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To: Reeses
The United States as we know it today was *built* on cheap immigrant labor, if you'll remember correctly. Railroads, telegraph systems, factories, all the things that enabled America to enter a period of global dominance were at least partially due to the fact that there was a high supply of cheap, easily replaceable immigrant labor. This is just a continuation of a trend that's been going on since time immemorial. In fact, you could say that this movement is as American as you can get: it's the free market in action. Driving down production costs is one way a company can compete, and I'd be an idiot to say that a company is going to pass up that opportunity.

This whole thing is being blown out of proportion anyway. People have been running around with their hair on fire about this since there have been immigrants. I'm an engineering student. Many of my friends are engineering students, or already in various industries. If, in our collective experience, there is not a mass exodus of engineering jobs to other countries, it's probably not happening.

87 posted on 04/29/2009 9:53:45 AM PDT by CatInTheBox (Protractor-Wielding Love Queen)
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To: CatInTheBox
all the things that enabled America to enter a period of global dominance were at least partially due to the fact that there was a high supply of cheap, easily replaceable immigrant labor.

Many countries have cheap labor. What fueled America's dominance is the huge wave of new technology that resulted from investments for WWII and the Cold War. That enabled greater automation and new quality of life products such as jet aircraft, computers, atomic power, new materials, GPS, the internet. Easy access to cheap labor is actually a hindrance to improving the quality of life in America.

We are on the cusp of the robotics age that would be further along if we didn't keep importing so much cheap labor. If you are an engineering student, robotics is a promising direction, however most of the cutting edge development will be DoD related. I'm guessing from your pro-foreigner and ambivalent-America bias that you might have a hard time getting an American security clearance.

89 posted on 04/29/2009 10:24:21 AM PDT by Reeses (Leftism is powered by the evil force of envy.)
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