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| Government |
| Ilana Mercer: The H-1B Visa Racket Should Be Abolished, Not Reformed |
| 2017-04-22 |
| [Daily Caller] Billionaire businessman Marc Cuban insists that the H-1B visa racket is a feature of the vaunted American free market. This is nonsense on stilts. It can’t go unchallenged. Another billionaire, our president, has ordered that the H-1B program be reformed. This, too, is disappointing. You’ll see why. First, let’s correct Mr. Cuban: America has not a free economy, but a mixed-economy. State and markets are intertwined. Trade, including trade in labor, is not free; it’s regulated to the hilt. If anything, the labyrinth of work visas is an example of a fascistic government-business cartel in operation. The H-1B permit, in particular, is part of that state-sponsored visa system. The primary H-1B hogs--Infosys (and another eight, sister Indian firms), Microsoft, and Intel--import labor with what are grants of government privilege. Duly, the corporations that hog H-1Bs act like incorrigibly corrupt rent seekers. Not only do they get to replace the American worker, but they get to do so at his expense. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #11 During the dot.com boom the tech companies had a difficult time keeping their workers because a techie could park in one lot on a Friday and on Monday park in the lot across the street with a raise in pay. Nothing stopped the companies from contracting their employees other than the hire/fire process usually costs much more. Instead they acted like illegal monopolies. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-04-22 16:54 |
| #10 A few observations: During the dot.com boom the tech companies had a difficult time keeping their workers because a techie could park in one lot on a Friday and on Monday park in the lot across the street with a raise in pay. So of course businesses are going to find any recourse available and abuse the heck out of it. I also have several friends who came here from India on visas, became citizens, and make more money than I do. They are still bemused that I am not in some way really angry about this (because Indians in India would be). However, they are older now and their skills have eroded. They aren't as marketable now. They Master's degrees that are only 20 years old. The only reason they have their jobs is that they have been working on the same setup at the same company for so long that no young folks could decipher it and it's too expensive to switch to a new system. There is no shortage of American citizens in STEM. That's a myth promulgated by Infosys, MS, and Intel to keep the H-1B program loose. But there is no doubt that STEM programs are largely populated by Asians and more now than in the past. It's becoming more common that coding and technical knowledge are just a part of the skill set any Millennial has to have, like being able to read and write, math, etc. For generation, GenX, taking typing and BASIC coding in HS were electives. Now they are requirements, or should be. |
| Posted by: Black Parfrey 2017-04-22 12:48 |
| #9 Corporations want cheap, third world labor while enjoying all the benefits of operating in the USA. Let them move their sorry asses to India: lock, stock and barrel, CEOs and board members too. Let them deal with third world red tape, infrastructure and corruption. They can build their mansions in Bombay instead of Redwood City. Then they can pay tariffs when they try to sell their bloatware in this country. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-04-22 11:12 |
| #8 Actually, he did way back when. You'd be surprised what he did say when the mics were tucked away and the press wasn't around and he wasn't selling the guilt trip. Like, its not white boys sneaking into window at night making the teenager sisters pregnant in the community. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-04-22 11:11 |
| #7 To paraphrase the Rev. Jackson, its amazing how a people who claim to be poor, malnourished, and oppressed can field so many athletes earning hundreds of thousands and millions so disproportionately to their numbers in the society. I call BS. Mumbles Jackson has never said anything that coherent or true |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-04-22 09:45 |
| #6 Cheap labor has it's downsides. It actually led to the burning of Atlanta at one point. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-04-22 07:18 |
| #5 Companies are reluctant to hire and train people, as their value in the marketplace rises substantially and they leave for better pay. Yes, the Depart. of Defense does it annually. Been doing for many generations. However, DoD gets them to sign a contract for 'X' years of service. Business don't want to do that as they treat employees as liabilities not assets. So they bitch and moan and pay off Congresscritters to flood the market with labor that is as cheap as possible. Some southerns had the same attitude about cheap labor too prior to the 20th Century. It's a start to a self inflicted wound. The program has been going full blast since the late 80s, that's decades of depressed labor value. Business has had literally generations to grow their own. Why bother when you can bribe pols to betray their own people. You'll never attract people in the numbers to go STEM as long as you keep labor down. To paraphrase the Rev. Jackson, its amazing how a people who claim to be poor, malnourished, and oppressed can field so many athletes earning hundreds of thousands and millions so disproportionately to their numbers in the society. Incentive. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-04-22 07:14 |
| #4 This is a complicated problem with no easy answers. There are more reasons than "corporate greed" for the lack of Americans going into STEM fields and for lack of STEM jobs for the native born. The general decay of America's morality and work ethic, the desire of the native born to have easy, metric-free and anxiety-free jobs working for the government, and the desire of many of the smart ones to make their living in areas like finance etc. are all factors that are at least as important in creating this mess. A dim understanding of how economics works factors in also. No matter how well trained or skilled you are for a task, if there's tons of people who are also, your pay grade WILL go down. Supply and demand. The overall trend in the West for the public to overprice the actual value of their labor and to use unions and government to extract those expectations from employers comes into play as well. The hyperregulatory monster that has reduced small business formation to its lowest level since the republic was founded is a factor in all this also. None of these things, of course, justify abuse of the H1B system. But simply banning H1B isn't going to solve our problems by itself. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2017-04-22 05:44 |
| #3 It's not understood how important the bonded labor aspect of H1B visas is. You normally can't bond workers under a common law principle that goes back to the Middle Ages - you cannot prevent someone plying their trade. In IT, skill sets change rapidly and training is expensive. Companies are reluctant to hire and train people, as their value in the marketplace rises substantially and they leave for better pay. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2017-04-22 03:59 |
| #2 Or limit H1-B visas to only lawyers, investment bankers and politicians. |
| Posted by: Harry Panda9076 2017-04-22 03:53 |
| #1 Easy enough, grow your own. How much of a 4 year degree is really needed? You want coders? Pay up for a 1 year tech cert. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-04-22 02:12 |