http://giavellireport.com/daily-news/why-the-h-1b-matters-to-every-american/
Remember the roaring 90s? The good old days? When tech fueled a booming economy? Some people may wonder whats happened to that engine of growth and prosperity. Today America faces a similar situation that is the most censored story in the country. It is essentially forbidden to talk about on television. That is the H-1B visa. The H-1B visa allows a path to citizenship for foreign workers so many are willing to work for poor pay and in wretched conditions. In India, having one is a fast track to landing the most beautiful bride in the city. They see it as a green light to amazing wealth and prosperity.
There are several problems with this visa. First the sheer numbers are staggering. In the past fifteen years over three million visas were issued. There are only about four million technology jobs in america total. That means we are pushing a 100% unemployment rate for our American citizen engineers. In the years 2008 and 2009 (total), they granted 490,000 visas and extensions during the worst economic downturn in American history. Worse, this visa allows companies to throw american citizens away snd replace them with foreign workers. On this visa they are allowed in three years and then can renew for another three years. After that they only need a green card application pending to be allowed to stay forever. The numbers are even worse when you realize that many of their wives end up working as well in the technology industry.
The more you dig into this visa the worse it gets. First who are these people we are bringing here by the millions? Mostly these are third world people who have barely experienced civilization. Many have gone to one of the six thousans unacreddited universities that sprang up all over to support the demand for this visa. They get a six month proctoring and that qualifies for an american degree. The few times ICE has investigated applications they found fraud rates between 20 and 50 percent. This is obvious fraud that even the most cursory look would find. The real situation may be far worse. The reality is that a great number of these visa holders have completely trumped up education and work backgrounds. When they arrive in america they are covered for by the senior people from India who have learned the basics of how to do a job until they can come up to speed.
So in effect what America has done is replace its best and brightest with uneducated third world con artists. Many of the biggest users of this visa are Indian body shop companies, who contract out the workers all over america once they get in. So in effect they do NOT really have a job they are being brought in on. This practice of body shopping is technically legal although some pressure has been brought on this practice its an epidemic. This has depressed contracting wages by 75%. Contract jobs were what the most senior engineers did to raise money to start their own companies. Without the ability to contract at decent rates (remember Joe Stack?) – few new companies are being started. That means fewer new hires and new jobs. The ridiculous IRS rules against Americans which preven them from working as independent contractros have resulted in thousands of Indian run body shops all over america who often only hire Indians for jobs. The same thing happens once indians reach any management level – they only hire indians to work for them. Some companies have hired so many indians that not only is the development manager Indian but all their staff is Indian and they even have Indian COOKS taking up half the corporate lunch counters.
“Our wage per employee is 20-25 per cent lesser than US wage for a similar employee,” Vandrevala said. “Typically, for a TCS employee with five years experience, the annual cost to the company is $60,000-70,000, while a local American employee might cost $80,000-100,000″- says Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services Phiroz Vandrevala. Recent arrests for H-1B scams show the wages are less than half those of American workers with one company hiring people for Kentucky wages then shipping them to work in high priced cities like New York and Boston.
The IRS rules against engineers are the only place in the IRS code where they call out a particular profession for additional enslavement. This now results in earnings of 50% less than if this rule did not exist. While Bill Gates is in congress crying for more cheap third world labor months before laying off thousands of American workers, Congress has tried to assuage their guilty hands by diverting some of the fees for the visa to cover American retraining. This retraining is based on the fraud that Americans are NOT the best and brightest. In reality, the retraining courses such as “introduction to computing” and “basic metalworking” are more appropriate for people who have never worked in the tech industry rather than out of work engineers. But this year they raised the fees to pay for more “retraining” furthering the myth that there is something lacking with American engineers. The truth is its the Indian workers who need training not the Americans they replace.
If you watch videos from German countries about their products – Porsche comes to mind – you will hear one message over and over. “Our engineers are precious”. This has resulted in Germany being the largest exporter in the world. In America’s kangaroo economy its the bankers, lawyers, and MBAs who are “precious” and paid the large salaries. The situation is so bad for engineers right now that even marketing and sales people are being paid much higher wages. America is learning the lesson of what happens when you kick your engineers in the teeth and think you no longer need ideas, inventions, and exports. The result is poverty on a scale and a country in shambles.
