Replies

Good post. I'm glad you pointed out the root cause of our current problems is the "built to flip" mentality. The H1b situation is just an effect of this.
Adding to your post, this mentality drove manufacturing jobs out of the country as those couldn't be made profitable within a year or two so they had to go. Now we're seeing what happens when your entire economy depends on one sector.

I wish you had some of the smarts of most if the H1-B immigrants I know. At least they can speak English correctly and put together a coherent argument.

M: I came here for a good argument.
A: No you didn't; no, you came here for an argument.
M: An argument isn't just contradiction.
A: It can be.
M: No it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
A: No it isn't.
M: Yes it is! It's not just contradiction.
A: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
M: Yes, but that's not just saying 'No it isn't.'
A: Yes it is!
M: No it isn't!
M: Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.

Paying with an economy that is in shreds

You may be forgiven for speaking hyperbolically if your personal situation is fragile, but the economy is not in "shreds".

One mistake in your article here is that every company was cooking its books. That's just not true. Yes, most took liberties with ambiguous accounting standards (a fault of the very regulatory agencies supposed to prevent such things), but the real losers were anything but poor dupes. These were the suckers that thought they could get something for nothing as investors; the fools that thought a "new paradigm" could support P/E's of 200 or more; the morons that thought that a company that had ".com" in its name was a sure winner.

Another thought: the IT profession is not flooded with H1B's as much as most of my fellow Americans believe. The fact is that IT is flooded with talent, period. Every yahoo with a couple of bucks and a penchant for video gaming went out and got is MS certification and thought the dough would roll in. For every ad I place for a LAN administrator I see at least 200 resumes. Sorry to tell all you techies this, but it's a buyers market out there, so you better have some sweet goods. And if you've never worked in the industry you're applying to, forget it.

You must be living on Mars: that is apparently the source of your "facts."

You have formed opinions on the subject of which you appear to know nothing but some anecdotes from yoru personal life. Contrary to the message you have received from modern public education, your persona and the nation's economy are still two different things.

THere are decent colleges in your state. Before you post nonsense such as this, please take a course in economics and bother to get at least some basics statistics, would you?

There is something you left out: Clintong and Gang allowed many stock brokers, corporations and others to skirt the law. Clinton's gang with the help of Rubin were blowing on the straw that made the bubble get bigger. They allowed companies state down right out and out lies to their stock holders and they got away with it.

Clinton is to blame - not H1B !

1. The economy was tubing before George JR even was elected, and way before he was sworn in as President! It started tubing in the middle of July, during the election, and basically Clinton did nothing, but campaign for his wife, and count the silverware and select furniture (and young female aids) in the White House to take with him to his new "home" in NY.

George isnt a junior. He is the son of George Herbert Walker Bush. Im just being picky.

Your post is very incoherent. Listing a bunch-o'-facts about corporate crooks that you got from media soundbites does not an argument make. You did not even end up discussing why you think H1B visas ruined the economy - you make it sound like corrupt CEOs did that. In any case, your presentation reflects a lack of thought or knowledge of the subject. The '90s boom was most certainly not caused by H1B visas. The H1B program was in existence before the '90s and it contributes only a tiny fraction to the economy. H1B visas are used to fill highly skilled, technical positions for which there are temporary shortages. One of the rules to obtain work under that program is that the potential employer has to put out an ad in the paper advertising the position, in order to give Americans the chance to take it first.
The '90s boom was also not caused by corporate crookery, although that amplified certain aspects of the boom, and made the bust more severe. "Cooking the books" and such things actually only occurred at a few corporations that were sensationalized by the media - most corporations are serious, well-run organizations. Also, "cooking the books" does not explain why investors dumped trillions of dollars into companies that never even claimed to make a dime of profit.
The boom-and-bust can most easily (and perhaps simplistically) be explained by: 1. the end of the cold war and a general feeling of peace, 2. the emergence of revolutionary technologies (PCs, internet), 3. the massive injection of new capital and new, inexperienced investors via online trading, CNBC, etc.