Posted on 04/20/2007 7:50:07 PM PDT by BnBlFlag
by Phyllis Schlafly April 18, 2007
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On the first day that H-1B visas became available, the corporations snapped up all that are allowed. Our government received 150,000 applications for the 85,000 slots set aside to bring in foreign skilled workers. The corporations whine that H-1Bs are needed because of a shortage of Americans with skills, but major studies at UC-Davis and Duke universities conclusively prove we have thousands of unemployed or underemployed Americans with all needed technical skills. Nobel economist Milton Friedman accurately labeled H-1Bs a government "subsidy" to enable employers to get workers at a lower wage.
The best way to deal with the demand for a limited number of H-1Bs would be to auction them off, so then we would find out if they are really needed and how much they are worth. An auction would enable the taxpayers to get some return on the H-1B subsidy instead of the current system which allows corporations to influence Congressmen with campaign contributions and pay high-priced lobbyists to get legislation to increase the number.
Contrary to corporate propaganda, H-1Bs are not an alternative to outsourcing skilled jobs but a vehicle to promote outsourcing. H-1Bs enable corporations to bring in foreigners, train them in American ways, and then send them back to guide outsourced plants in Asia.
For years we've been told that it's OK for our manufacturing jobs to be outsourced overseas because the United States will always keep the technology, engineering, innovative, service-industry and white-collar jobs. Even when service-industry jobs began to be outsourced, we were told, those are just low-skill tasks like answering customer inquiries.
It turns out that was all a lie. The high-skill and technical jobs are also rapidly moving overseas, especially to India.
Boeing now employs hundreds of Indians for aircraft engineering, writing software for next-generation cockpits and systems to prevent aircraft collisions. Investment banks like Morgan Stanley are hiring Indians to analyze American stocks and to write reports for institutional investors, jobs formerly done by Americans earning six-figure salaries on Wall Street.
Eli Lilly is doing major pharmaceutical research in India. Cisco Systems, the leading maker of communications equipment, will have 20 percent of its top talent in India within five years, and global-consulting giant Accenture will have more employees in India than in the United States by the end of this year.
I.B.M. reduced its American work force by 31,000 while increasing its Indian staff to 52,000. Citigroup, which already has 22,000 employees in India, plans to eliminate 26,000 jobs in the U.S. and increase its Asian work force by another 10,000 where the pay is lower.
Follow the money, of course, explains this massive shift in jobs. It's cheaper to hire and produce in India than in the United States.
The unhappy results of these policies are now apparent; they richly benefit the corporations but are devastating to the American middle class. Outsourcing reduces good American jobs, our standard of living, our national security, and our world leadership.
This massive change in our economy should be front-page news, but you have to look on the lower half of the inside pages of pro-globalism newspapers like the New York Times to find the facts. It was a real surprise when the Wall Street Journal (always a big supporter of free trade, globalism, and open borders) published a front-page article called "Pain from Free Trade Spurs Second Thoughts."
This article reported that one of the most prominent advocates of free trade, Professor Alan Blinder, now says that free trade can put 30 to 40 million American jobs at risk, mostly from outsourcing.
Blinder is one of America's most influential economists. A professor at Princeton University with a Ph.D. from MIT, he is a former Federal Reserve vice chairman and adviser to several presidents. For years, he has been peddling the notion that free trade enriches the United States.
Professor Blinder just got around to looking at the facts, and the facts changed his views. He ranked 817 occupations to identify how likely each one is to go overseas.
The most vulnerable jobs are bookkeepers, accountants, computer programmers, data entry keyers, medical transcriptionists, graphic designers, and financial analysts. Blinder now says that the millions of American jobs that have already gone to Asia are "only the tip of a very big iceberg."
Dr. Blinder is not the only prestigious economist who is having second thoughts. Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson, who wrote the principal textbook used in university economics classes, is also now criticizing globalization and admitting that rich countries aren't always winners from free trade.
Most of the Democrats who won in November 2006 talked a lot about the issue of jobs, while the Republicans who lost kept mouthing the tired old mantra that globalism is both good and inevitable. Republicans can't win the White House in 2008 without Pennsylvania, Ohio or Wisconsin, all of which have lost thousands of jobs to outsourcing.
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Now think back to the US Depression of the 1930's. Hugh and series unemployment. Massive gov't borrowing and spending, yet little or no inflation, why dat? (If I may use a colloquial term)
That didn't destroy America.
Massive gov't borrowing and spending, yet little or no inflation, why dat?
I don't know about massive borrowing and spending. I thought they even raised taxes to balance the budget?
There was no inflation because there was massive deflation. Do you have a point in here somewhere?
That is right on the money. The only thing we are trading are American jobs for nothing.
There is no way we can keep up or recover, short of a world war.
China has nowhere near started to tap out it's labor supplies.
Professionals who look at these things estimate there are still 600 million Chinese who are under employed.
They have a supply of 30 cent an hour workers to keep the China Price in play forever.
Of course they aren't bothered by OSHA - Workers Comp, the EPA, Affirmative Action or a plethora of government regulations.
So again, the China Price stays in play. And they are not sticking with consumer goods (and why should they?) but are producing everything on a hugh scale. So when the first series economic downturn occurs, and US folks can't afford each others 'services' we lose a huge chunk of our economy.
And we'll still have to compete with all those dollars sent overseas while the gitt'n was good.
( wipes crystal ball) I see the next recession with numbers of unemployed approaching the 1930's and inflation worst than the J.Carter era.
Think of Argentina.
There was no inflation because the money supply collapsed.
They have a supply of 30 cent an hour workers to keep the China Price in play forever.
And these low prices keep inflation in check here.
So when the first series economic downturn occurs, and US folks can't afford each others 'services' we lose a huge chunk of our economy.
So we'd be better able to afford stuff if it was more expensive?
I see the next recession with numbers of unemployed approaching the 1930's and inflation worst than the J.Carter era.
Why will there be high inflation if there is 30% unemployment?
Because we have become an 'entitlement society'. The voters have discovered the power of voting themselves goodies. Even more so when the "D" Party sweeps every elected (actually gains a majority) office plus POTUS.
There is no sense of make do - use up - do without. Folks will want their 'stuff'. We are a totally different people from the thirties
China will ping - pong us price wise. Look at the incredible profit margins importers enjoy now.
Have you seen the posts by the FReeper who imports brake drums and rotors?
It's his statement that he pays $4.00 a rotor when bought by the shipping container.
These items retail for (Ball Park Est. Only) $50 and $110. As there really isn't a competitive market in China, so if they decide to go to $15 for a rotor, whats to stop them? They have wiped out U.S. production, which would be costing a minimum $15 at the manufactures dock, they'll call the shots.
And we see no signs that China has seen the light so to speak concerning freedom and liberty.
All those war toys they're buying aren't for May Day parades.
As to your comments "All those low prices keep inflation in check". (Capitalism 101)
Got a guarantee on that?
To say that completely free trade is best for a nation is analogous to saying that flooding a car's engine with fuel will make it run faster.
If if unimpeded trade were optimal surely nobody would argue that it would have to be a two-way deal. Our current trade arrangement is anything but.
I've always believe that the reason free trade is being so strongly promoted by America's political elite is because bribes originating offshore and being paid to offshore accounts are virtually untraceable. But I guess that's just me being cynical. (Then again, I hear that the airports of offshore banking havens are crowded with lawyers representing US clients.)
Go to college or mow lawns... but don’t wine to me about no support with a 4.5% unemployment rate. It is pathetic that people believe stupid nonsense.
Did you hear that unemployment is below 4.5%? Or do you live in a gopher hole?
Tarrifs.
You mean taxes... no thank you... I like my Chinese products cheap and my European cars under 50 grand... but if you like giving money away for free, you should give to the FreeRepublic.... it is based in Fresno.
Meanwhile, keep your taxes off my body...
Yep, it’s a pity Paul Craig Roberts doesn’t have the economic insight of you and toadster.
Like who? WalMart?
Got a guarantee on that?
High prices keep inflation in check???
You still haven't explained how China has done everything right to defeat us without firing a shot. Now that we're done talking about the 1930s, maybe you'll try again?
Paul Craig Roberts had it, and lost it. You simply don’t notice because his rants fit your pre-conceived conclusions.
Free-trade agreements, poverty, environmental degradation and lack of jobs are among the reasons people from El Salvador migrate to the United States, said members of a delegation of religious leaders and people of faith from Salem who traveled to the region.
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