Posted on 08/17/2003 4:29:54 PM PDT by Marauder
Dear Senator,
As many of your colleagues’ as well as your own constituents, I find myself at wit’s end in my efforts to secure an income. Research on this problem reveals two (2) glaringly obvious obstacles, as related to the Internet implosion:
1. The number of H1B and L1 visas has not decreased accordingly. These guest workers, which might have been a good idea at the time, have overstayed their welcome, because:
a. The drastic reduction in the number of jobs available makes their continued high numbers inappropriate, and
b. They represent unfair competition, because of on the one hand, the extraordinary difficulty involved in their changing jobs, and on the other hand, their relatively low wage rates constitute what I call “neo-indentured servitude.”
2. Offshore outsourcing. What tasks that remain are sent overseas, and there seems to be no degree of cautionary discrimination employed with respect to what tasks are outsourced, particularly in terms of national security. I refer specifically to the production of rare-earth magnets, essential to our “smart-bomb” technology, being outsourced to Communist China, our sworn enemy by their own definition.
Purely in terms of the economy and jobs, it’s difficult to produce an income to maintain even a reduced-quality lifestyle, when our own government seems stubbornly bound to free trade to the extent that it harms this country and its population to the degree that I see happening. It goes without saying that if a common man such as myself can see it, you and your Capitol Hill colleagues know of it as well, more likely better than I.
Senator, I fail to see how the economy is undergoing a “recovery” when jobs are so scarce. “Jobless recovery” is an oxymoron representing the sort of verbal manipulation found in Orwell’s 1984 “newspeak,” and nevertheless speaks of unbridled globalism gone awry.
I’d like to propose some suggestions as to how to get control of at least part of the situation, as follows:
I. Get rid of government subsidies for offshore investment of US companies, such as OPIC and support of World Bank programs that subsidize the outflow of capital.
II. Impose tariffs on those nations which are engaged in the following:
a. unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation (e.g., China and India)
b. nations which refuse to open their markets to US products (e.g., China with its 50% tariffs on US consumer goods and non tariff barriers)
c. nations that subsidize competition to American Industry (e.g., Airbus)
d. nations that maintain slave conditions for their workers.
III. Use tariffs and other means – including force if necessary - to prevent the relocation of jobs offshore that are essential to the national defense.
IV. An immediate end to guest worker programs. If people wish to come to the USA to work and make a life let them immigrate according to the rules.
V. Provide economic development zones where the corporate income tax is zero for operations within these zones. In order to operate in this zone a company must agree to only purchase American components if available and employ only American citizens or legal immigrants in these operations. These economic development zones should eventually be expanded to include every bit of every state once the benefits are shown.
VI. Many regulatory impediments to commerce should be eliminated or scaled back, for example:
a. Tort system:
1. Institute a cap on punitive damages;
2. limits on class action suits;
3. limits on liability to the actual percentage of liability with no plaintiff able to collect if said plaintiff was involved in the commission of a felony at the time of the alleged tort or was more than 49% negligent in the alleged tort.
4. Note that the loser in a frivolous lawsuit would pay the winners’ attorney fees.
b. The Family leave mandate
c. OSHA
d. EPA.
VII. Increase the domestic content in purchases by the Department of defense and give absolute preference in non-domestic content to proven allies of the USA over say the French or Germans. The only reason any content for DOD purchase may come from non US allies is that content is not available elsewhere and is essential.
VIII. Do not allow expense involved in moving operations overseas to be included in business expenses under the IRS code.
IX. Prosecute for perjury anyone who has made a false statement in order to employ an H1B or L1 visa worker. Leniency might be in order for the actual perjurer if (s)he was ordered to make this false statement and (s)he provides testimony to aid in the conviction of the person ordering the perjury.
X. Prosecute anyone who orders the transfer of vital defense technology overseas except to strong allies of the USA, for example the UK and Australia.
XI. Deport all illegal aliens immediately and take measures that prevent the entry of any more illegal aliens. Fine all companies knowingly employing illegal aliens. Criminal sanctions should be imposed on anyone helping an illegal alien stay in the USA in violation of our laws.
XII. Decrease the punishing levels of taxation on companies and eliminate the double taxation on corporate dividends. See effects of item 5 for how minimal this will be if item 5 covers the entire USA. Eliminate all IRS provisions that inhibit free use of independent contractors by businesses for example section 1706.
XIII. Eliminate the minimum wage so that the worker can be paid based on productivity. Overtime compensation will remain the same but instead of 150% of the "wage" the worker would receive 150% of the production pay.
Note that if suggestions I through XIII were enacted, XIII would be irrelevant since no one would be working for as low as minimum wage anyway.
I realize that the above suggestions would tend to cramp the style of some of business activities, and although Republicans tend to favor free enterprise (and who can disagree?), it would appear that a bit more discipline is in order.
Thanks for at least reading this, and I know that you will at least have given my input some thought.
Second, everyone please feel free to send the same fax to your own senators and reps. I think if all senators were to receive a fax from their constituents on this issue, something just might get done. At least they'll notice, if nothing else.
Bingo; please go for it.
Don't feel too bad; your only other choice was Ron Kirk.
No problem, I will. And I'm going to have to work on NY politicians as well. Their stance isn't much different.
Whether fax, letter, telegram, or Pony Express, please just get it into their hands, whichever state you live in. Even Boxer, Feinstein, Schumer, Levin, and Hillary! need avalanches of this kind of message.
IMHO, this is the real power behind the numbers of Freepers on this board. We can swamp them with stuff like this.
I would have done the same given the choice. But this is disappointing, we don't need guest workers.
Tom will be the best for it to go to. We know he has brass ones.
Next thing is get rid of guest workers, and make rules agounst outsourcing (several large manufacturers (Caterpillar, for instance) are starting to not use guest workers and are instead farming out engineering work to contractors based in India)
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