Slashdot Mirror
Code.org: Give Us More H-1B Visas Or the Kids Get Hurt
theodp writes "Fresh off their wildly-hyped Hour of Code, Code.org headed to Washington last Thursday where H-1B visas were prescribed as the cure for U.S. kids' STEM ills. 'The availability of computer science to all kids is an issue that warrants immediate and aggressive action,' Code.org told Congress. "Comprehensive immigration reform efforts that tie H-1B visa fees to a new STEM education fund,' suggested Code.org co-founder Hadi Partovi, is 'among the policies that we feel can be changed to support the teaching and learning of more computer science in K-12 schools. We hope you can be allies in our endeavors on Capitol Hill.' Also testifying with Partovi was inventor and US FIRST founder Dean Kamen, who also pitched the benefits of H-1B visas (PDF). 'We strongly encourage Congress to pass legislation that directs H-1B visa fees to enable underserved inner-city and rural schools to participate in FIRST,' Kamen testified. 'Specifically, these fees should support efforts to enable underserved inner-city and rural schools to participate in FIRST.'"
Like asking if you want fries, or how to fill out forms to receive government cheese.
Train what you have, fix what you have, rather than importing more of the problem. It's like selling a product at a loss, but making up the profit on volume.
Dean Kamen is a cool rich guy, and like most rich guys, can afford to advocate things that don't impact him.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
... to make sense anymore.
They might as well say "Wombat refuges must be funded so as to secure America's future in space exploration.
The whole thing is a non sequitur.
Visas have nothing what so ever to do with the academic success of American kids. Nothing.
Aliens could come bubble out of the 10th dimension and seal the US off in a pocket universe... and guess what... they could still get a decent education. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?! Because immigration has nothing to do with education. The US could be utterly isolated and yet have a fantastic education system.
Example? Look at Japan... notice how their education system is terrible because they don't have really permissive immigration policies.
Oh wait, their education system is great despite having pretty tight immigration.
Stupidity. Anyone that honestly gets suckered into such arguments should get the word "moron" tattooed on their forehead. Just for efficient identification.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Don't Allow your Citizens to Work.
Seems like a positive idea.
The balance is that its easier to shift workers overseas rather than import aliens.
what they're worth. Flood the market with H1Bs, so they can tank the amount paid because then there is lots of competition. STEM education is there, the people are there, the (large) businesses simply don't want to pay them the $100k+ they deserve. They want a large pool of $20k/yr workers.
You can teach them, but you can't make them learn.
No, putting more money into education from taxation reform, reduced congressional spending on war, spying, and all the other stupidity and shenanigans that they've gotten up to the past three decades is what will fix it. I don't want to sound like the "They took are jobs" crowd, but isn't this what it breaks down to? First they farmed out our industrial base to other countries because it was cheaper, to the point where we do not have the infrastructure to even be competitive anymore, now they're attempting to farm out most of the STEM fields to cheaper foreign labor in the name of better education? As the great Gary Burbank aka Earl Pitts said, "WAKE UP AMERICA!"
So what if we allowed zero H-1Bs? Wouldn't wages for these positions go up, which would attract more people to the fields requiring workers. If they need workers so bad, why isn't anyone willing to pay increased wages for it? (tongue firmly planted in cheek) By the way, this is coming from someone who recently helped hire a great programmer and wonderful person from India on this very type of visa.
There are plenty of coders in the country ready, willing and able to take these jobs. You're just too cheap to pay them what they're worth or willing to wait the three months it will take to get them up to speed.
Hauling in people from other countries who are no better than the ones here is just an excuse.
Again, you want the unemployment rate to decline? Hire people who are unemployed. They'll work harder and better for you than someone who has a job because they don't want to go back.
Oh, and Slashdot, the fuck off applies to you as well. Your interface just plain sucks and selecting 'Classic' doesn't do shit. Hmmm, maybe we do need more H-1B visas so you can read this site.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
There are inner-city schools? Are you sure you don't mean inner-city prisons?
Drop the program and most of the INS madness. Instead for a fixed cost, say around that of a cheap new car, allow anyone to enter and stay indefinitely on a green card.
So immigrant workers can be code monkeys and teachers? What is the goal here? Immigrant teachers would see the under-sized pay-packet as a jackpot: Just wait until they meet those American parents.
Isn't it interesting that there is also a "shortage" of physicians and you don't see an organization trying to get docs from overseas?
The "shortage" of nurses ended years ago: kids saw the writing on the wall and jumped into nursing schools.
So let me get this straight... Code.org wants to tie H-1B visa fees to education programs, and somehow that's twisted into the headline saying they want more H-1Bs?
It sounds more to me like they're saying "if you're going to bring in a foreign tech worker because Americans aren't good enough, you're going to pay for American STEM programs so Americans are good enough in the future". I can't really object to that idea.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
The Department of Labor has a call out right now for proposals through the Youth CareerConnect Program. This program utilizes fees from H-1B visa applications to fund STEM initiatives for all high school students. Here's the call for proposals. http://www.dol.gov/dol/grants/20131301.pdf So without rtfa I have to ask, why don't these lobbyists know about the existing program?
Lego and Robotics, sounded like great things to get my boy involved in STEM, when I was asked to help coach I was shocked to find it was $800 for a team of 6 kids (the cost is per team, we just happen to be on a small private team) most of these teams are school funded so tax dollars pay for it. I'd love to see the financial breakdown of that organization. BTW Up to the state level I never found a employee, just volunteers. Still wondering where the money went.
Another fact I found annoying, It mattered little how good you were at STEM it was more about cheer leading and exposure. The kids from that team went to state, and while all the other teams were nice and friendly, they did not appreciate watching teams who lost on the field advance because essentially team spirit was 50% of the the score. I understand professionalism and all, but "rah rah, go team go" won't help you in a career like real results.
None of those kids wanted to participate this year. They don't think it's a fair competition.
What we need is more vocational training and real life workplace training for kids rather than feeding them all this bullshit that they'll never amount to jack squat unless they go $50k in debt and attend a college that they may or may not graduate from, and that may or may not land them a decent job if they do. With vocational training, they could be welding, building, learning a trade right out of high school, and rather than going $50k in debt they could have positive $50k in the bank by the time 4 years is up. That's a nice start on a retirement nest egg at that age. The current system is fucked and benefits only the schools and the institutions who are generating the loans that hobble young people for years if not decades at a crucial point in their life when they could be good, productive members of society.
"We must keep American wages artificially low!" Bill Gates told the kids. "Yes, by bringing back indentured servitude we will pave the way for a bright future!" said Tim Cook. "Jobs for everyone (from India and China)!!" said Melissa Mayer
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
If you change the culture that hate STEM, you will see more people picking STEM.
Kids avoid something that is poorly paid and not respected. I say make the right decission.
Every TV program or movie that make STEM people looks like undesirable, make STEM undesirable. Is not something complex at all.
Getting "mercenaries" for the USA empire to do the job of his citizens may end as well as did for the Roman empire.
We should shun them, isolate them, and otherwise keep them away from real society. There's no hope for them.
You were a social worker, and your plan to fix society is to remove the undesirables? Why can't we all get along, social worker? Why? I'll tell you why: because you don't want people to get along.
I was an inner city American youth, and I was interested in programming, software, and computers. Social workers like you actively prevented me from working in IT because "you live in the inner city so you must be a thug."
Admit it, social worker. Social workers like you would be out of a job without thugs, wouldn't you? A social worker's real job is to perpetuate social stereotypes, isn't it? You are the problem with society, social worker. You are the problem.
How about killing H1B visas totally, enforce ITAR restrictions, pass laws saying that 95% of anything remotely ITAR restricted needs to be designed and built in the US. Pass laws that make anything critical (electric grid, etc) is restricted like ITAR. Companies are using H1B to import people, train them then export them with their job overseas mostly to India. They work on military tech that would be ITAR restricted had it been developed in the US.
What the fuck happened to slashdot? It used to be that here was one of the few places you could have an intelligent conversation about the free market with other like minded intellectuals and tech geeks. Nowadays its all about left wing liberal idiocy mixed with ignorance about economics and education. This whole thread is a JOKE, you guys are attacking people who are trying to fix our common GOVERMENT problem! Get your fucking heads out of your asses, kids, I think you will find that if you are a smart and effective person, the code.org folks are on your side. Only the stupid and incompetent need to fear the free market, that is why it is US against the goverment.
So we (reform groups, government or private) need to go after the media artist to push a message and the labels to punish artist that don't play ball? The parents grew up with the same messages the kids are now getting. That cycle seems pretty well set; maybe we can try to influence instead of breaking it.
I agree with your sentiment, but I refuse to give up.
catcha: retrofit
If I had a nickel for every "consultants by the pound" pitch where they sent in just barely competent coders for me to review, I'd be a millionaire (all of the big subcontinent body shops are guilty of this). Then they've got the balls to pay these poor saps peanuts and attempt to bill me $100-200/hour (depending on how many hours they've spent in front of an Idiot's Guide to C## training video). Then you see all the even poorer saps who are going through 2 or 3 layers of additional consultancies before they make it to our HR dept's door. I feel bad for them, but...I'd rather just recruit at local universities and get people who have identifiable skills, already speak English that most folks can parse, and won't get rotated back to the subcontinent randomly as one or more of their handlers has "visa issues."
Talk to your local university with a decent Engineering or Comp Sci curriculum and start recruiting. Save time, money, aggravation, and help our own college grads get into the game. I refuse to even take calls from the body shops anymore even though my corporate overlords are trying to force the issue. It's just not worth the hassle.
TFS is not very clear, but if you read it closely (twice, in my case) it appears these guys are suggesting diverting the money collected from H1-B visa applications into "STEM" (how I hate that acronym) education for poor American kids. That makes a little bit more sense insofar as, if you stand on your head and squint, it looks like a token effort to tax immigration to pay for education in the US.
It's funny how everyone who makes his living on research or advocacy for a particular problem says the solution to that problem is to provide more funding for his organization. That is what TFS appears to be really saying - a bunch of people working on STEM education want more government funding for STEM education. Film at 11. ;-)
I don't know how much an H1-B visa fee is, but it must be less than the salary difference between an H1-B guest worker and the actual labor rate set by the domestic market. Otherwise no one would make money off H1-B workers and there would not be this constant clamor for more of them. This small amount of money, collected from a relatively small population of H1-B workers, will never be more than crumbs from the table anyway. It might be enough to fund a dog and pony show like FIRST, but not nearly enough to effect systemic change in the educational system.
In September 2013, the IEEE magazine ran a special series on the STEM "crisis," and based on that, I am now convinced that crisis is nothing more nor less than wishful thinking that high-tech industries can someday, somehow get skilled workers for less than the fair market rate.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
wages with H1-Bs and lets deflate them by creating a glut of workers. Everybody wins!
There are plenty of coders in the country ready, willing and able to take these jobs.
Able? Not according to many of the folks who make the hiring decisions here on Slashdot.
Or how many times have you heard, "We need someone to hit the ground running." when talking to an employer? The thing is to have someone come in and know everything required for the job from the development stack, languages to the business.
And now, being unemployed makes you unqualified.
Why so picky? Because they can. There are plenty of people out there and unfortunately, the qualification bar has been set so (unreasonably) high that very few people are "qualified".
Here's something I saw (I can't find it anymore) about recruiting in Silicone Valley.
This head of development was looking for JavaScript Engineers. As soon as she said that, I had this image of her HR people looking for 'BSJSE' on people's resumes.
She then said that there are only 25 JavaScript engineers in the World who can do what she needs and half of them work at Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
Her product? Just another advertising-social media-shit. And I got the impression that all she wanted to do was poach and by developer osmosis, get technology from other companies.
When you have everyone thinking that their project is rocket science-the most innovative thing EVAR, you get this mentality that one needs the best of the best of the best, when in fact the 3.0 IS grad is perfect for the job.
Better yet, instead of redirecting H1-B fees to inner schools, reduce the number of STEM related H1-Bs. This should allow wages in these fields to increase and with increased wages there will be more people wanting to pursue careers in those fields. You would think a country based on capitalism would understand how supply and demand works.
No Amnesty.. Reform = actually enforcing laws..
No more H1Bs - there are plenty of willing unemployed US citizens..
35% of IT related graduates over the past three years have failed to find gainful employment in their field. It would seem difficult for a company to justify H1-B employees given that. The only logical conclusion is that H1-B visas are being used for some other purpose than a shortage of skilled workers. I would posit, as many others have, it is to keep costs low to maximize shareholder value.
Obviously the US doesn't mean U.S.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I have always hated the comment about hitting the ground running. It is effectively impossible for anyone to do so since they don't know the internal structure and political climate of the company. At best they can make educated guesses but they don't truly know what they're getting into until they're working for a few weeks.
Any time an interviewer uses that phrase should send up warning signals to the interviewee that the company doesn't really know what they want and the job will not be what is advertised.
If you want someone to hit the ground running, hire from within.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Add the following words to your lobbying efforts:
Children
Inner city
Security
Patriotism
Letting lower cost foreign labor into the US will only fly if you OMG THINK OF TEH CHILDRENZ!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
First, force companies to pay H-1B workers a lot more - unless they pay for training of an American for the entire duration that the H-1B worker works for them. Then, if the American they trained does not work for that same company at least as long as the training period, penalize the company the salary difference they saved. This forces the company to pay the American what they're worth, or lose a lot of money otherwise.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I really wish the PC (political correctness) fountain of poo would just go away...forever. We are DROWNING in its poo. ENOUGH ALREADY. Start telling the damn truth and let's get on with REAL solutions... for example, the SECOND HIGHEST per student education spending in the USA is... drum roll.... WASHINGTON, D.C. Yet, the students there are among the lowest performers on "standardized testing". The lie that poor student performance really has anything to do with "poor (underfunded)" schools must end otherwise nothing will ever really change for the better-- NOTHING.
and should be punished as such
eat shiat and bark at the moon
With its student suicide rate and lost generations. You also need the jobs at the end of the tunnel
momkind to our rescue again http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stem+cells&sm=3
kreme of the kode contest seeing results? stay tuned..... little miss dna cannot be wrong
You're not 22 anymore, so they can't hoodwink you into working 70 hour "crunch time" 52 weeks a year. You probably expect paid vacation, also.
Also, regarding these code.org people:
WHORES! FILTHY SYPHILITIC WHORES! Burning alive is too good for these people.
get with the program--multiculturalism is COOL and if you are against mass immigration you are a bigot and probably the next Hitler.
The fact that multiculturalism and mass immigration makes millionaire investors richer is just a coincidence. Just keep saying that....Just keep saying that....Just keep saying that....
eat shiat and bark at the moon
This makes about as much sense as when the Clinton administration opened trade with China by personally promising reforms in Chinese government and an increase in Chinese demand for American cars and products, leading to an increase in manufacturing jobs. Yep, makes perfect sense.
remember, above all else, the USA was from the start set up to make the rich richer.
James Madison, the designer of the federal constitution, wrote that the structure of the fed govt created by the constitution was to preserve wealth inequality by making it harder for the majority to control the govt.
Don't you love the constitution?
eat shiat and bark at the moon
A lot less.
de-reference that pointer, homie, or I'll put a cap in yo ass!
eat shiat and bark at the moon
So increase the number of H1-B's so that the US kids won't have any jobs when they graduate. What kind of morons thin k this crap up. The motivation behind increasing H1-B visas is 100% GREED. The big companies want the slave labor.
GP:
I constantly talk to people I cannot hire because of raw smarts issues.
Parent:
Guess what.. most people are idiots!
The attitudes! And people wonder why kids are reluctant to go into the field.
"Hey kids! You need to learn coding! You won't get jobs though because you are stupid! So, sign right up kids!"
See, if it were me - just lowly stupid-unintelligent me - I'd be creating a campaign to show HOW kids and current coders are coming up short.
Like, "Hey educators! The analytical skills are coming up short, so how about concentrating on that instead of the technology du jour?"
And if you are currently having problems finding people, how about ignoring Dice, LinkedIN and other lamoe places.
But hey! I'm stewpid.
I'm done with Slashdot. This "article" is absurdly misleading. I am rather critical of our work visa programs because I see abuse of it on a daily basis in my line of work. But the headline and summary of TFA... there are no editors here, just a company looking to make money just like every other sensationalizing "news" outlet.
Fuck you, Slashdot. You were great a decade ago... oh look what you have become.
apprenticeships and more put into trades schools will fix the education part and it can be done in less time that the older college system at a lower cost.
I think pizza hut and others pay more for mangers with the same unpaid OT needs.
TO many places use salaried pay to get lot's of OT work out of people with out paying for it as well use it or lose vacation policy that you can't use all of it due to the high work load. Or OT comp time goes to vacation but you don't get the time to use all up.
More cheap foreign labor, and pulling the floor out from under the market by making basic coding a common skill. Then it won't pay any better than flipping burgers.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Waiting for the teachers' unions to start raising bloody hell about the impact to their livelihoods. Hmmm, given the clout they have with politicos, this may actually work to all our favor.
Arrgh, it's a null pointer! I'd rather take the cap in my ass than the segfault.
Just looking at it as a practical issue, if you reduce demand by bringing immigrants in to do the job (especially at sub-market rates), then the people here will have less incentive to learn those skills.
By eliminating short term demand spikes, you are reducing the long term supply of workers.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
The problem with H-1B Visas is that they smell like indentured servitude. I say abolish them, and then create a visa program for skilled professionals that is not tied to a specific job or business sponsor. That way, the "guest worker" would have some actual bargening power and could change employers.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Take 50% of billionaires money and put it towards education.
Have a program, are you smarter than an H1B, it will clear all doubts. The H1B chosen cannot be one who has studied in the US. That will solve the questions about education and H1Bs
Sure, up the visas. But only do it at equal US PAY rates. I'm tired of companies hiring in H-1B's at a lower pay rate.
well start looking at people who don't have B.S and other degrees. AS lot's of them are very theory based while the tech / trades schools are more hands on.
This type of thing is so frustrating.
For example, I applied for a job recently that wanted 1-3 years of Linux admin experience. While I never had formal paid experience, I do have 15 years of:
Somehow, I don't know why they can't extract/find 1 year of experience in there. I can understand if they were asking for 5 or 10 years, but the bar seems low. In other words, what technical day to day tasks does someone in the job face, that I can't handle or figure out? Judge me on my actual technical merits, not something arbitrary.
Pay is not an issue either. Their top pay would represent something like a 40% increase from what I make now, which I do not expect to get. They list no floor. I would be estatic to get even a 5%-10% increase, but can understand that I may have to take the same money or a slight pay cut because of the experience factor (which is fine since I get by well on my current salary).
Of course, the job listing states the team is overwhelmed with work, but the job has been posted over a month. One would think they may have to re-adjust expectations in order to fill the job and get some relief.
If you link funding for low income kids to fees paid by H1-Bs, eventually programs for American kids will be tied to the H1-B funds, and the funds will be expected and budgeted year to year. It's pretty sneaky (or obvious) since future attempts will reduce H1-Bs, will then DIRECTLY affect how low income programs are funded, therefore no reduction of H1-B visas, INCREASES however.... This link creates self-defeating, pro-H1-B visa special interest groups. It makes me sad.
With the obsolesence of currency approaching, one would think these fools would get it.
The U.S. is so messed up :(
One thing that would make it a little less messed up would be to have an auction for H1b visas, rather than allocating them like IP address ranges to big companies. It would be interesting to see what happens when Microsoft, Oracle and Cisco start bidding up the price of cheap labor visas.
It's simple from the corporate position; you'll spend less on STEM contributions than what you will save by driving compensation costs down with H-1Bs.
The proposal is outrageous on its own; train kids for nonexistent jobs that have been outsourced to the lowest bidders.
The suggestion that H1Bs are enabling opportunities to foreigners by providing a path to immigration is equally offensive. The reality is that any individuals interested in immigrating are going to do so via the traditional means, and that's assuming they didn't come here to study first.
The vast majority of H1B applications are filed by outsourcing companies in an amusing twist of irony. These companies are realizing that a remote workforce can be problematic. So they've discovered that they've got a cash cow in H1Bs. Apply existing employees for H1Bs and then charge double or triple for the opportunity to ship them over to the US. In most cases they're still cheaper than employing Americans, especially for higher level positions. And if an outsourcing company has someone critical to a client then they've got them by the balls. Pay more to retain that employee or they've already got someone lined up to hire him. I've seen it happen firsthand.
Second, we really need to end this mentality that dumping more money on the inner city is going to fix anything. That money almost always goes to building a beautiful new school to replace the old one to create the illusion of progress and that the government cares. But the same old problems persist. And there's a fundamental reason for this; if the parents don't care and can't be bothered to participate in the education of their children then the kids will never excel.
This is why teacher reviews is such a problem. A poor teacher in a better district is always going to score well. But a good teacher stuck merely trying to keep order on the class in a bad area will always score poorly. Not that the schools in wealthier communities are much better with all the helicopter parents and self-important, spoiled brats.
I haven't even touched on the fiasco that is common core, where they're not only trying to impose what to teach but even how to teach it, oblivious to the variety of teaching techniques and individual personalities. It's typical garbage formulated by management who is completely disconnected from the realities of the situation. The fact that politics plays a factor here only makes it worse.
Fix those fundamental cultural problems and then we can start talking about fixing the schools. But it's next to impossible to even get started when you've got assholes undermining the entire system for their own gain.
The appeal of H1Bs is that it's easier to exploit those workers. What the government should be doing is giving green cards to anyone with a degree or proof that the have a good handle on English and can sustain themselves. But that inevitably means empowered immigrants who are more likely to question the crap offers they're given.
Their is nothing wrong with you it just people with H-1B visa worker harder per dollar, nothing personal!
I'm all for importing as many smart talented people as we can, but not as indentured servants, which is what H-1B is. Give them green cards and a path to citizenship and the freedom to change jobs.
Well to be fair to those social workers, you did end up as someone who posts anonymously...
Just like we were told that allowing the state to create lotteries was going to make all sorts of money available for the schools. If that were really the result, we wouldn't be seeing property tax increase referendums appearing on the local election ballots year after year.
Just like the fees that we were being charged by the phone company were going to be used for building high-speed internet access to rural areas.
When the hell will we learn to stop believing these liars? Whenever they trot out the ``think of the children'' argument you can be certain that the only thing they're really concerned with is their quarterly profits. The children -- along with the rest of us -- always get the shaft.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Rather than pit them against citizens under conditions where their employers can exploit them then throw them back to Bumphuqistan, have a reasonable (five years max) path to becoming Americans instead. Maintaining the "brain drain" is greatly in favor of the US economy. Training our competition then sending them back is pants-on-head retarded.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I am tired of this constant bash against H1-B. To begin with, the lowering of wages is a myth because companies are obliged by law to pay the wage equivalent to the American market. I have been involved in some of the interview processes, since my company is looking like crazy for new people, and it is very difficult to find qualified interviewees. There goes another myth. In my situation:
- I got the job straight out of college
- I get paid $100,000+
- Full benefits, just like any American employee
And guess what? I would LOVE to have the security and certainty of permanent residency (green card), and my company is doing all it can to get me there, but US regulations impede me from doing that. Without more than a year's worth of full time work experience (what I did during college or in my current company don't count) I have no chance of getting permanent residency. Gentlemen, it is not the companies' fault, it is the US Government protecting all the crybabies since they see green cards as a bigger threat than temporary workers
The real motivation for ever-more H-1B visas: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/13/oracle_sued_over_pay_discrimination/
"$50,000 is enough for an Indian."
Does code.org understand half the crap it puts out?
STEM degrees by definition aren't easy, and any decent comp. sci degree program fits into that.
Most high school and college graduates have problems reading, writing, and handling math, and
I'd say those are the priorities to fix in schools. I go through a pile of resumes from would be
employees, only to find 80% of them full of spelling and/or grammatical errors.
Sigh
I was talked into running a FIRST-based Jr. First Lego League Robotics club at my 3rd-grader's school. The materials provided were awful. For instance, the instructions suggested handing each kid a few Legos to put together, then having them talk about what feelings they had when gazing at them. Considering the high skills serious 3rd-grade Lego users have, they were immediately bored by the program materials and beginners-level kits provided. We ordered more advanced materials mid-stream, but it took them weeks to even ship them out right. They lost the order, then sent something else instead the second time around. FIRST puts on great airs, but they don't deliver much. There's no evidence they've put any serious thought or effort into it at all. It's just a vanity thing for Kamen. A disgrace, really.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
I've owned 2 houses & know it's all "Location, Location, Location".
Tech isn't everywhere, but where it is, it's booming.
My kids will start school soon, so I"m in a rush to a diversified tech area before they won't want to leave.
Because where will the next great tech startup likely succeed? wherever they can get developers!
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
The business leaders are not competent businessmen; they're crony capitalists. Rather than winning in the marketplace playing by the rules, they run to government to try to change the rules to make it so rich compaines (who can afford to hire lobbyists, and have staff attorneys and secretaries to handle complex laws and oodles of government paperwork) will be able to escape market rules (importing cheap laborers, exporting work, etc) while any small upstart competitors or mom&pop competitors (who, being small, lack such resources) will be uncompetitive because they'll be unable to take advantage.
Dislike this crap?
1. Stop patronizing the businesses pushing this stuff (quit Facebook, etc)
2. Stop voting for the bought-and-paid-for politicians (Big government Democrats AND "establishment" Republicans) no matter whether they promise to "like" butt-sex, or public Christmas displays, or unions, or guns... These jerks have injected government into so many things that they can "push your buttons" on cultural hot-button issues you love or hate and then ignore you while they sell-out your country and destroy your economic future.
H-1B visas are a scam and they DO suppress wages - these corporations only like the market when it benefits themselves; when they have increased resource demands they do not want their costs to rise up. They get government to stop market forces.
Sure they pay H-1B people going rates but it keeps wages from RISING while supplying indentured servants which are naturally more desirable to MBAs.
They need to pay more if they want to attract talent, they need to TRAIN employees instead of expect them to list whatever buzzwords the HR drones have on their checklists. They need to RETAIN employees but with non-compete clauses, deportation (H1B,) short term market rewards, and golden parachutes they don't have to care about retention.
Good paying jobs with a path to citizenship and a good quality of life are what make people from around the world want to become citizens. REAL immigration reform would address the green card issues and completely destroy H-1B loophole. Then you have to restore business culture to the way it used to be by taking away their wishlist items which has created most our problems today. Remember what happened when George Lucas got everything he wanted and everybody listened to him unquestionably.... Giving successful people everything they want is not recreating what made them successful in the first place.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
The reason that we cannot get teachers into STEM fields is because we don't pay teachers enough. ... ANYONE with a STEM degree can get a job paying more than what they pay the teachers even at an entry level job.
We pay Administrators, Special Needs programs and COACHES more than the average teacher makes.
I live in an affluent area with higher than average teacher wages and guess what
Let's get one thing straight.
There are a fuck-ton of conservatives in Congress. There are not a fuck-ton of liberals in Congress.
There may be a bunch of Democrats in Congress, but they sure as heck aren't all Liberal. This is vs the Republican party where they are all Conservative.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I remember that the site had some serious validation problems a while ago and 4chan had quite some fun skewing the ratio to 98% girls completing the Hour of Code. Sadly, someone noticed and rolled back most of the submissions. However, it looks like the vulnerability still hasn't been patched, so if anyone wants to have some fun promoting women in programming: http://pastebin.com/G95LMpK2
I remember that the site had some serious validation problems a while ago and 4chan had quite some fun skewing the ratio to 98% girls completing the Hour of Code. Sadly, someone noticed and rolled back most of the submissions. However, it looks like the vulnerability still hasn't been patched, so if anyone wants to have some fun promoting women in programming: http://pastebin.com/G95LMpK2
The primary reason people buy citizenship is for the welfare benefits.
Actually, it's for the economic benefits. It's a choice whether those benefits are due to welfare rather than opportunity or other possible advantages.
Actually, it's for the economic benefits. It's a choice whether those benefits are due to welfare rather than opportunity or other possible advantages.
Same difference. It's a choice? Well, most of the time the choice is welfare, not opportunity or other advantages. Ergo what I said: it's for welfare benefits.
All too often we see people complain how government or some other bad thing is harming the economy, and yet many of them refuse to move to places with more "economic benefits", or even do anything about fixing the system they live in ("Congress is horrible, but my guy is great" so they keep voting the same way)
From the jobless liberal arts majors refusing to relocate, to the companies complaining about US regulations yet refusing to move their businesses out of the US, most people feel entitled to stay where they are and have the rest of the country (if not the world, for those anti-globalization types) bend over for them.
In other words, most people are not looking for economic benefits or opportunities. Most people are looking for entitlements
Note that I have nothing against the US. Other countries have their share of welfare immigrants. I'm just using US as an example as this is a US-centric site. For example, the US isn't the only target for birth tourism
Another note is that I'm not against immigration per say. I'm merely pointing out the inherit socialism in most immigration policies, and highlighting that in case of the US green card, it would be very socialist. As anotehr poster pointed out, it is already possible to "buy" a visa. Having the to a lump sum up front acts like a deposit or downpayment, mitigating the risk the state is taking for accepting the immigrant (and it generates revenue for the state, reducing burden for taxpaying citizens). That would encourage people to choose to immigrate for economic reasons (one would have to believe that US has the economic opportunities for them to make that money back)
to the companies complaining about US regulations yet refusing to move their businesses out of the US
I don't see a lot of "refusing" here. Over the past few decades, a lot of US manufacture and other business has moved out of the US via outsourcing. Similar movement between the states happens as well, with California and the Rust Belt states in particular losing businesses and employees to other parts of the US.
Luckily, I'm not in the tech industry. I am neither a programmer or in IT. I'm just a highly educated professional who must use computers in the course of daily activities. It seems the problem is that tech companies are abusing H1B visas to import cheap labor to this country instead of hiring the many talented persons that we already have. It boils down to greed! That is the way the rich elite have been keeping the middle class down for centuries. In the late 1800's into the 1900's a solution was found which leveled the playing field. In the 1980's the Republican president Reagan started the war on this solution. The solution is called; Unionization. What would happen if a tech company imported a programmer from India, but, had to pay him/her union scale? I think it would not be in their best interests unless he/she were so talented that he/she could replace 2 or 3 American employees. I doubt it would be easy to find such a talented person. Thus, you highly educated techies had better read the tea leaves and start unionizing or you could soon find yourselves just another poor person on food stamps and welfare! The war on the unions was started for only one reason; GREED! Since there is no current way to cure the greed inherent in the wealthy businessmen, either corporate or private companies, the only way the average man can fight back is through collective bargaining. Sure, it may be rocky at the start, but, in the end it can bring balance between the haves and have not.
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
You're implying that the political act of buying a certificate makes one's bloviations on any particular subject more credible. Which, like all elite outgroup favoritism, is the position of the supplicant and the traitor.
The marginal value of a degree has nothing to do with education. It's the debt and the acculturation to bourgeois Whig values that employers consider desirable.
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
I don't see a lot of "refusing" here. Over the past few decades, a lot of US manufacture and other business has moved out of the US via outsourcing.
Manufacturing, as big (in absolute $ sense) as it is, is only a fraction of the economy. The people who have left/are leaving are dwarfed by the people sitting on their ass asking for hand outs.
The issue of H1B visa is an example, where organizations and companies, still in the US, are complaining for visas. They don't want to move. They want government to move for them.
Even if for the sake of argument companies are indeed moving, my point still stands that most people don't. Most people, particularly all those immigrants looking to get hired and be put on H1B, are not business owners, or would ever start one (if entrepreneurs are common, they wouldn't be so valued, and the economy would be in much better shape). H1Bs in particular can't start one, as they are tied to an employer (in that regard, I agree that H1B should be abolished, I was focusing on the second part of letting almost anybody in for a relatively low fee)
Americans should be worried about creeping Caste system due to H1Bs/Immigrants from India.
Caste system is worse than terrorism. It's slow poison that will destroy your middle class.
to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_politics_in_India
Casteism