The IT collapse of last few years is very different from oil collapse in OK in 80's. Because of h1b program. H1b is a government program heavily supported by Republicans that is in reality an ethnic cleansing program. There are 1 million h1b's today, then there are more who've been through h1b program and are either green card holders or citizens working in this market.
Let me explain how h1b works. American corporations spend about $2,000 to contract a recruit in India to find a person to fill a job. The recruiter in India has graduates from technical institutes to feed to the american corporation. The recruiters normally lie on the resumes of the people and exaggerate their credentials greatly. Congress actually investigated and proved that they normally lie, but it doesn't matter to the corps, they want an indentured servant, that's what they get. The deal is made while the person being hired is in India. They agree to come to the US and work here and that if they're still working for that same company after 6 years and if that same company still wants to keep them employed after the indentured servant period, then they can get a green card and work freely in the US. If they for any reason quit that employer during the indentured servant period, then the 6 year time schedule will start over if they find another h1b sponsor/corporation/owner. If they do not find another h1b sponsor/corporation/owner to employ them and lose their job for any reason, then they must go home. So, these people are not working as free people on an even playing field with american providers of this labor. They are willing to work very very hard to ensure that they can become US citizens.
The h1b people do not pay social security tax to the social security program. Instead, the same money goes to their home government to induce those governments tofund the technical institutes. India's technical institutes are very well developed, it seems even superior to ours'. So, h1b takes an average of $45,000 from the social security program and sends itout of the country to fund training for people to replace americans in the job market for every one of these one million h1b people in the country now. Congress has approved 195,000 new h1b's every year.
So, these terrible events of the huge masses of american high tech people losing their jobs is particularly awful. It is not the noral ebb and flow of a market. It is not creative destruction of the free market, it is ethnic cleansing that government has created through raw power.
There are some bigoted people who believe that americans can't do high-tech work and that therefore, the government is doing the right thing in back-stabbing their own citizens in the marketplace. But americans have led the world in technical innovation since 1800 and have not just led the world by a small margin, but by a wide margin. We did it by rewarding the innovators in a free marketplace. This new system of indentured servitude is not built around rewarding the producers, it is built around extraordinary manipulation of the market through special laws to apply only to parts of the labor market for the purpose of procuring indentured servants to an unholy managerial class.
The American nation has always produced quality people to do this type of work. But now that will change. Young americans now studying engineering, especially software or computer related engineering, have the deck stacked against them. Read Professor Matloff's research, link below. He's found that if you major in software or computer related stuff today you have it seems in reality between a 5 and 10% chance of being able to establish and keep a career in this field that lasts more than 10 years. Lots of very capable and hard working people are just being thrown away in the name of making the market work efficiently. It is a system of ethnic cleansing.
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.real.html
The h1b program is a republican program. When it was initially created 3/4's of all republicans voted for it while 2/3's of all democrats voted against it. H1b has successfully driven wages down by at least 30% in these fields. If we don't get rid of the h1b program, then young americans will successfully be discouraged from even majoring in the engineering field so that our corporations can encourage a larger supply of slaves to pick from when they hire people for this type of work. That hasn't happened yet, the young people are being successfully conned into majoring in this at this time. Matloff identified that during 1990's there was in fact massive increase in americans majoring in this stuff. Matloff says that 94% of engineering majors in american universities are american. Only in grad schools do the foreigners dominate, that is because the market punishes americans who go to grad school in these types of fields. Read Matloff if you doubt me in anything I've said here.
One of the key things that made me decide to never again vote for GWB is when I saw him on tv asserting strongly that people who are opposed to h1b are racists.
There are some bigoted people who believe that americans can't do high-tech work and that therefore, the government is doing the right thing in back-stabbing their own citizens in the marketplace. You dont have to be a bigot to realize that Math and Science education in America has gone to hell, and that for the most part, the best engineers, programmers and scientists no longer come from the U.S.
Dont let my screen name fool you, I am an American born and raised, but that doesnt keep me from accepting that Americans have themselves to blame for H1B.
It is way out of hand now, but it started as a legitimate program for augmenting workforces. Every country eventually faces foreign competition. It has now reached our shores, and instead of complaining, we need to better prepare our own workers for the coming struggle.
I totally agree with you regarding the H1B. I think it should be stopped and now.
As far as the education in this country, it does need improvement. There is just no doubt about it. I believe without a doubt, Americans can do the work and can be educated to do the work, but as long as the folks in education take any criticism personally, and as long as we continue to import cheap labor, there will be nothing done, about either situation.