Gates, Zuckerberg Promising Same Jobs To US Kids and Foreign H-1B Workers?

theodp writes: Over at the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg-bankrolled Code.org, they're using the number of open computing jobs in each state to convince parents of the need to expand K-12 CS offerings so their kids can fill those jobs. Sounds good, right? But at the same time, the Gates and Zuckerberg-bankrolled FWD.org PAC has taken to Twitter, using the number of open "STEM" jobs in each state to convince politicians of the need to expand the number of H-1B visas so foreign workers can fill those jobs. While the goal of Microsoft's 'two-pronged' National Talent Strategy is to kill two birds [K-12 CS education and H-1B visas] with one crisis, is it fair for organizations backed by many of the same wealthy individuals to essentially promise the same jobs to U.S. kids and foreign H-1B workers?

Comments

For the Needs and Pleasure of the Wealthy

[ohnocitizen]

Its hard not to be cynical when this is how the wealthy use their influence in a society that actively caters to them. I'm glad Slashdot keeps reporting on these issues, and I hope we will support and punish as appropriate candidates who oppose H1B. I hope we will have our own movement and do our own work in as many different social avenues as we can to defeat attempts to make things harder for us for the sole reason of lining the pockets of the wealthy more than they already are.

Gates and Zuckerbergs Vision for America

[l0ungeb0y]

If Gates and Zuckerberg have their way -- all US tech workers will compete directly with foreigners for their jobs. In the words of FWD.us "Major Contributor" Lars Dalgaard:

"Nobody's going to hold you up and carry you around...If you're not going to work hard enough to be qualified to get the job...well then, you don't deserve the job."

And part of WORKING HARD ENOUGH is WORKING CHEAP ENOUGH.

Remember kids -- you got give us MORE FOR LESS if you want to make it in today's Globalized Economy. Just being a US Citizen doesn't mean you deserve to work in the US. Why should we "Carry You Around" if we can import workers willing to work for the equivalent wage they'd get in Bangalore while working in San Jose and will even offer to CARRY US AROUND the corporate campus in Rickshaws and Litters in their off hours?

This is why we need to revamp the educational system in America -- to train young thralls how to compete in the workplace of the future

Re:Gates and Zuckerbergs Vision for America

[fermion]

15 years ago many tech workers screamed the libertarian anti-union songs about how a new economy, not based on old rules like profit and loss and robber barons, would create a magical world in which workers and bosses were equal, and all would be fairly treated, and no governement intervention would be required. Then the bubble burst and people lost jobs and workers had to pay huge taxes on stock incentives that were now worthless and everyone started crying about H1B taking their jobs, just like the lowly auto manufacturer workers. It became a time where there was less difference between a tech worker and bluer collar worker. They were all semi-skilled workers

Here is the thing. Apple, Facebook, MS, are all employers just like any other employer. They want to acquire employees at the least cost. They want to pay the least they can. they don't want people to leave. If this can happen with local employees, that is great. They are cheaper to acquire. But local employees know how much it costs in the US and can leave at any time. That means they cost most in the long term. It would be one thing if local employees could be contract, but the courts have said they can't if they don't have control over the schedule. It would be one thing if local employees could be tied to a job, but courts has awarded money for anti-poaching schemes.

So what is an employer to do. H1B is a good solution. Workers don't know how much the cost of living is, and is likely to be willing to live a much lower standard of living for a certain amount of work. Workers are much harder to poach. Workers are much less likely to complain about an employer violating the laws of the US.

So no, it is not wrong for these companies to want H1B employees. There are not enough US kids who are willing to do a days work that also have mad technical skills. And no, it is not wrong to encourage US kids to go to school and learn the latest technical skills. Even if they do not use them directly, and really many college graduates don't work in their field of study, these skills are useful not matter what. It is also wrong to live in a country where we think that workers do not have a right and need to organize in cartels just like employers do.

Re:Gates and Zuckerbergs Vision for America

[I4ko]

Your post would have been funny if it was not informative. But alas it is. And this is exactly why I as a foreign H1-B holder am planning to leave the US. If you make it so bad, that I get a batter deal back at home, I have no reason to even want to come, especially not planning to have and raise children in what the US has become, but people are only now starting to realize. The sad part is.... after almost 6 years, thinking clearly through it, I already had a better deal back home and I wasted my best years for nothing. Even being a farmer in China, a worker on an oil rig in the sea, or a shepherd in New Zealand now seems preferable than being a H1 in US; and those are not easy jobs. You know, some place that does not thing only for the profit and for the price of the stocks at the next quarter board meeting. Publicly traded companies are the doom of all. No public company would do something out of pride of a job or a product well done or out of idealism. If it was a private one, perhaps 1 in 10000 would still care about the product, the service or the society they are rending it to.

Re:heh

[Anonymous Coward]

Completely true.
Let's give an anecdotal example to support this:
Me.
I am a glazier and ironworker by trade. Building large / institutional and commercial buildings is my experience and early background.
I live in Edmonton, Alberta.

In the 80's while running a commercial glass company, my hobby was mini and early personal computers.
In the early 90's there was more demand for my skills in computing than in construction, so I opened a business supplying and manufacturing mass storage devices.
In the mid 2000's I was faced with 2 crises:
First off the fluctuating exchange rates cost us a lot of money.
Secondly, the "Chinafication" of the industry killed off all the North American hardware companies.
Including mine. I am sure that low labour costs had nothing to do with that..

Fortunately for me, my original trades now pay over $60 per hour, due to guess what?
Shortage of skilled labour.

Re: heh

[Shakrai]

Uhh, have you been paying attention to oil prices and the reasons for the decline?

Commodities are not magically insulated from the law of supply and demand.