A crime against Americans

The Examiner ^ | 12/24/2002 | REY DAVID

[JimRic54]

I was laid off recently under similar circumstances. Sucks to be me.

[dirtboy]

But I was stunned and aggrieved when I observed a crime being perpetrated at a time like this -- an unconscionable crime against hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying, patriotic IT professionals like me.

It ain't a crime. It's globalization. I'm not sure how it can be arrested, but we also shouldn't have our government making the loss of jobs easier.

But welcome to the Reservation. The Indians, ranchers, miners and manufacturing workers are already here. We have a nice selection of used single- and double- wides, not too heavily used, and a low-paying service job. If you're lucky, you can get a job at a resort waiting on the very people who sold your job out to India.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

More evidence that Globalization is a failure. We will have a return to National Economics again in the near future...hopefully that transition will not be bloody

RWK

[lormand]

It happened to me twice!

Once at Nortel Networks in Richardson Texas, and once here in Austin at a small startup.

Nortel never resembled America when I was there. The company reeked of American hating Canadians, Pakistanis and your average liberal/progressive idiots. I met several Pakistanis who always supported the liberal views in America. Hmmmm, why is that? Could it be, that the American left hates America too, which is a view in common with the average Pakistani? When I went to job fairs, I would mostly see Americans looking for jobs.

Richardson Texas was also the place where several raids took place against Islamic "charities".

I submit myself in anyway that I can to reverse this idiotic policy against American workers.

[Leisler]

"...landing a paying job has become a Herculean full-ime job, fraught with tedious daily tasks and crushing frustration."

You can always come frame houses in the winter here on the coast of Massachusetts. Maybe get some inside work, hanging rock and laying floor with me and the rest of my 40yr old and plus friends. Boo-hoo.

I got a friend, needs some PLC on an old Allen-Bradley, got a guy in for $750 a day, RT ticket, meals, rent a car.... I guess some people can hustle and don't look for that sweet corporate chair. No offense, but I wouldn't hire you either.

[Publius6961]

It ain't a crime. It's globalization.

I do hope that you have your tongue firmly in your cheek.
Setting up fake companies and fake "jobs available" ads in order to abuse and exploit H1 visas is not a crime?

Please tell me it's not true!

[GOP_1900AD]

This could be stopped immediately. All the DOL needs to do is conduct a few unannounced, random audits of suspicious firms. BTW - what David describes is likely illegal - there is no way that the firms doing this are in compliance w/ DOL requirements; take it from me. I work for a REPUTABLE company and have hired a select few H1Bs. It was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO DO, even when the economy was booming!

[dirtboy]

I do hope that you have your tongue firmly in your cheek. Setting up fake companies and fake "jobs available" ads in order to abuse and exploit H1 visas is not a crime? Please tell me it's not true!

The thing is, is it a joke ... or isn't it? For example, it's against the law to require someone to give their social security numbers - but the government doesn't eforce the law. It's against the law for someone to be in the country illegally - but governments at all levels look the other way. So the abuse of the H1-B program is illegal - but I sincerely doubt the feds will enforce abuse of such. After all, since the entire concept is now predicated on a lie, namely that there is a shortage of American IT workers, what makes you think enforcement of the H1-B laws will be any more honest?

[dirtboy]

This could be stopped immediately. All the DOL needs to do is conduct a few unannounced, random audits of suspicious firms

Yeah, just like the INS routinely makes raids to catch firms hiring illegal workers ... whoops, they don't anymore, nevermind...

[Sergio]

Hello All

Funny how you don't see NOW, NAACP, ACLU, Sharpton, Jackson, or the board of regents at Michigan State, running to the press about how these companies don't reflect the "diversity" of America.

Selective Social Consiousness, or SSC, is a condition that affects 9 out of 10 liberals.

Maybe Rey David can start a non-profit to do research and possibly find a cure for SSC. Being the head of a non-profit, that's where the money is. Just ask Jessie.

Best Regards

Sergio

[grb]

I've been there too, It took 10 months to find a job. The only I got one was knowing someone. This H1-B thing sucks. They work for $10-$15 per hour. How can you compete with that?

[dirtboy]

They work for $10-$15 per hour. How can you compete with that?

Learn business as well as computer skills. We had several H1-B programmers at my previous employer, but they simply could not translate technical knowledge into effective business solutions. Just as with manufacturing, rote tasks can be done anywhere. But specialized work requires specialists. Become one.

[GingisK]

...rote tasks can be done anywhere. But specialized work requires specialists...

Writing software is not a "rote task", nor will it ever be such. Software is very "specialist".

[snarkpup]

The place where I work has switched over to mostly H1-B engineers. The company ended up shooting itself in the foot by doing so. These people's highest priority is staying out of their homeland. As a result, they tend to be yes-men that dare not rock the boat - even in situations where engineering mistakes are being made and the boat needs to be rocked in order to put out a product.

[dirtboy]

Writing software is not a "rote task", nor will it ever be such. Software is very "specialist".

Sorry, but writing a compiler or even accounting software is fairly rote, in the sense that someone with technical knowledge but little business knowledge can follow a spec and write the code. The American technical workers who will keep their jobs in the future will combine business and technical knowledge, especially as it pertains to the particular culture of American business. I was laid off a year ago and was out of work for eight months, and when I was re-hired it wasn't because of any specific technical skills but because of my specific business knowledge that I acquired in my last job.

[dirtboy]

The place where I work has switched over to mostly H1-B engineers. The company ended up shooting itself in the foot by doing so.

My last employer had several H1-B programmers, all with masters and doctorates. But the two college dropouts ran the IT department, because we understood business better (and could out-program them as well).

[OhhTee5]

You want some cheese with that whine???? We live in the greatest country on the planet...A country where people literally wash up on our shores and through hard work and tenacity, within a short period of time own their own business.

And you, a native speaking American citizen by birth are calling this a crime??? Give me a break. When autos replaced horses where did all the buggy whip employees go???
Change, adapt or go on welfare.

[LuisBasco]

Change, adapt or go on welfare.

I noticed you signed up today and I, too, am a newcomer.

Many Americans have awakened to the fact that manufacturing has moved outside the USA and inside China. Customer service for GE, IBM, American Express, etc. etc. has moved to Bangalore, India! GE service schedulers are located in Bangalore. Of this, of course, many Americans are unaware.

Our role in the global program is to be consumers, but it will become exceedingly more difficult to consume what is produced (outside the USA, for the most part) when all important jobs are gone leaving only poor paying jobs that involve flipping burgers.

Saying all this, I don't know whether to take your comment in a humorous vein or consider you to be another alien America hater who will willingly sell your sole for the decaying "American Dream."

When all Americans wake up to the insidiousness of NAFTA and WTO it will be too late.

Now, does that make you happy?

[kimoajax]

Best advise I have is to learn to be a specialist in software project management...turning marketing/product/application ideas into requirements and plans...and then managing the development. Or, take the risk and create/build your own software application and start a company. In either case, these are high demand skills here in the U.S....especially if you show you know how to manage a development team in India from here.

Saw this coming years ago...just like in the seventies when other sorts of engineers out of work. It never really came back for them.

In a sense, IMHO, software engineers are a victim of their own success...or excess, in that their general domestic wage rate, particularly for good ones, simply got out of hand.

It will get a lot worse before it gets better. With proper software development management practices in place, the actual coding becomes a very portable skill...no matter how unfair it seems.