spending his own money, or the tax dollars he takes from you and me? And you want him to get more money. For the good of the country.

How long have you been in the UAW? Or is it the Teamsters? Steelworkers? Why do you pretend to be a conservative?

[Toddsterpatriot]

In other words, the concentration of the wealth in the hands of the few is as bad as the control by the government.

Wrong.

[Toddsterpatriot]

In my wife's experience, every H-1B her firms have hired have made just as much as the citizens.

[1rudeboy]

Close your eyes and try to imagine an organization that would do something like that . . . mind-boggling.

[hedgetrimmer]

Motives for regional integration (like NAFTA, CAFTA or the FTAA)

Economic motives

• Trade benefits of improved resource allocation and competition (arguable>
• Provide training ground or launching pad for outward-looking policies (?)
• Insure against possible breakdown of multilateralism (social justice through trade)
• Lock-in and provide credibility to politically difficult domestic policies(!!)
• Increase multilateral bargaining power, e.g. in WTO (We didn't need this before "free trade")
• Raise visibility in attracting foreign investment
• Facilitate deep integration, i.e. policy coordination

Political motives

• Further national security goals (sounds like the North American Security Plan of Bush's)
• Use as a stepping-stone towards political unification
  http://www.fao.org/world/regional/REU/Repository/FAO_BSEC_project_TCP_RER_2901/FAO_BSEC_Reg_Int.ppt

[nopardons]

Open your eyes and mind and attempt to actually see and acknowledge reality; no imagining necessary at all.