On the note of Immigration reform: The proposal to have a "guest worker" program. Great in theory, but the "guests" being considered by the bill that was defeated were on a merit system where highly educated people got first crack. It sounded to me like the "guest worker" that Congress was trying to bring in to the country wasn't the farm laborer, but <gasp> the high-tech people who are not able to get in because of the H1-B cap.
Under that proposal, we would have STILL had millions of illegal cheap farm labor who didn't qualify under the merit system AND whole bunches of cheap high-tech skilled labor.
Gotta love Congress. Best government money can buy.
----- Original Message ----
From: Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: midrange-jobs@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 12:22:58 PM
Subject: Re: [MIDRANGE-JOBS] Dissed-belief
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From: Cindy Howard
I'm sorry to interrupt here, and I don't know if what you are saying about
the grant is true or not, but the problem isn't that we don't have
educated, trained IT professionals available in the US. There are plenty
of educated, trained, AND experienced people available to fill the jobs.
I agree. Like in so many industries being flooded with external labor, it's
not that there are no workers. It's just that there are no workers willing
to work for the artificially depressed wages that employers can pay to
people from countries that don't have our standards, from safety to health
to cost of living.
The only good news is that Congress seems finally to recognize the fact that
illegal immigration is a threat to the country. Hopefully we can convince
them that cheap visa labor is just as bad, if not worse, of a threat,
because it drains us of those high-end jobs that we need to be competitive
in the global economy.
But the only way to sway Congress these days is the old fashioned way:
threaten to vote them out of office. Appealing to their sense of duty is
pretty much a lost cause.
Joe
midrange.com
