Posted on 06/06/2007 8:03:08 PM PDT by Shermy
(The Politico) It’s like the Yankees calling in Mariano Rivera to close the World Series: Microsoft CEO Steven A. Ballmer huddled today with Sen. Jon Kyl, hoping to convince the Arizona Republican, a key negotiator of the immigration bill, to soften restrictions on high-tech industry hiring.
The 30-minute meeting in a Senate “hideaway” office came amid rising threats from industry groups that they would withhold support for the bill, citing a lack of flexibility in recruiting foreign workers. They have been pushing an amendment from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) making it easier for companies to secure visas and green cards for high-skilled workers – a proposal that Kyl and another negotiator, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have called a deal breaker.
The powers that be in the corporate world wish to hire more qualified high-tech personnel since they wish to pay less money to those folks rather than paying more to similarly qualified US citizens. They are only looking at their bottom lines, nothing else.
Yeah, you know Bill Gates sure can’t afford to pay full price for domestic software engineers.
Steve Ballmer, Portrait of a Compensating Lunatic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMU0tzLwhbE
The man’s a case study in begging for early heart-attacks.
If H1-B visas are a part of foreign trade, as Jorge Bush wants us to believe, then they should be tariffed as such. Each visa should be auctioned, so that the free market can determine their true worth. Companies using these visas should also have to pay a huge tax (oops, tariff), say double or triple or more than the amount of income tax that would be paid, on top of the salary they pay to a visa holder as well.
I guess 54,000,000,000.00 net worth ain’t enough for Gates. Berkshire Hathaway is catching up to him . Buffett the jerk, might catch the nerd.
I think we need to refit Lady Liberty with an IPOD in one hand, and instead of the torch, she has her hand held out looking for freebies!
“”Yeah, you know Bill Gates sure can’t afford to pay full price for domestic software engineers.””
That Microsoft is leading the charge shows how craven they are, the whole lot of them.
It’s like an auctioning process, bidding for the strip mining of the American lifestyle of the lower and middle classes. Class warfare disguised as care and charity.
Conservatives still care about the american people as a whole. The liberals have dropped all pretense of being “for” labor.
“Each visa should be auctioned, so that the free market can determine their true worth.”
That’s a good idea, and conservative.
But the reality is the “market” doesn’t really like what are called “market solutions” if they can buy it cheaper by bribing elected officials.
“But the reality is the “market” doesn’t really like what are called “market solutions” if they can buy it cheaper by bribing elected officials.”
Whore on Parade : )
Some of the motive may be cost. Another part of it is quality. I want tech workers who want to be tech workers (there are lazy people in tech fields too) and who have the knowledge and experience. It can be difficult to find folks that fit.
It is my understanding that we aren’t graduating enough engineers to fill positions....thank our high priced, third world public education....
All so that more Americans can get the humiliating experience of training their H1-B replacements before they are fired.
We aren’t graduating enough engineers who will work for lower wages is what they really mean.
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! TILL YOU RUN OUT OF INK IN YOUR PEN!
Bombard the Democrats as well, especially the ones that ran on an anti illegal immigration plank and the ones in marginal districts who could be vulnerable. keep pounding on them. This is a bipartisan issue not a Conservative or Liberal issue BUT AN AMERICAN issue.
The powers that be in the corporate world wish to hire more qualified high-tech personnel since they wish to pay less money to those folks rather than paying more to similarly qualified US citizens. They are only looking at their bottom lines, nothing else.
>>But the reality is the “market” doesn’t really like what are called “market solutions” if they can buy it cheaper by bribing elected officials.”
Whore on Parade : )<<
I have mentioned before that it’s possible that some of the RINO traitors are being blackmailed because their names are in the Washington Madam’s black book.
Didn't Rivera blow game seven of the 2001 World Series?
I think you may very well have a good point there....
Duck. I have expressed similar sentiments before and, wow, the brickbats.
What the trade restrictionists don't realize is that high-tech is one area that the outsourcing of jobs CANNOT be stopped. Really good programmers in Poland will work for $15-40 per hour. That's a reality. As long as that is true, the Polish programmers are going to get those jobs in one of three ways:
1. We let the Polish programmer move to the US;
2. The US company lets the programmer work in Poland;
3. A non-US company hires the Polish programmer and produces a good product for cheap and drives its American competitor out of business.
No matter how you look at it, the Polish guy gets the job. Tech is different than digging ditches or building homes. You don't need a body in America to do the job. Only an internet connection. American programmers and engineers can only slow this process a little. They cannot stop it.
I would rather keep the tech businesses here in America. And you do that with H1-B's.
ping
Exactly.
Its the same reason it was business as usual with the butchers of Tienemen Square who are growing rich on American export dollars which they convert into military weaponry to threaten us.
I believe in capitalism and free enterprise.
But I also believe in personal human freedom, patriotism and the Constitution.
When the former conflict with the latter, its past time to take appropriate action against these treasonous globalists.
That's a terrific idea! Really!
Tech ping.
It beats hiring older American workers at market wages.
I'm curious - would you take a difficult degree coursework, take out student loans the size of a small mortgage, with the expectation that your job could well be outsourced within a few years of graduation?
I disagree. There is a distinct advantage to physically being in the United States for a tech worker. If your scenario was truly the case, Microsoft would not care about H1-B visas, they would just send all the new work to foreign countries.
Most outsourcing I've dealt with has been a fiasco. But I've work with a ton of foreign programmers here in the US. Some are good, some are mediocre, and a fair number are just plain awful. But they all get an advantage by being here.
I agree with your underlying premise about blackmail, but I think it would have to be a lot worse than getting caught using a call girl.
These men have sold out their country. You don't sell out your country for small change or for a moderate embarrassment IMO.
OTOH maybe the Madam has video of them doing small children in snuff films.
I realize I'm being a bomb-thrower here, but I want the sell-outs to realize the depth and intensity of our contempt and distrust of them even if whatever they did wasn't quite as bad as I suggested.
Hey MB. I actually was ducking when I opened your reply. I've read some whining by unemployed techies in this forum. The stories are sad. My own is rather tame by comparison but would terrify some people: In 2005-06 I had a 9 month span of unemployment. I was about to accept a position in another state when something came through. Why would that happen when we have all of these tech jobs available in the US?
1. Technical jobs (all jobs?) tend to be specialized and not all types are in equal demand all the time. (I'm a business process analyst, not a J2EE developer.)
2. Available jobs are not always available at the right level or salary band for the applicant. (I was not going to work for $60K in our zip code.)
3. To get that next position you might have to retrain, you might have to gain a certification. (I am working on a Six Sigma course.)
4. Available jobs are not always within a short drive of home. You might have to move or accept a very long commute. (I avoided that.
Life is not 100 percent smooth, predictable, or fair. This is true for the worker and the employer. Most management is not looking for a way to cheat the employee or prospective employee but rather producing the highest quality work possible on or ahead of schedule at the best price they can get. The H1-B is only one tool in the box.
This recently retired engineer with two degrees can personally attest to your thoughts on the matter. I have seen a number of workers pushed out of jobs due to their age or takeover situations, including myself at age 50, when the company I was working for was purchased by a British firm who brought in their own management to run the company. They took out nearly all of the 1st, 2nd & 3rd tier management positions. The only ones who remained were a few of the marketing and financial folks.
Now, let's examine the fact that during the 2002 IT slump (when I was unemployed for 8 months), businesses continued to bring in tens of thousands of H1-B technical workers. Even though the premise of the program is that it addresses shortfalls of American workers.
I've seen firsthand how the game is played, so I ain't buying into the reasons you gave as to why H1-Bs are just another "tool in the box." They are much more than that 90 percent of the time. They are both a source of cheap labor and a way to keep down the salaries of American technical workers.
>>They are both a source of cheap labor and a way to keep down the salaries of American technical workers.<<
I agree, but also they are an excuse for employers who don’t like older workers, and since their existence is absolutely dependent on the good will of their employers, they won’t complain or rock the boat.
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