Slashdot Mirror
Rescued Banks Sought Foreign Help During Meltdown
theodp writes "An AP review of visa applications has found that major US banks sought permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country under the H-1B visa program, even as the banking system was melting down and Americans were being laid off. The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years. (It's not known how many of these were granted; the article notes 'The actual number is likely a fraction of the... workers the banks sought to hire because the government only grants 85,000 such visas each year among all US employers.') The American Bankers Association blamed the US talent pool for forcing the move, saying they couldn't find enough Americans capable of handling sales, lending, and bank administration. The AP has filed FOIA requests to force the US Customs and Immigration Service to disclose further details on the bailed-out banks' foreign hires."
Any resume can be a fraud until I see your code, or at least, you're able to explain your previous projects. These things can be checked. Now, why are you, in addition to assuming H1B resumes are all fake, assuming all employers are incompetent too?
What would happen if you crossed an Ivy-league educated politician with a rapper? And elected him President?
I can hear it now:
Pres: Yo, Yo, Yo! Bailout hos listen up!
You ain't gettin' none of my money - you heeere me? None of it!
What? - your outsourcin', no good, H1-B hirin' firm is going into the toilet? Welcome to the free market, bitches!
Laissez faire muthafockers!
Peace out.
(to be fair, also posted here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1111355&cid=26689403 - but I thought it relevant nonetheless.)
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
as free trade during a WAR?
what a thunderbolt of insight
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Umm, hate to burst your bubble, but I was being pro-American. This country has a long history of being built by immigrants and I want to keep it that way.
I know other countries have protectionist policies, do you notice how they are not as successful as the US? We are not the biggest economic power in the world in spite of our open borders, but because of our open borders.
You're right. It would be so much simpler if we gave all our compensation over $37k/yr to the government to help out all the people that make less than that. After all, who better than a bureaucrat to assign a decent wage, right?
1. As I understand minimum wage in the US, it is woefully inadequate and not generally enough for a single person to live on working a single full time job.
And why should a business pay high school kids enough to feed a family on?
You need to set the floor low enough to allow for reasonable ranges of workers.
2. We receive unemployment benefits for as long as we are looking for work.
Pretty much, so do Americans. Or at least we can, I was out of work for a few months last year but didn't feel like turning to them. Someone has to be a responsible person, might as well start with me.
3. In the 1990s the US had around half the rate of unionisation of the rest of the industrialised world (see table 7 here).
And you wonder why the US economy does so well. It's because we respect limited use of unions, but the key there is limited - unions are what have basically killed off our automakers here.
In Australia, if you don't have private health cover you will receive free, unlimited public health. It is slower and can be of a lower standard, but on the whole it is readily accessible and reasonably efficient.
Something run by the governement (any government) efficient? That I doubt, highly.
Our Federal Government provides public loans to any Australian citizen who qualifies on academic merit for a university course. Free K12 schooling is universally available at the state level.
Basically the same here, I paid for my entire education from a combination of government loans and private grants, since my family was unable to do so.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley