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You & others w/real life exp. are 100% correct. I know because of 30+ yrs. in international HR consulting w/an employment-staffing expertise that has earned me a place in Who's Who In the World for last 10 yrs.
The drain of living wage jobs has been relentless thoughout all of my career--we (and the rest of the world) have always had indentured workers of various kinds, but the current disasters started w/off shore manufacturing that few of us worried about because we were only to glad to buy the cheap goods it produced. (Remember the 1970s plea: "Look for the union label"?)
Then, female-dominated office/white collar jobs were negatively affected by a combination of inefficient but popular technologies (Where did the promised "paperless" office go?) & crappy, low-bid temp contractors & outsources like Manpower, Kinkos, Pitney Bowes, Wachenhut, et al (Where are the improvements in service they promised?)
All these & more were touted as another advance in just-in-time hiring.
Now, after a brief respite during the dot.com bubble & in specific areas of the country at different times, the on-going destruction of the "permanent job" (ie: stable, long-term employment at a compensation package suffient to have a dignified, middle-class existance) that attacked blue, white & pink collars has reached gold collars...tech & other skilled, educated, professional jobs (incl. medicine, law, acctg, teaching, etc.) w/HB1s only one of the factors.

What of unions, you ask? Corrupt, I answer. And foolishly focused for too long on dying industries plus, at best, suffering in the wilderness because of the mistaken snobbery of those who thought of themselves as professionals aligned w/the upper-most tier of management. (Big mistake. Just ask anyone from Andersen what their CPA & 80 hr weeks have bought them in the way of security).

As for the shortages that caused (sic) HB1 mania, there is no real labor supply gap--never was, in spite of our shrinking "native" birth rate, only a shortage of educated workers & avenues for affordable, practical retraining for the displaced & those w/outmoded skills. We, as a people, have failued to recognize the truth of what was happening to us & take care of business. Now we are paying for it.

Answers: Don't blame those who take advantage of our weaknesses. Save your money. Get out of debt & into the faces of legislators, political parties & trade/professional associations to force reversal of open border policies; create professional unions; demand good public schools; demand tax cheats/employers (of all sizes!) hiring illegals be punished...and...never again fall for the illusion of "team oriented/people focused" organizations.

It's dog eat dog & will be forever, no matter how much we & our bosses wish it weren't. We just have to deal with it!

Get out of debt & into the faces of legislators, political parties & trade/professional associations to force reversal of open border policies

Many have already tried to write to their "representatives". Those pleas have fallen upon deaf ears. It is now time to evict them from office and show them what it's like to be out of work. Not that they'll suffer much, because I'm sure they have enough money to last them a few lifetimes at least. But it WOULD be nice if they couldn't mold our national policy any longer...

I agree with everything in your post with the exception about Unions. Yes they are corrupt....but stop and think for a minute about the "dying industries"...these dying industries in the US BECAME FLOURISHING INDUSTRIES in third world countries at the expense of the American BLUE COLLAR worker. Now that white collar workers are suffering the same fate that blue collar workers have endured over the last 15 years, it becomes a "hot" topic.

Hmmmmmm manufacturing industries here in the northeast have been completely gutted in the last 15 years.

Welcome to the club. Enjoy your search for a McJob or two.