Posted on 02/04/2006 4:38:34 AM PST by Tyche
Making a strong pitch for America to stay competitive in the face of emerging economies such as India and China, President George W Bush has urged the Congress to raise the number of H-1B visas that allow companies to hire foreign workers for scientific and high tech jobs.
"Congress needs to understand that nations like India, China, Japan, Korea and Canada all offer tax incentives that are permanent. In other words, we live in a competitive world. We want to be the leader in this world," Bush said in a speech in Minnesota on Thursday.
To fill vacant jobs in the US, Bush urged the Congress to lift current limit on H-1B visas that allow foreign workers to get jobs in the United States. The Congress in 2005 capped at 65,000 the number of H-1B visas, a third of the 195,000 allowed during the technology boom.
"I think it's a mistake not to encourage more really bright folks who can fill the jobs that are having trouble being filled here in America, to limit their number. So I call upon Congress to be realistic and reasonable and raise that cap," Bush said, but did not say by how much he wanted the limit lifted.
He said that one part of the agenda to stay competitive was to study math and science, a theme he touched on in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday.
"It's one thing to research, but if you don't have somebody in that lab, well… And so I got some ideas for the Congress to consider. The first is to emphasize math and science early, and to make sure that the courses are rigorous enough that our children can compete globally," Bush said in a speech at the 3M Corporation.
He said there are more high-tech jobs in America today than people available to fill them. "So what do we do about that? And the reason it's important -- and the American citizen has got to understand it's important -- is if we don't do something about how to fill those high-tech jobs here, they'll go somewhere else where somebody can do the job."
"There are some who say, we can't worry about competition. It doesn't matter, it's here. It's a real aspect of the world in which we live," he said.
"And so one way to deal with this problem, and probably the most effective way, is to recognize that there's a lot of bright engineers and chemists and physicists from other lands that are either educated here, or received an education elsewhere but want to work here. And they come here under a programme called H1B visas," Bush said.
He said America should not fear competition. "It's important for us not to lose our confidence in changing times. It's important for us not to fear competition but welcome it."
Senior administration officials noted that the number of H-1B visas has fallen to 65,000 which in their estimation was 'too low' and that it was imperative 'to bump that up.'
". . . some of reports have called for increases of 10,000; others between 20,000 and 40,000. So there is a number of options on the table to be considered. But we'll work with Congress on that," said Claude Allen, assistant to the President for domestic policy.
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.
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.
look, I've seen this first hand with my own eyes. you are essentially trying to convince me that the sky is green.
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). . . .
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
I take it yours isn't.
No surprises there.
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?
Wrong.
In my wife's experience, every H-1B her firms have hired have made just as much as the citizens.
Close your eyes and try to imagine an organization that would do something like that . . . mind-boggling.
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