H-1B hearing: Companies say foreign workers needed

Follow the money... This racket started when Section 1706 was slipped into the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This uniquely discriminatory section required anyone who is an "engineer, designer, computer programmer, systems analyst or other similarly skilled worker" to be classified by the Internal Revenue Service as an employee rather than as an independent contractor, which hundreds of thousands of tech workers were at that time.

I agree with the folow the money part, but the biggest reason for the classification and the loss of 1099 contractors was the MS suit. Those greedy bastards ruined the entire sector because of their stupidity! Both the litigants and the judiciary (Clintonites every one...) deserve a long walk off a short pier.

If you tighten up on H1-B's all it will do is accelerate the movement towards "offshoring". I really don't see a lot of hope for the domestic tech market this side of the next world war. The bottom line is...

Nerds don't vote! (at least that's what our leadership seems to believe).

I agree that outsourcing is a much bigger problem than H1-B's. H1-B Visa workers at least pay taxes and have the same cost of living while they're here. I am simply arguing for more honesty in our policies. If companies want to hire more H1-B Visa workers because they think that they're generally better technically or are more dedicated, then they should say so. If they say that they can't currently find any C++ or Java programmers in Silicon Valley, however, they're lying. By the way, I have seen numerous H1-B Visa workers taken advantage of due to the fact that they are tied to the company that sponsors them. If they switch companies, I believe that they have to start their paperwork over and risk not getting it finished before their Visa runs out.

Hence, outsourcing needs to be addressed at the same time. The only way that I can think to do that is through continuing some level of tariffs or through different tax treatment for companies that create jobs here rather than in other countries. Somebody here at freerepublic mentioned the interesting idea of at least making importers pay the cost of inspecting the shipping containers that their imports arrive in. Not only would that serve as a justified tariff, it would also create jobs and improve our security.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.