Gang of Eight Increases Unemployment

Creators Syndicate ^ | May 28, 2013 | Phyllis Schlafly

[jazusamo]

The bill created in secret by the Gang of Eight is an outrageous betrayal of American workers, both high-skilled and low-skilled. Claiming it is bipartisan, the drafters were Democrats and globalist Republicans.

Economics 101 teaches that prices of products and wages go up when there is a shortage and go down when there is an ample supply of whatever. But funny thing, a consortium of billionaire oligarchs and high paid lobbyists have defied those axioms by rejecting U.S. STEM college graduates (science, technology, engineering or math) and then crying about shortages.

Half of American STEM graduates are not currently hired for a STEM job. Many students are so discouraged about the lack of job opportunities for STEM graduates that they have switched to more promising course majors, such as accounting.

The lobbyists lied to us by reciting the slogan that the "best and the brightest" are foreigners, rather than Americans, and must be imported so we can benefit from their brains and labor. The notion that the best and the brightest are foreigners is false and contemptible, since most of the world's great inventions and innovations are American.

In pursuit of this foolish notion, tens of thousands of foreigners have been imported to take jobs in the tech industries. The corporations welcome this deceit because they pay them less than Americans, bring in foreigners who are not high-skilled for entry-level jobs, force experienced Americans to train them and then lay off the Americans.

The Gang of Eight is so enamored with this racket that their proposed legislation more than doubles the number of guest worker visas. The Gang of Eight bill raises H-1B visas to 115,000 a year and allows up to 180,000.

[elpadre]

All immigration should stop, cold turkey, until the actual unemployment rate drops to 5%.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” All immigration should stop, cold turkey, until the actual unemployment rate drops to 5%.”

Bingo!

[jazusamo]

Agreed, and illegals should be deported and made to wait in line like legal immigrants do for entry. Make it tougher for illegals to work here by a practical E-Verify system.

[newheart]

The corporations welcome this deceit because they pay them less than Americans, bring in foreigners who are not high-skilled for entry-level jobs, force experienced Americans to train them and then lay off the Americans.

She may be right about that but it would be nice to see some documentation to back up this claim. I worked in a tech field for about 15 years, big and small companies. I never saw what she is claiming.

[Bon mots]

They can make the unemployment rate whatever they want, but it is a lie. For example, when someone is out of work for 6 months, they no longer count as unemployed - since employment/unemployment is a two-state condition, by default the government proudly counts them as employed.

You need to look at the "Labor Force Participation Rate" to really see the truth.

^{⬆ Click on the image above to enlarge and see full size.}

Click HERE to see the original data on the BLS.gov's webpage.

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[jazusamo]

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[American in Israel]

[SeminoleCounty]

With our real unemployment rate ....we need zero immigration

The liberals, free traders, race groups, globalists, welfare industry...are the ones who want Amnesty and non-American labor

And....we the American taxpayers are forced to pay higher taxes to support unemployed Americans....and illegal aliens

[Thane_Banquo]

All immigration should stop, cold turkey, until the actual unemployment rate drops to 5%.

There you go...

[SeminoleCounty]

Schafly is telling the truth on this.....high tech Americans are being fired and replaced by lower paid and lesser trained foreigners

Unless you can provide proof otherwise this is not happening....

[Thane_Banquo]

You never saw how companies only hire IT people from India and China, some of whom can barely speak English, and many of whom are simply not very bright, and pay them much less than Americans? Really? I have seen this all the time on the IT and quantitative sides of the financial industry for instance.

[newheart]

Unless you can provide proof otherwise this is not happening....

So she makes the assertion and the onus is on me to disprove it? Sorry, that is not the way it works. I merely raised the question based on my own experience, not disagreeing with her, but suggesting that further evidence would be helpful. She is an accomplished attorney and I would presume she understands significance of backing up her assertions with evidence.

Only in the Dan Rather School of Journalism does the absence of evidence become evidence.

[newheart]

You never saw how companies only hire IT people from India and China, some of whom can barely speak English, and many of whom are simply not very bright, and pay them much less than Americans?

I worked in health care tech. I did see the company hire people from India. As it turned out they were paid as much or more than their American counterparts and the company eventually ceased outsourcing in that area.

I am not saying it never happens. I am merely asking for evidence. Not merely Ms. Schafly's comments to be taken as Holy Writ.

[SeminoleCounty]

There is plenty of evidence that Americans are being replaced in high tech jobs by lower paid and lesser trained foreigners. In fact....that is such a fact that no one would need to provide evidence of such...and merely searching on line will find numerous reports and studies that this is happening

And...its always the canard of those who support Free Trade Globalism that you must “provide proof”....on whatever you say. If I am wrong ...its up to the one challenging to “provide proof” I am wrong...I do not write research papers on websites

[khelus]

here’s a start; follow the links in the article:

http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2009/may09/09-05-01.html

[newheart]

here’s a start

Thanks khelus. It might have been handy if some of those links had been in the Creators Syndicate article.

That is much better than a comment like "I do not write research papers on websites."

[khelus]

I can understand the frustration behind the comment. Replacement of US IT workers by inferior and low wage ‘guest workers’ who often pay no or partial taxes has been going on for a L O N G time. I personally have never seen the situation you described; nor has anyone I know in the field. In fact, as a software engineer I now compete with illegals (visa overstays).

Here’s another good article about the ‘immigration reform’ bill:
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/GreenCardTrojanHorse.txt

Matloff is a statistician and professor of computer science who is meticulous in his research.
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/matloff.html

[Fee]

If American college grads are not acceptable for high tech jobs in US corporations, then Congress should convene hearings and hold US college to tasks. Let the two traitorous institutions (corporate America and leftist universities) trade accusation against each other. So which is it professor, you are doing a piss poor job for the tuition families are paying or corporate America is lying to hide their greed for cheap foreign high tech workers? So which is it corporate America, is our colleges one of the best in the world or is it one inferior ones int the world, if inferior why do you make huge donations to failed institutions???? I am confuse unless someone in the hearings is lying.

[setha]

The big reason they go to the guest workers is that they are captive labor (by virtue of the immigration regulations). Their rate of pay is only a secondary concern compared to the amount of freedom a citizen has vs a guest worker.

Get rid of the guest worker programs(as well as anything capable of functioning as such) and pay attention to see who complains.