[ale] A nation of the immigrants, by the immigrants, for the immigrants

[Byron A Jeff]

> 
> On Monday 08 July 2002 21:48, Byron A Jeff wrote:
> > Aboloshing H1B's would solve very little. Instead of hiring from the
> > American work force, the companies would simply ship the jobs overseas.
> >
> 
> That's the silliest thing I've ever heard. There are several reasons why
> comapnies really don't like to operate overseas:
> 
> 0) The culture, the language, even the business culture, and the science
> culture, is going to be very different. This requires a team of foreign
> business consultants, who often times aren't much better off than you are.
> 1) Local laws are very different, requiring a brand new set of lawyers.
> 2) Local laws? What about the local bribes? You think politics is bad here,
> wait 'til you see the other countries.
> 3) Foreign countries like to tax the crud out of foreign companies, and they
> will never enjoy the popularity or stability of a local company. The
> citizenry loves to see America get what's coming to them, for being the
> leader in economics for more than 150 years, just like whiny liberal
> democrats like to see businessmen and hard-working intelligent people get
> taxed at half or more.
> 4) If they think America has a workforce problem, they will find it worse
> anywhere else.

Jonathan,

I didn't say that the company would move overseas, simply that they would
ship the jobs overseas, most likely outsourcing them to a foreign outfit,
who knows the culture, politics, taxes, etc.


> 
> My attitude about the H1-B is to forget it. A manager who is doing the hiring
> won't take a visa-holder over a citizen just because he can pay him a few
> bucks less. Those kinds of companies fail because they think one programmer
> is the same as the next. Look around - it is the companies who hire people
> one at a time, and place them strategically, only as much as is needed and no
> more, that are in the black now. It is who and what kind of people you bring
> together.

But unfortunately there are many many more of the companies that hire en masse
on the cheap, than the ones you describe. I too would pick one highly skilled
generalist over a bunch of specialists. But that's not today's jobs market.

One tangential question: if things are as you say, then why is the majority
of the manufacturing jobs gone then? If the hurdles that describe so
insurmountable, then why didn't all that work, and all those jobs stay here?

The cycle is clear. The US innovates. Foriegn competitors copy and reduce the
cost of production. US companies ship the work to Asia or Mexico simply to
compete.

Now it's happening in the IT industry. H1B's are a mechanism that US companies
are using to compete. Close that avenue and instead of the river diverting
to the US citizens, the companies will simply transport it.

But of course the funny thing is that those same US citizens will be expected
to be the consumers of the produt that they are too expensive to develop.

How ironic.

BAJ

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