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Think Tanks: How a Bill [Gates Agenda] Becomes a Law

theodp writes: The NY Times' Eric Lipton was just awarded a 2015 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting that shed light on how foreign powers buy influence at think tanks. So, it probably bears mentioning that Microsoft's 'two-pronged' National Talent Strategy (PDF) to increase K-12 CS education and the number of H-1B visas — which is on the verge of being codified into laws — was hatched at an influential Microsoft and Gates Foundation-backed think tank mentioned in Lipton's reporting, the Brookings Institution. In 2012, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a forum on STEM education and immigration reforms, where fabricating a crisis was discussed as a strategy to succeed with Microsoft's agenda after earlier lobbying attempts by Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed. "So, Brad [Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith]," asked the Brookings Institution's Darrell West at the event, "you're the only [one] who mentioned this topic of making the problem bigger. So, we galvanize action by really producing a crisis, I take it?" "Yeah," Smith replied (video). And, with the help of nonprofit organizations like Code.org and FWD.us that were founded shortly thereafter, a national K-12 CS and tech immigration crisis was indeed created.

2 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fabricating a Crisis? by theodp · · Score: 4, Informative

    MR. SMITH: "One of the things I've learned from all of the various anti-trust and intellectual property negotiations I've handled over the years is this, sometimes when a small problem proves intractable you have to make it bigger. You have to make the problem big enough so that the solution is exciting enough to galvanize people's attention..."

  2. Re: More like a diversion for more H-1B by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, it is the difference between nationalistic and global free markets

    If America is constrained by their national boundaries (and citizens) for IT workers, the supply will be less than demand and wages will rise

    Id America is free to engage a global market, then there is a glut of IT workers and wages will fall

    FYI, no other country, including India, allows foreign IT workers to create a glut and reduce the value of their own workers

    --
    Wherever You Go, There You Are