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New Book Sold Out Offers a Look At the H-1B Debate

theodp writes: The New York Post has published an excerpt from Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires and Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best and Brightest Workers, a new book on the H-1B debate from conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin and programmer-turned-attorney John Miano. "Sold Out," notes a Computerworld review, "clearly has a point a view about the program (crapweasels, for instance), but it backs up its assertions and gives H-1B supporters a high threshold to cross. A serious argument in defense of the visa program requires explaining how America gains when a U.S. worker is replaced by a foreign visa holder hired to do the exact same job. If you are going to justify the H-1B program, then you have to defend firms that force their employees (no severance otherwise) to train their replacements. That may be the point here. This book lays bare the replacement process, the broad use of the H-1B visa by the IT offshore outsourcing industry, and the lobbying effort in Washington to minimalize the visa's use in displacing U.S. workers." With anecdotes like "how Microsoft wined and dined the Bush administration to expand the foreign worker supply through administrative fiat to circumvent public disclosure and congressional debate," the book seeks out a broader audience than just those already familiar with the H-1B issue.

202 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds nicely balanced... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2, Funny

    That title definitely makes this book sound like it takes a balanced and objective viewpoint of the situation, with both sides of the argument covered.

    1. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by halivar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Won't someone think of the billionaires and politicians?

    2. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes because when I am putting forth a position I ALWAYS make sure to argue against myself.

      Seriously where did people get the idea that opinion pieces need to be objective or balanced?

    3. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1, Funny

      Fox News?

    4. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is easier to persuade people if you mislead them about your intention to do so.

    5. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously where did people get the idea that opinion pieces need to be objective or balanced?

      During my K-12 education, in a public school no less, I was taught to do something like this when writing a persuasive essay. You would attempt to consider some of the best counterarguments to your own position and then address those in your essay and attempt to explain why your position is still the best option.

      Somewhere along the way it seems that we've gotten away from that and now it's just, "If you don't agree with me, you're an idiot." If I were to opine on why this change has come about, I would point to the rise of things like Fox News and MSNBC and the self-segregation based on political philosophy that they represent.

    6. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by DRJlaw · · Score: 1, Interesting

      That title definitely makes this book sound like it takes a balanced and objective viewpoint of the situation, with both sides of the argument covered.

      Yes, keep your advocacy and lobbying where it belongs... at $5000/plate fundraisers where the candidate can essentially ignore you because you've already paid.

    7. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm not an American, but what I see from the sidelines is a system that was probably invented to get the best and brightest into a country. Which was never intended for what it is being used now. I would imagine that H-1B would be a few a year. Not thousands in order to import a cheap workforce. That law needs to change, but the US being the US, that's not going to happen and you're now stuck with a system that is rigged to screw over your own workforce. So I'm guessing that booktitle is actually covering the core issue quite well.

    8. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Problem is that's ALL they do. But we're to blame too. FTFA:

      Yes, companies hire and fire workers all the time. But only in the case of H-1B and related foreign guest worker programs are American corporations and offshore outsourcing rackets explicitly aided and abetted by the US government- and routinely in violation of the basic principles of these programs. With no well-financed, high-powered interest group in Washington, DC, to advocate on their behalf, American technology workers have endured this systemic displacement and humiliation for at least two decades.

      Should have listened when some of us were calling for unionization to help restore some semblance of a balance of power.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    9. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Scottingham · · Score: 1

      I was going to post essentially the same thing.

    10. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      If one side is in the wrong, being "fair and balanced" tends to disguise that fact. This is neither fair nor balanced.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    11. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Won't someone think of the billionaires and politicians?

      We do think of them. We call them "the job creators".
      It's just too bad that they are firing citizens in order to create jobs for foreigners.

    12. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by sabri · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Should have listened when some of us were calling for unionization to help restore some semblance of a balance of power.

      No thanks. Unions only advocate on their own behalfs. Unions are bad for the tech industry.

      I don't need a union to take money out of my paycheck under the cover of "mandatory union dues". In normal language, that's called theft, or racketeering.

      --
      I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
    13. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You know, unions weren't always run by careerists. Unions used to be run by guys on the line. There's nothing that says you have to be Teamster or SEUI. You can start your own union and elect your own people. The problem is that it takes effort,time and sacrifice, none of which workers today want to do. But go ahead and complain.

    14. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by sabri · · Score: 1

      There's nothing that says you have to be Teamster or SEUI.

      Yet why do we have the Supreme Court taking on a case on mandatory union dues even for workers who don't want to have any part of it?

      We don't need a union. We need an industry association. Kind of like what AOPA is for general avation.

      --
      I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
    15. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by tompaulco · · Score: 2

      That title definitely makes this book sound like it takes a balanced and objective viewpoint of the situation, with both sides of the argument covered.

      Be sarcastic if you must, but I think it is still far too centric for my liking. What good does it do for America to lose an American worker in favor of an H1b? We have one less worker paying taxes, one less worker supporting the housing industry, one less worker buying your product, one more worker on the breadlines having to be supported by one less worker. The only upside is that the company can create widgets slightly more cheaply, but sales will go down because of the laid off workers. You can't sell them overseas due to all of the one way restrictions and tariffs that are on U.S. products abroad.
      It does nobody any good, including the company that did it.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    16. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Because it quickly devolves into sclerotic work rules (at the very best) where innovation is close to impossible. Just see what happened to the US school system.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    17. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by RailGunner · · Score: 1

      As someone who recently lost his job in favor of an H1-B...

      Fuck 'em all.

    18. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by RailGunner · · Score: 1

      The mean salary in 2000 for a Sr. Software Engineer... $75K.
      The mean salary in 2015 for a Sr. Software Engineer... $75K.

      Time to end the H1-B program, or at the least, severely curtail it's use.

    19. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      Why? Just because you need a job I have to hire you instead the person offering me a better deal? Wtf.

    20. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      So now suddenly conservatives support affirmative action? Why can't companies hire who they wish to hire? Eventually you fools will want to ban robots too. Frankly anyone not making minimum wage is being overpaid. If you can offer value as a human being you would be able to demand it without resorting to the police to go force companies to overpay you money for something they can get done by some Indian turban dude for half the price.

    21. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by RailGunner · · Score: 1

      You know the old saying... You get what you pay for...

      That said, who do you think benefits the local economy? The guy who lives here and spends his money here or the guy who sends 80% of it back to India?
      Which guy helps you more?

    22. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      Right, I appreciate your concern for my wellbeing in this. Maybe I should outsource all my decisions to you? At what point do I get a choice in this? If what you are saying is true the companies that outsource to India will fail. It's their money, they should be able to decide how to spend it .. why should you get to intervene?

      I think the cheaper it is to get stuff done, the more jobs there will be. The price of services will reduce due to competitive pressure. And so we will have more things available and it will require less work to acquire those resources. That aside, it's morally correct that a person choose the deal offering more value. Clearly the Indian is in a more dire situation if he is willing to work for less money.

    23. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why? Because your business is going to go under if nobody has any money to pay for your goods and services.

      Of course, you can always sell them to India at pennies on the dollar...

    24. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      So people can buy my goods with the salary I pay them? Why not simply not produce anything, if the money by which people pay for my goods is money I give to them. Why don't I just keep my money and not make anything? How does it make sense that I should pay people the money to buy my products? Why don't I just keep my money without hiring anyone?

    25. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by khelms · · Score: 1

      I do believe this is the first book I've seen with the word "crapweasel" in the title.

    26. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      Let's make this easy. If I get you correctly, you are saying I should pay workers enough wages to buy my product because if I don't, then I won't be able to sell it.

      Ok let's go through that.

      Let's assume I make cars .. The price of which is 100,000. If I only pay my workers $50,000 .. Then they can't buy the car. Therefore I should pay them $110,000 so they can afford to buy my car? Is that correct?

      That means for every vehicle I sell, I lose $10,000. Which idiot would do a deal like that?

    27. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      I'm okay with the H1-B program when used as intended. The problem is that for all intents and purposes, it is never used as intended, and instead has just become a way for companies to bring in labor at often 15% or more below the going market rate for the area.

      It has been my contention for many years that the H1-B program should be dismantled outright, and replaced with a new program designed by people who learned from the mistakes of the previous program. This new program will, of course, become rife with abuse after five to ten years, at which point it, too, should be dismantled and replaced with a new program that avoids the mistakes of its predecessor. And so on.

      In practice, any system will eventually become abused. That's why the most important thing a government program can do is change frequently, to continually stay ahead of the abusers. This will never actually eliminate the abuse, of course, but it will at least keep it at a slow rolling boil.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    28. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well that's how economy works. If you think that keeping your money is better for you then feel free to do that.

    29. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      > So people can buy my goods with the salary I pay them?

      Why not? That's what Henry Ford did.

      You can always give your employees freebies instead, but of course it's a more general argument. Markets depend on consumers, and consumers depend on disposable income.

      You may have noticed that nobody bothers to save anymore. First, they don't have the extra income, and second, they have readily available credit. So banks who used to make their money on lending out deposits instead find themselves reliant on fees and credit card interest, which is a house of cards that will eventually fall.

      People need good jobs to participate in the economy and built its strength. The last 30 years have all but destroyed that foundation.

    30. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      Wow, I'm assuming you must be some Wippro / Unisys troll, or HR for a huge corp like IBM attempting to justify why you feel that ulcer growing in your stomach every day. I've seen direct evidence when working as a CSR at AT&T when outsourcing goes bad...bad like an Al Qaeda cell in a call center in Malaysia doing ID theft, re-routing call bills to random customers who are overseas...eventually the FBI came in and had to bust up the four person ring. Or walking a "Windows system admin" through how to install IIS on a win2k box because he didn't know how, and his company had his work network so locked down he had no actual Internet access so couldn't look it up himself. Listening to a Chinese woman and an Indian woman get into a heated argument while they just refused to listen to the actual management on a call, a critical SEV1 outage, because there was a cultural fight between the two we didn't find out about until a week later. Or when we had an outage in Mexico and no one answered the on-site phone, all their numbers where wrong in the database, and we had to finally wake up a Director who had some random higher-ups cell phone and woke the site support people who apparently were all sleeping on the job...20 different people, wrong numbers with extra digits, and they let us know in the conference call (while speaking spanish, even being told repeatedly it is an "English only" room) how little they actually cared if their airport had service or not.

      If you claim to be an "American company" yet stab your American workers in the back at every chance just for your profit margin, your nothing more than a psychopath. Reading your comments makes you look like that; you sound like a wannabe slave master.

    31. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      Not only do you fail at basic logic and humane morality, you seem to not know what slavery is. I am not saying anyone should be forced to work for anything other than the mutually agreed amount. Slavery is when you force someone to work for you. I am not forcing anyone to work for me, I am saying I shouldn't be forced to hire people I don't want. You are the slave driver here .. got that? You are the one trying to force people to hire the folks you have a personal preference for. You are the enslaver.

    32. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Henry Ford didn't live in a globalised world. We do. Whether you like it or not, wages are going down and will keep doing that for a long time. The "home market" has lost all of its relevance. It's a big world out there.

    33. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      You fail at logic because your workers apparently both receive a one time payment instead of a salary and they only build one single car.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    34. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      No, Henry Ford paid what he paid because we were more migratory workers back then and he wanted to keep the workers from migrating to a different factory every month or two because it cost more money to train them. That they were able to buy his product (many weren't) is incidental and has nothing to do with this oft-trotted out line.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    35. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Should have listened when some of us were calling for unionization to help restore some semblance of a balance of power.

      I think it will take being completely impossible to have an IT career in the US before it happens. I don't know about the US but Unions function perfectly well in other parts of the world, there must be something about the right to free assemby, a core part of being a democracy, distasteful to some.

      More and more of the rights we expect to have in a democracy, like privacy, anonimity and, the right to free assemby have been progressively demonized. An IT Union would be much too powerful to be tolerated so a beleif system has grown that makes people think that it will somehow limit their potential. In reality it has created a stagnation of the type of salaries that IT professionals deserve commeasurate with the level of skills that you need to acquire to do the work well.

      H1B is an inevitable outcome of neglecting one of the fundamental tennants of democracy, participation. Fortunately the people here who complain about union participation are writing letters to politicians everyday lobbying on behalf of IT professionals. Personally, I'd preferr to pay a union fee and pay someone to do it because it takes a lot of time and effort to read and understand. The flip side being, if we were all great negotiators we would all have great salaries, but we don't because we value IQ over EQ, we think our raw brilliance and talent is enough. That's how niave we are.

      Face it everyone, the party is over and the race to the bottom is well underway. Exploitation is good for the bottom line and it's inevitable that things will get worse before they get better. It's happened in history before the only ones who care about understanding our interests want to so that they have all the bargaining power and can shape law to maintain it.

      There is no one looking after IT peoples interests, are we expecting someone else to?

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    36. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      So it's OK for Disney to shop for workers anywhere in the world, but not for it's consumers to shop for their movies from anywhere in the world?

    37. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      First off I don't want to see that. Second, all humans are of equal value .. try to see it from that perspective instead of being tribalist.

    38. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Why? Just because you need a job I have to hire you instead the person offering me a better deal? Wtf.

      Perhaps you're forgetting that the H1-B folks are in the country in violation of the rules of the H1-B program? Sure, you can always get stuff cheaper illegally.

      Let's take your example to other fields. I'm sure the Russians would be happy if you outsourced your military to them. The Chinese would also want to compete, and you can be sure both would make very competitive offers.

      You're arguing from the point of view of someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    39. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Forgefather · · Score: 1

      To be frank no one gives a shit about your well being in this case. The strength of an economy is derived from the average buying power of the citizen (ie the middle class) balanced to a certain extent with the ability to open a business. In this case the balance has swung far far towards towards the side of business owners. If you think that it is healthy for our economy for american workers to be competing with third world lower class workers in our country then you do not have a solid grasp of economics.

      I have pointed out in other comments how this is unhealthy. The reason comes down to fixed costs. In a country with a high standard of living fixed costs are much higher to compensate and this creates a margin between a persons fixed costs and their actual earnings that is their discretionary income. When you start replacing these people with cheap labor and start suppressing wages then their discretionary income becomes so small that they are not able to generate value for the economy by buying things and investing. The most healthy economies in the world are ones that promote the power of the middle class to create a large group of people with buying power that can support many industries.

      As a people we recognize that it is healthy for our country to have high standards of living so we ask our government to act in the way that will benefit us, and sometimes this means sheltering american workers to protect our own industries. We as a people are not obligated to slake your thirst for cheap labor because we understand that these actions are unhealthy in the country for the long term. As a businessman it is you responsibility to understand that the people of this country have a certain standard of living and if you are unable to accommodate that then take your business to India. It's part of the social contract for operating a business just being obligated to serve people regardless of race or ethnicity.

      The argument was never about you. It was about what our government should be doing to promote the welfare of its people.

      --
      "There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics"
    40. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Hey, tomorrow's SJW Friday. Maybe we should start a rumor that H1-B workers are oppressing women by taking away their jobs and opportunities for advancement.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    41. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by sabri · · Score: 1

      You have obviously never been part of a union, or are even willing to consider them.

      I have been part of one. One that was run by babyboomers and that made sure that babyboomers could still benefit from babyboomer benefits. One that made it difficult for me to get a promotion because it had to be cleared by the union first. One that made it difficult to run a company because they felt that they needed to be involved.

      Unions suck. Industry associations rule.

      --
      I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
    42. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Hey, tomorrow's SJW Friday. Maybe we should start a rumor that H1-B workers are oppressing women by taking away their jobs and opportunities for advancement.

      Wouldn't that mean the SJW's think that might get sex because there are more unemployed women available?

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    43. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Hey, tomorrow's SJW Friday. Maybe we should start a rumor that H1-B workers are oppressing women by taking away their jobs and opportunities for advancement.

      Wouldn't that mean the SJW's think that might get sex because there are more unemployed women available?

      Well, the lesbian ones sure might ...

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    44. Re: Sounds nicely balanced... by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --God, I wish I had mod points... You would be +6 Insightful!

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
    45. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Well, the lesbian ones sure might ...

      I personally don't get the whole SJW thing, are SJWs only female?

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    46. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Well, the lesbian ones sure might ...

      I personally don't get the whole SJW thing, are SJWs only female?

      To play the "unjustly oppressed minority" you have to appear to have fewer rights than your "oppressors." Political correctness doesn't allow for a fact-based discussion, because some facts are "unmentionable", and if you mention them, you're automatically the oppressor.

      As an example, women have outnumbered men in obtaining degrees for quite some time, but somehow today SJWs still argue that they're oppressed today in that area due to historical reasons.

      Or the whole "get girls to code" thing. Learning to code is one of the most accessible activities today - almost everyone has access to one or more computers, and there are perfectly good computers put beside the curb every garbage day because they're obsolete (even though we learned on machines that were way more primitive). Trying to judge if there is equal opportunity by equal outcomes is flawed, because we have proven by brain scans that there are differences between the brains of men and women, so it's not surprising that the two sexes have different interests. Quite the opposite, it would be surprising if they didn't. However, this goes against the SJW narrative that the disparity in outcomes somehow "proves" that women are suppressed.

      The whole SJW narrative is based on the leaders using existing inequities for personal promotion. This was true in the heyday of Germaine Greer (who is a TERF, among other things, so while demanding that there be equality between the sexes, clearly doesn't believe it herself). It's still true today with the SJWs who use feminism, as well as the drama surrounding gamergate and other issues to make money from speaking engagements and crowdfunding (eg: Anita Sarkeesian). It's more like an organized religion than a social movement.

      Feminism too often isn't about supporting equal rights for men and women, but about equal or superior outcomes, political correctness, and victimhood.

      Is there discrimination against women? Of course, same as there is discrimination against men in many areas - especially in advertising media, where men are mostly portrayed as inept dummies who, when they screw up, their wives save the day. This has been the case since the '70s, where it became politically incorrect to portray women as inept dummies who, when they screwed up, the husband stepped in to save the day. Neither one is right - they're both toxic to the way they portray both sexes. However, like SJWs, just follow the money ...

      Of course, it's politically incorrect for me to point any of this out, but I'm fed up with the battle of the sexes and those who promote it rather than seeking a truce and finding common ground. And there is a LOT of common ground. Times have changed. My daughters don't need any feminists to tell them they are oppressed - they simply wouldn't put up with it, without the help of SJWs or White Knights.

      Having lived on both sides of the divide, both sides have grievances, and both sides need to clean up their act. And be a little less dependent on political correctness to make their arguments for them :-)

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    47. Re:Sounds nicely balanced... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      Thanks for that - that's actually the best explanation I've seen on the subject.

      To play the "unjustly oppressed minority" you have to appear to have fewer rights than your "oppressors." Political correctness doesn't allow for a fact-based discussion, because some facts are "unmentionable", and if you mention them, you're automatically the oppressor.

      Indeed, I have experienced this myself when discussing rather rudimentary things like how nature finds a balance between men and women in physical fitness and martial arts training.

      Feminism too often isn't about supporting equal rights for men and women, but about equal or superior outcomes, political correctness, and victimhood.

      So it's not just me, I describe it as a question "Are you becoming equal or getting even?"

      Of course, it's politically incorrect for me to point any of this out, but I'm fed up with the battle of the sexes and those who promote it rather than seeking a truce and finding common ground.

      I think you are onto something there. At almost 200 pounds, people don't fuck with me in real life and I train women. The most down to earth and coolest chicks are the ones who accept the differences. I let them choke or hit me so they understand they can't out strength me, but as I explain that their hips can move this way or that, or to be more persistent in a defence to frustrate an opponent they adjust their game to play to their strengths. We do find common ground and respect that way.

      The ones who do kick ass in tournaments and I think that they probably have the same attitude as your daughters.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  2. This is what... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    The third H1B post this week?! And Hump Day isn't even over yet.

    1. Re:This is what... by rholtzjr · · Score: 1

      Yea, I was just about to say that. But talking with folks who are not in the tech industry are oblivious that this is happening.
      They are still wondering why they are talking to "David" (with a heavy foreign accent and broken English) for any computer related calls to Tech Support.

    2. Re:This is what... by Raseri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Since many of us work in IT, the widespread, unchecked abuse of the H1B program has had an overwhelming negative effect on many /.ers, so it's no surprise that it would be reported on frequently. I find it strange that you'd complain about the number of posts on the topic, but not the rampant fucking over of IT workers.

      --
      Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove.
    3. Re:This is what... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Just be happy it's Wednesday, and not SJW Friday,

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    4. Re:This is what... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      What a coincidence, David called me the other day and helped me fix my Windows system. I'm really glad he called as I wasn't aware that my system was broken. He was even so kind as to take over the screen to do the fixes himself so I didn't have to type in stuff. Actually, it's really cool because now, when I log onto my bank account online, it seems to know my password so I don't have to type it in again -- very convenient, a definite upgrade and he didn't even charge me extra for that feature. I strongly recommend you take advantage of David's services should he call you.

  3. Where to get? by dunkindave · · Score: 3, Funny

    If the book is "sold out", then how are we supposed to read it? /s

    1. Re:Where to get? by russbutton · · Score: 1

      Buy it for your Kindle or the Kindle app on your cell phone, tablet or Chome browser.

  4. Things are bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

    We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

    We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

    It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

    Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

    I want you to get mad!

    I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

    All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

    You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

    So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

    "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

    1. Re:Things are bad by rholtzjr · · Score: 1

      You missed Clinton Philanderer and Clinton Liar

  5. It's just business by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    And good business is always good. The jobs would have been offshored anyway, right? So what's the harm. This way they're here spending money. Renting cheap apartments, maybe buy a car. Of course, that means rent goes up, and used car prices. You know, it's almost as there's a downside to supply and demand.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:It's just business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Exactly. Hahaha it's just funny when the chickens come home to roost, that's all. All the technology workers who just though they were so fucking clever by automating the shit out of everything, costing millions their livelihoods, and now when the cannon turns and points at us, we start crying foul. Too late! We've set the train in motion, there isn't any stopping it now. Don't you know the people in the corner offices always, always win? And we helped them.

    2. Re:It's just business by Krishnoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Renting cheap apartments, maybe buy a car. Of course, that means rent goes up, and used car prices.

      One culturally-related element of this is that most of the Indians I know in the US, highly value family and education (and properly-prepared food, incidentally). As such, I suspect many H1-B parents are instinctively motivated to apply continuous pressure to the local schools to ensure the curriculum is rigorous and the environment is conducive to learning.

      And who knows? The school lunches might improve too.

    3. Re:It's just business by Raseri · · Score: 2

      Indians do not value education. If they did, we wouldn't need to teach them how write a while loop their first day on the job (yes, I've actually had to do this and similar first-semester-level training on more than one occasion). You're thinking of China and Japan.

      --
      Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove.
    4. Re:It's just business by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      All the technology workers who just though they were so fucking clever by automating the shit out of everything

      oh please. automation doesn't last long after the automators leave.

    5. Re:It's just business by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      As such, I suspect many H1-B parents are instinctively motivated to apply continuous pressure to the local schools

      how many of them do you think attend public schools?

    6. Re:It's just business by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      If they didn't value education (at some level, at least), you'd be teaching them English first.

  6. This book will be very interesting for the... by SofiKadaj · · Score: 1

    ...ten people who are actually going to read it.

    The rest of the people who buy this book, as with all other books of its kind, will fall under one of these three categories:

    1 - Media pundits who oppose H-1b: These people will buy the book, skim a goodreads summary, and quickly scan the book for ten minutes of out-of-context quotes to spew on air at H-1b supporters..

    2 - Media pundits who support H-1b: These people will buy the book, skim a goodreads summary, and quickly scan the book for ten minutes of out-of-context quotes to spew on air in an attempt to dismiss the book as their favourite ultimately meaningless criticism dismissing buzz word.
    Choose from: [political correctness / socialism / fascism / corporate pandering / oligarchy]

    3 - Normal people who are curious about H-1b: These people will buy the book, read 16 pages in, get bored, then leave it on their desks to look smart.

    The last hundred pages of this book could be an endorsement of dog raping and only ten people would notice.

    1. Re:This book will be very interesting for the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The last hundred pages of this book could be an endorsement of dog raping and only ten people would notice.

      But those ten people will tell everyone, and then the pooch is screwed.

    2. Re:This book will be very interesting for the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bitter?

    3. Re:This book will be very interesting for the... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      >> last hundred pages of this book could be an endorsement of dog raping and only ten people would notice

      Our current president endorsed dog eating and I'll bet fewer than ten people cared.

      http://www.politifact.com/trut...
      "I was introduced to dog meat (tough)..." - Barack Obama

    4. Re:This book will be very interesting for the... by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Our current president endorsed dog eating and I'll bet fewer than ten people cared.

      yes, and anyone with half a brain knows not to condemn someone for eating dog while you yourself are eating pigs and cows and chickens. it's called cultural relativism.

      p.s., partaking in something at some point in your life doesn't mean you "endorsed" it then, or now.

    5. Re: This book will be very interesting for the... by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      duh, wha? you mean peoples don't all eat meet? me so dummy. ah yes, another vegan / vegetarian that is butt hurt when someone references eating meat. poor you. when will society learn not to speak of eating meat anywhere where you might read it!?!?

      anyway, if the issue was that the president was eating meat period, you'd be talking about that, not how he's a dog eater.

  7. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    The Republican Party needs younger voters more than the Democratic Party does, as conservative voters are dying off at a faster rate than liberal voters.

    By combining presidential election exit polls with mortality rates per age group from the U.S. Census Bureau, I calculated that, of the 61 million who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, about 2.75 million will be dead by the 2016 election. President Barack Obama's voters, of course, will have died too — about 2.3 million of the 66 million who voted for the president won't make it to 2016 either. That leaves a big gap in between, a difference of roughly 453,000 in favor of the Democrats.

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/the-gop-is-dying-off-literally-118035

  8. Not all H1B positions are equal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a former hiring manager for a lager fortune 500 company, whose ass is on the line to finish projects on time, I can assure you, I was not looking for the cheapest hire, but, the most qualified hire. I desperately looked for software engineers with experience in the area of embedded systems and some amount of networking knowledge, but, who are excellent C programmers. For the several positions I recruited for, I could not get a single qualified resume. The good ones don't want to do any C/Linux/Unix programming and are more interested in App or web development for startups. We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley. I completely open to hiring anyone regardless of age, sex, nationality, diability, etc. Being myself an immigrant, I felt bad that I was much more harsh in reviewing the applicants who required H1B and put them at the end of the pile. Believe, me it is much more work for the hiring manager and the company has to spend a lot more to hire a H1B candidate.

    What people generally confuse is the abuses perpetuated by the so called body shopping companies, whose primary intent is to get people with some random degree from overseas and try to place them in a position in the US. In contrast, the people who are directly recruited by the large companies as their full time employees, are no different than any other full time employee in that company.

    In my opinion, what should happen is, the US congress should close the "body shopping" loophole in the H1B and allow for skill based immigration, instead of H1B.

    1. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley.

      How did you come up with that rate?

      I ask because a local company was offering a "competitive market rate" with "excellent benefits" and I laughed at them. Seems the system they were using to get competitive rates from was 5 years out of date. So they had the position listed at $85k (Unix/Linux Engineer with 15 years experience) All the local positions I had interviewed for were running $114k to $140k a year.

      When you offer "Competitive" rates and do not get a lot of response, i would first check the rates. They may not be as competitive as you think.

      As to "excellent benefits" I hear that all the time. Prove it! 9 times out of 10 they are standard benefits with things like 2 weeks vacation, health insurance with a co-pay, and a 401k.

      To me "excellent benefits" means
      4 weeks or more vacation
      Fully paid health, dental, and Vision insurance for self, better would be fully paid for my family.
      Fully paid $500,000 life insurance policy.
      100% matching of the first 20% of your salary placed into the retirement account.
      A fully paid 3 month sabbatical every 3 or 4 years.
      Free lunches and/or Free Drinks (Coffee, soda, etc) at work.
      etc, etc..

      The list goes on and it could be any combination of the above.

      I swear the next time I go looking for a new job i am going to negotiate a new benefit. That being a guaranteed severance package equal to 1 years salary with full benefits extended through the severance period. You tell me it is a Full time permanent job, put your money where your mouth is and include a severance package up front. If it is permanent then you will never need to provide it.

    2. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by hawguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As a former hiring manager for a lager fortune 500 company, whose ass is on the line to finish projects on time, I can assure you, I was not looking for the cheapest hire, but, the most qualified hire. I desperately looked for software engineers with experience in the area of embedded systems and some amount of networking knowledge, but, who are excellent C programmers. For the several positions I recruited for, I could not get a single qualified resume. The good ones don't want to do any C/Linux/Unix programming and are more interested in App or web development for startups. We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley. I completely open to hiring anyone regardless of age, sex, nationality, diability, etc. Being myself an immigrant, I felt bad that I was much more harsh in reviewing the applicants who required H1B and put them at the end of the pile. Believe, me it is much more work for the hiring manager and the company has to spend a lot more to hire a H1B candidate.

      What people generally confuse is the abuses perpetuated by the so called body shopping companies, whose primary intent is to get people with some random degree from overseas and try to place them in a position in the US. In contrast, the people who are directly recruited by the large companies as their full time employees, are no different than any other full time employee in that company.

      In my opinion, what should happen is, the US congress should close the "body shopping" loophole in the H1B and allow for skill based immigration, instead of H1B.

      About 30% of my company's workforce is H1-B workers, and like you, they weren't the cheapest for the job, but the most qualified for the job. Being in the SF Bay area, we face a lot of competition for local workers (even interns get swooped up by the big names like Google, Facebook, etc, so we recruit from various colleges across the country). All of the H1-B's we have hired are either PhD's, or are highly skilled in their field (or both).

      But that's what the H1-B program *should* be -- it should only be used to hire highly skilled workers. General IT support workers shouldn't be included since they are much easier to find (even in the SF Bay area).

    3. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by blue9steel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      For the several positions I recruited for, I could not get a single qualified resume. We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley.

      Then by definition you were not paying competitive rates. If you were, you wouldn't have had any trouble poaching the available talent from another organization or paying to bring them in from outside the area. The H1-B program is not for local worker shortages "No good candidates in Silicon Valley", it's for NATIONAL shortages as in "No qualified workers in the United States". If you saying that are no qualified embedded programmers in the US with the skillset you need, then I'm going to want so extraordinary levels of proof because that seems highly unlikely.

    4. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by MountainLogic · · Score: 1

      The statement, "get swooped up by the big names" suggest to me that you are not making competitive offers. Yes, working for a sexy brand my get folks to accept a slightly lower salary offer, but as part of a total compensation package includes intangible such as brand and interesting projects. This sounds like you are not paying prevailing wages to match the work.

    5. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by hawguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      For the several positions I recruited for, I could not get a single qualified resume. We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley.

      Then by definition you were not paying competitive rates. If you were, you wouldn't have had any trouble poaching the available talent from another organization or paying to bring them in from outside the area. The H1-B program is not for local worker shortages "No good candidates in Silicon Valley", it's for NATIONAL shortages as in "No qualified workers in the United States". If you saying that are no qualified embedded programmers in the US with the skillset you need, then I'm going to want so extraordinary levels of proof because that seems highly unlikely.

      H1-B doesn't require you to go door to door across the USA to find candidates, you advertise the position and see if you can attract interest. It's becoming harder and harder to find qualified candidates willing to move to the Bay Area because no matter how much you pay them, you can't give them the same lifestyle they had at home. In many areas of the USA, you can have a nice 2000 sq ft house with large yard and a 30 minute drive to work for both spouses and good schools for your kids. In the SF Bay Area, even if you have a million dollars (or more) to spend on a house, there are very few options places where you can have that. And the good candidates already have good jobs, so it's really hard to entice them to move with more money. We had one candidate move across the country who left after 2 months because he couldn't find suitable housing for his family within a reasonable commute. He repaid his moving expenses and signing bonus yet still felt he was better off back in the East Coast town he moved from.

    6. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by blue9steel · · Score: 2

      So basically what you're saying is that you need to move your headquarters.

    7. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by hawguy · · Score: 1

      So basically what you're saying is that you need to move your headquarters.

      Yeah, that's a distinct possibility - we may open a development office in Europe and cut our USA engineering staff by 50% as we ramp up over there.

    8. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Informative

      In many areas of the USA, you can have a nice 2000 sq ft house with large yard and a 30 minute drive to work for both spouses and good schools for your kids. In the SF Bay Area, even if you have a million dollars (or more) to spend on a house, there are very few options places where you can have that.

      In other words you WERE NOT offering a competitive wage nationally. You right the H1B program does not require you to go on some national talent search but to simply advertise the position. The point of the law though was to address national worker shortage, that is how it always is/was talked about and sold to the public. So the H1B program is broken! The law does not work as expected and is instead having unintended consequences.

      Salaries in any field consider the local cost of living. H1B was not developed to make sure your company have bodies in seats in a particular corner of California. There are always economic efficiencies in certain areas specializing. If you want the efficiency of having all the nations tops tech talent living in silicon valley you have to pay for that or you should have to pay for that! Yes that means paying them enough that they will personal enjoy a better quality of life than they can have for what someone is willing to pay them in Kentucky. That might be a dump truck full of extra dollars.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    9. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      Not a bad idea--you might consider opening one in the US instead, but that's your affair.

      I remember IBM, way back when, used to put their engineering offices inconveniently close to big cities. For example, I know there used to be a development office in Essex Junction, Vermont (it might still be there). It's a day flight to New York or Boston, so you can go for a sales meeting or something if you have to, but it's far enough away from "where the action is" to keep employees from getting poached. IBM used to do things like offer employees low-interest housing loans and things like that so that they could buy a nice house in an area with good schools and the like, once again to keep employees happy and productive and interested in staying with Big Blue.

      I agree with the employee who left you--personally, from everything I've seen and heard, I have no interest in moving to the Bay Area. But I'm also seeing some companies that are offering telecommuting and looking for employees that are "logistically close" (e.g., LA to SF/San Diego) so that they can hit meetings with a little notice but can also afford to have a life outside work.

    10. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by sabri · · Score: 1

      Yes, working for a sexy brand my get folks to accept a slightly lower salary offer

      On the contrary. Those brands usually offer better compensation packages.

      I remember the first time I get recruited by a headhunter. When I asked how the salary negotiations would go, his reply was simple: "usually, negotiations are not necessary".

      He was right.

      --
      I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
    11. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by ZPO · · Score: 1

      "Market Rates" are usually quite slanted in the favor of employers. The market rates are also depressed artificially by the H1-B workers already in the country. The legal departments at tech firms tend to be careful to speak of "shortages of qualified applicants." In this case, "shortage" means people willing to work in the location for the amount offered.

      I'd like to see the hiring organizations increase salary by 20-50% over "market rates" in steps and see how many qualified candidates they get. Welcome to the free market and supply and demand in the labor market.

    12. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      The H1-B program is not for local worker shortages "No good candidates in Silicon Valley", it's for NATIONAL shortages as in "No qualified workers in the United States".

      I love this completely one-sided viewpoint so prevalent on \. First of all, a shortage doesn't mean none, it means fewer than able to meet demand. Second,

      Then by definition you were not paying competitive rates.

      In May 2012, the median annual wage for all workers was $34,750, and the median salary for a software developer was $93,350 per year! That's from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I know it's popular on \. to not care about the ability of a company to start, grow, or even sustain itself...but when you have to pay 3x the average salary for labor, and unemployment rates are less than the national average, and companies are faced with either hiring incompetent workers or increasing their offer to 4x or 5x the national average (still not guaranteeing that they will be able to hire someone qualified), there is a shortage, and that is what the H1-B program is intended to address.

    13. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by farble1670 · · Score: 3, Informative

      We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits

      no you weren't. you stated yourself the proof of that: you couldn't hire anyone.

      more interested in App or web development for startups

      uh ... no. people are interested in a fair wage for their skill set. embedded engineers are in high demand. IMHO it's generally more complex work that requires more experience. you're going to have to pay more for that type of skill set.

      basically what you are saying is that your company had a salary they were willing to pay for a embedded systems, but the salary wasn't enough to lure anyone in. so instead of paying more, you decided to import someone that would work for cheaper. you've generally hit the nail on the head here. it isn't that skilled workers don't exist in the US, it's that hiring them would cut into the precious profits of your fortune 500 company. of course, you are going to lobby for and hire cheaper workers. it's what corporations do.

    14. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      Right. The complaint by companies and hiring managers is that, even by paying 3x the average annual wage, they aren't able to find qualified people. So instead of A) trying to pay 5x the average annual wage which would not likely be sustainable for the company, or B) not hire anybody and not be able to grow the company or stay competitive in the market, they are opting for C) hiring H1-B workers (which the law requires to be paid at least the prevailing wage). It seems like a pretty clear situation to me. The job market for software developers is excellent, because IT demand is continuing to grow tremendously, and it isn't likely to change any time soon, but that doesn't mean there are infinite resources available to allocate to paying for IT salaries.

    15. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      I totally agree, all H1B visas should have a fast track path for citizenship that the corp can't easily loophole around. We, as a multi-culture country, need these smart people to become citizens and stay here instead of getting shipped back after we've rained them and taught them how to work here. It's a waste of resources over the long term.

    16. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by hawguy · · Score: 1

      If you're considering opening an office in Europe for the sole purpose of cutting labor costs, you may also consider that there is more to the US than Silicon Valley. Nearly every other place in the country, and the world, is cheaper than where you are currently headquartered. You guys seem to have some poor business decisions from the start, so it's not surprising that you're baffled by the obvious right now.

      It's much more complicated than that -- but access to a labor pool without the overhead and uncertainty of H1-B approvals for EU candidates is one nice side effect. Thank you for your detailed analysis, I'll be sure to relay that up the chain to top management "Some guy on Slashdot said we're clearly making some bad decisions".

      Though I am curious about what you based "poor business decisions from the start" on, I wasn't at the company 4 years ago when it started, so I'm not sure what those decisions were.

    17. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      Wait, so you're suggesting that a software developer, who is much more intelligent and skilled than the average worker, shouldn't be able to command any salary premium?

    18. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      How much of a salary premium is the question. Software developers at their current average pay, are comparable to other highly trained professionals (enginnering, lawyers, doctors, researchers, etc). How much more do you think they need to make? How much do you think is sustainable for a company to pay? Remember that you aren't talking about one or two individuals, but in some cases upwards of 2/3 of the entire workforce at a company.

    19. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      San Francisco Tech salaries are about 35% higher than the national average, however living costs are something like 60% higher than average. Why would you be surprised that it's hard to attract talent with that sort of pay deficit? Laborers don't take pay cuts on purpose. A company will either need to pay the requisite premium, move their facility or accept telecommuting work. Abusing H1-Bs is just a way to try and do an end run around the labor market. Can't blame them for trying but that's no reason to let them get away with it.

    20. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      Plenty of other people manage to live and work in San Francisco at the same pay scales. They live there because they want to live there, that's why living costs are high. Sure, if they want to move to Kansas they can find cheaper living, but that doesn't seem to be what people are doing. The problem here is that there aren't enough workers, because companies have to poach workers from other companies to fill their vacancies. It's a good situation for developers because they can demand inflated salaries, but it's not sustainable and companies will fight it one way or another.

    21. Re:Not all H1B positions are equal by Baldrson · · Score: 1

      It never ceases to amaze me how guys like you refuse to go back where you came from to set up shop in an environment where not only will you have all of the amazing talent you need, but you will be getting it at cut rate prices and benefitting your people where they live rather than sending them abroad to create hatred of your country of origin.

      PLEASE, do everyone a favor:

      Outsource!

  9. NY Times weighs in on this today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Today's Times' front page includes this article:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/us/large-companies-game-h-1b-visa-program-leaving-smaller-ones-in-the-cold.html

    "Large Companies Game H-1B Visa Program, Costing the U.S. Jobs"

    John

  10. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by DavidHumus · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    If, by "mature", you mean "get more frightened and selfish", you have a point.

  11. Re:WARNING: Malkin detected by halivar · · Score: 1

    Fox News is completely in the tank for H1B expansion, so your warning does really mean much.

  12. One of a kind by ardmhacha · · Score: 5, Funny

    Amazingly this is the only book for sale at Amazon with the word "Crapweasels" in the title.

  13. Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Caveat: I'm Canadian.

    I don't get it. This whole "H1-B is an evil scam!" moral panic seems to me to be just another aspect of the virulent anti-immigration bigotry that has republicans screaming: "They're taking our jobs!" (as if *any* USian is going to pick fruit for less than minimum wage!)

    I'm a software engineer at a large multinational, and we've been trying to find qualified candidates for software positions, but we're having a REALLY hard time. There just aren't any qualified people available. This idea that there are competent, qualified STEM people out there who are being denied jobs by the H1-B program just doesn't seem to jive with reality.

    Everytime we post job openings, we get *swamped* by applications, so yeah, there are tons of people out there *looking* for STEM jobs. The problem is that the unemployed people applying are deservedly unemployed!. For the most part, it's because they're bloody incompetent - the vast majority fail the interviews despite appearing qualified on their resume. The rest are people who have fundamental misunderstandings of what constitutes "software development": I can't tell you how many people we've had apply for web development jobs who think that knowing DreamWeaver and Photoshop makes them qualified!

    For the most part, our new hires are already employed developers making a lateral move from their current employer (for whatever reason).

    With respect to other software developers who I know personally, any that I would be comfortable hiring are *already* employed, with good reason. Those software developers who I know personally that are unemployed I wouldn't allow to work on ANY project I was associated with even if they paid me for the privilege!

    If H1-Bs are "Taking our jobs!", then *WHERE* in the hell are all the unemployed, competent, software developers this would create? Their absence is suspicious - they just don't seem to be out there.

    1. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      AC here for reasons. The problem isn't H1Bs coming over to take jobs that can't be filled. The problem is H1Bs coming over to displace entire IT departments that are already fully staffed.

      http://www.computerworld.com/article/2879083/southern-california-edison-it-workers-beyond-furious-over-h-1b-replacements.html - fair example.

      Either you're naive to the issue or you're schilling for the other side. Hopefully the first thing.

    2. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by blue9steel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      (as if *any* USian is going to pick fruit for less than minimum wage!)

      Of course they won't, and it's illegal for anyone else to do so. The correct response would be a massive crackdown on employers who violate the labor laws. Daily raids, random inspections and audits, harsh prison sentences for executives and severe financial penalties for the businesses involved. Failure to do so is class warfare.

    3. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm a Canadian and I call BS.

      First off, Canada doesn't have an H1-B program. We have the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

      If you had watched the news, you would have known about RBC bringing in workers to replace Canadian IT workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. They only backed down - this time - because of all the negative publicity exposing the illegal practice in this one instance.

      Dozens of employees at Canada’s largest bank are losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers, who are in Canada to take over the work of their department.

      "They are being brought in from India, and I am wondering how they got work visas," said Dave Moreau, one of the employees affected by the move. "The new people are in our offices and we are training them to do our jobs. That adds insult to injury."

      When you write: "WHERE in the hell are all the unemployed, competent, software developers this would create? Their absence is suspicious - they just don't seem to be out there", maybe it's because after decades of BS working for smug, self-satisfied people who don't even know what's going on around them, who can't even tell the difference between Canada and the US, we get completely out of the field. Change career paths. Retire. Whatever. Any way we can to give a big F*CK YOU to the people "managing" the industry, because what goes around eventually comes around, and it's their turn.

      This problem has been going on for years in Canada.

      And if you're getting people who think that knowing Dreamweaver and Photoshop makes them qualified, then you (or your HR department) obviously have a problem spelling out minimum requirements, or the recruiting companies you deal with are just sh*t monkeys throwing sh*t at the wall and hoping some of it sticks. Either way, the problem is on your end of the line.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    4. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by LDAPMAN · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They are out there, you just don't want to pay for them. The are two answers to your problem that would be much better than hiring H1B:

      1. Increase the offered pay until you get the qualified people you need. This is the best option when you don't have time for training and development.
      2. Pick the best of those your now rejecting and train them. Many of them would be willing to work for below market rates while in training. Of course some of these will not work out but you will find some real gems as well.

      After you have done this then H1B may be appropriate for the the really rare cases it was intended for.

    5. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      As a "manager" at a tiny Canadian shop (4 developers including myself), I have been involved in the hiring process for about 10 years and seen maybe 10 people pass through the workplace in some kind of developer capacity. I have never had a developer "fall in my lap", we have trained each one that was successful from what you would call incompetent up to useful. It generally takes a year but anyone that is going to stick around adds value equal to the starting pay inside a month or two.

      Three people were tried out as developers but just didn't have the chops - one is now a decent manager, two are excellent at support. The other 7 were between marginal and terrible but it takes some time to figure this out. I only saw three that were completely useless at any role in the company. One because he was a violent misogynist that was being managed by a woman ...

      It isn't hard, mentoring, on the job training, interacting like human beings in an overall team environment. Oh yeah, support and implementation team usually takes first roll at the new devs with training, we have have several quit in the first week because no slackers here and their job is hard as we support a wide range of hardware and software products as well as our own.

      I would never pass one of these new-fangled interviews. I don't think they work to hire anyone outside the top few percent so for almost every company they are useless. One of our company might pass that screen. MAYBE. He isn't a dev, he's a manager... No super stars here but the egos aren't there either so we can get work done and after 8 hours I can go home (well, I work from home but you get the picture).

    6. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by T.E.D. · · Score: 2

      I'm a software engineer at a large multinational, and we've been trying to find qualified candidates for software positions, but we're having a REALLY hard time. There just aren't any qualified people available. This idea that there are competent, qualified STEM people out there who are being denied jobs by the H1-B program just doesn't seem to jive with reality.

      Major economics fail here. Are you trying to tell us that if you doubled or quintupled the salary for those positions, you still would not be able to find people capable of doing them? Good qualified engineers would not happily leave their other jobs for a far better paying one at your company? I'm pretty happy where I am, but for a 5x bump in salary I'd probably be happy to buy a few extra layers of clothing and move up north.

      But as somebody who actually studied economics a wee bit, it looks to me like you are saying, "We can't hire anyone for these positions at the price we want to pay them." In normal markets, this is where, well, market forces take over and cost rises up to the point to encourage an increased supply sufficient to cover the demand (at that price). Supply and demand are independent curves, and the market price is the point where the two meet.

      What I'm seeing you say here is "We don't want to pay the market price for this labor."

    7. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by LDAPMAN · · Score: 1

      I'm in the same boat you are! H1B is not an option for small companies but I think our way is better anyway. The idea that you can find the "perfect fit" for your position while not paying a premium is ludicrous. If you want a great company you need to BUILD IT by building your people.

    8. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by DarkOx · · Score: 2

      There just aren't any qualified people available.

      But what is that? -- is what the question we should be asking is. The US and Canada have university systems that are the envy of most of the world. The US is far and away the worlds biggest hightech center.

      Certainly we have the resources here to educate, train, and develop qualified people. How come that isn't happening? Is possibly because people don't want to sink tens of thousand of debt financed dollars into something the might not succeed at like Computer Science and instead choose to major in business where they can be assured of graduation on time and being somewhat employable?

      Is it because companies no longer want to develop talent and as you say refuse to higher anyone that does not already have a job and exactly the right specialist education? Do they do that precisely because they have the option of importing that talent from some where else rather than having to invest in developing it? I think so.

      Does that steady stream of cheap labor depress wages, absolutely you need IT you can't compete in business without it today. You absolutely need engineering and math people to develop new products. You would PAY whatever the going rate is or make the investment to develop the internal talent to get it if that were the only way. Which would make the risk proposition of someone investing in all that education required more palatable. Sure it might take them longer to finish school but the life time earnings would be higher!

      Right now the H1B system is creating a huge disconnect. If it was used to bring in a handful of PHD level people with very specific expertise, doing mostly blue sky research this would be a non issue. That isn't how its used though.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    9. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Asinine. What you complain about as "bigotry" (I've noticed your ilk love the "moral panic" caused by that word) is actually just simple self interest.

      The question is simple - is it in our nation's best interests to bring in workers who will take high paying jobs from US citizens? The answer is usually no, unless those jobs truly can't be filled and will in other ways help grow our economy and job market.

      Now, you, like they, claim "but I can't find anybody!!". The answer is simple. PAY MORE MONEY. Sorry, but you aren't exempt from the laws of supply and demand. If you want more qualified people pay more money. Make it known that you are willing to pay 25% more than the going rate and you will have plenty of highly qualified people beating down your doors.

      That's what's so fucking deluded about your position is you frame it as some sort of no win situation. It isn't. What you do is uplevel the work. You offer more and more money so that people languishing in dead-end but comfy jobs will change jobs, so that more smart people will say "shit, programming does pay a ton I think I'll go into that". Whoever is willing to pay the most will get the best programmers, and it will go back from there.

      Bringing in foreign workers increases the supply of labor to the detriment of the current labor market. Simple. In some cases (picking oranges, cleaning houses) this is OK because the bottom rung is already limited on the low-end by minimum wage. In other cases, not so much.

      I find it ironic that a nice left winger (ask me how I know this) like yourself would side with Capital (employers) over Workers when the H1B program does not in any way help workers, at least not in the US (or Canada).

    10. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by FeelGood314 · · Score: 1

      I'm a Canadian programmer in my 40s. From my graduating class:
      over half the students moved to the USA for higher pay of those that stayed most have left the field for better pay, better working conditions or management.

      There's a huge number of Canadians in the USA that could be lured back to Canada if you were willing to match their pay. Likewise if the pay was better and companies actually invested in training, not being on call on the weekends maybe more people would stay in the profession.
      Basically: If there aren't enough qualified Candidates in Canada it's because the industry as a hole has kept wages and working conditions down for so long that people aren't choosing to stay in the industry. (I also call BS on the no qualified people responding to job postings - Post how much you will pay. As an Embedded C programmer I'm not going to waste my time applying to a job that likely pays under $120K)

    11. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      We are talking economics here. In this respect, labor isn't significantly different than most other widgets. If there's a spike in demand for Oil, first prices spike way up, then people start producing more oil from more marginal sources and the price spike goes down a bit. In the meantime marginal demand sources (eg: the guy who would kind of like to visit Aunt Edna in St. Louis if gas isn't too expensive) will get priced out.

      There's no reason labor won't be the same way. I am quite happy where I am. But if you wanna pay me way more for what I can do than what I'm currently getting, you'll be much more likely to see my resume. If my employer wants me just as bad, they will be forced to match that. Eventually one of you will get past what you are willing to pay to have that work done. Big labor price spike. In the meantime, other engineers will see this price spike, relative to what the other things they can do will pay, and will learn to do it to. Hungry smart college students will go into that line of STEM if it pays enough in comparison to medicine and/or law. With the new supply, the spike will go down, but probably not to its original level.

      In economics, we draw one diagonal line between cost and amount (of labor) that is roughly proportional and call it the "supply" line. The more you will pay for labor type X, the more people will offer that. Then we draw another diagonal line between those two things that is roughly inversely proportional and call that the "demand" line. The cheaper labor type X is, the more of it employers will be willing to ask for. The point where those two lines meet is the market price.

    12. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So the issue is one of retraining rather than increasing unemployment and/or welfare lines. As the economy shifts employers bear some responsibility in helping the soon-to-be laid off gain practical job retraining and skills advancement as a way to keep their skills active. Merely laying off 15,000 workers (as IBM did last year, I believe) in order to add another 45,000 in India and then shift a good portion of them back onshore with H1-B's isn't acceptable. This is not an uncommon situation.

    13. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      he correct response would be a massive crackdown on employers who violate the labor laws. Daily raids, random inspections and audits, harsh prison sentences for executives and severe financial penalties...

      Yeah, I guess this will "create" jobs for law enforcement, but it's also going to jack the price of fruit at the supermarket and drastically reduce it's availability.

      Good if you are fond of fruitless police states, I suppose.

    14. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by spads · · Score: 1

      I can't tell you how many people we've had apply for web development jobs who think that knowing DreamWeaver and Photoshop makes them qualified!

      If that is true, either you must not have read their resume, or else you have a moral obligation to shred them for sending a fallacious one. Someone in that scenario deserves a serious upbraiding.

      --
      Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
    15. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      First off, Canada doesn't have an H1-B program. We have the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

      Thus the reason for my caveat.

      Dozens of employees at Canada’s largest bank are losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers, who are in Canada to take over the work of their department.

      If that was actually true then either those laid off IT workers AREN'T looking for jobs, or they were replaced because they're not actually competent enough to do the job.

      maybe it's because ... we get completely out of the field. Change career paths. Retire. Whatever.

      In that case then, you're not actually *losing* jobs to temporary foreign workers, are you? Where do you expect businesses to find talent if the only competent, qualified local people out there have decided to leave the field?

      ...if you're getting people who think that knowing Dreamweaver and Photoshop makes them qualified, then you (or your HR department) obviously have a problem spelling out minimum requirements...

      Nope. We don't use recruiting agencies, and our job requirements are anal retentively clear. We still get these people applying anyway. It's not like they actually make it to the interview though...

    16. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      They are out there, you just don't want to pay for them

      1. Increase the offered pay until you get the qualified people you need. This is the best option when you don't have time for training and development.

      Nope. We offer slightly better than market rates, and have various other incentive programs to attract talent.

      2. Pick the best of those your now rejecting and train them. Many of them would be willing to work for below market rates while in training.

      I've actually suggested this to management, and I think it's a good idea, but they don't want to make the investment just to have them leave for somewhere else once they're trained.

      They're really only willing to hire senior devs who already know what they're doing.

      If established developers are losing their jobs to H-1Bs/TFWs, then there should be enough out there that fit management's bill for us to hire, right? Doesn't seem to be the case though...

    17. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      Uh, huh. Why yes, clearly instead of paying someone a paltry $100,000/yr they should raise the pay to $500,000/yr. I mean companies are rich, right? They can afford to pay their entire workforce salaries that fall in the top 1% income bracket nationally. For Google, this would only be about $26 billion dollars. No sweat.

    18. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by nikhilhs · · Score: 1

      I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist. I agree with your general sentiment, but given that you're criticizing someone else's English...

      It's you're, not your. And that's for both times you used the word.

    19. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      Major economics fail here.

      Nope.

      ...if you doubled or quintupled the salary for those positions, you still would not be able to find people capable of doing them? Good qualified engineers would not happily leave their other jobs...

      And that solves the overall issue of not enough qualified people how? You can't make a blanket longer by cutting 2 feet off the top and sewing it onto the bottom. Those companies losing people are then going to need to fill those jobs somehow...

      ...for a 5x bump in salary I'd probably be happy to buy a few extra layers of clothing and move up north.

      For a 5x bump in my salary, I'd move to the bloody moon, but it's not going to happen. There's just no way a business is going to pay it's employees 2-5x what competitors are without hemorrhaging money.

      What I'm seeing you say here is "We don't want to pay the market price for this labor."

      Again, nope. We pay slightly *above* market rates...

      What I'm seeing you say here is: "I refuse to work unless I get paid more than the CEO, but I hate brown people so it's their fault"

    20. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      Is possibly because people don't want to sink tens of thousand of debt financed dollars into something the might not succeed at like Computer Science and instead choose to major in business where they can be assured of graduation on time and being somewhat employable?

      Could be, but this just supports my point: whatever the reason, there aren't enough qualified people. The scenario you presented here is:

      "not enough qualified people because govt is underfunding education"

      Which is an *entirely* different narrative than:

      "there are plenty of qualified people out there who nobody will hire because of H-1B workers"

      Is it because companies no longer want to develop talent and as you say refuse to higher anyone that does not already have a job and exactly the right specialist education?

      Could be. Certainly my company prefers to hire experienced devs rather than hire & train, but this seems like it has more to do with not wanting to lose the investment they make in a worker by having them go elsewhere after they're trained.

      Do they do that precisely because they have the option of importing that talent from some where else rather than having to invest in developing it? I think so.

      Possibly for other companies, but definitely not mine. We don't hire foreign workers for general IT positions (tried it once - it was a disaster). We've had positions lie vacant for months on end because we can't find good local talent, and won't use foreign workers.

      If it was used to bring in a handful of PHD level people with very specific expertise, doing mostly blue sky research this would be a non issue.

      This is the only scenario where we've hired from overseas, and in those cases it was like "well, there's only 2 people in the world with this skill set, and neither live here"

    21. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      I'm a Canadian programmer in my 40s.

      Ditto

      There's a huge number of Canadians in the USA that could be lured back to Canada if you were willing to match their pay.

      We actually pay slightly *above* the US market rate, so where are these people?

      (I also call BS on the no qualified people responding to job postings - Post how much you will pay. As an Embedded C programmer I'm not going to waste my time applying to a job that likely pays under $120K)

      Hey, look, I'm not in HR and I don't know if I'm allowed to publicize our actual pay scales, so uhm yeah, I'm NOT going to risk that.

      Suffice it to say though, that even though we don't do Embedded C in my specific shop, if we were looking for Embedded C devs, it *wouldn't* be a waste of your time to apply.

    22. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > If H1-Bs are "Taking our jobs!", then *WHERE* in the hell are all the unemployed, competent, software developers this would create? Their absence is suspicious - they just don't seem to be out there.

      I think that a lot of software developers take an early retirement when the economy goes south. They try to find employment, but by the time the economy picks back up, they don't have the "hot" skill set anymore. Their resume gets filtered by recruiters as not hitting the right keywords, whereas resumes of less experienced developers may come through instead. The experienced developer may wind up starting up a shop, driving a food truck, staying at home to watch Jeopardy, etc. Source: I live in Silicon Valley and know a fair number of former software developers.

    23. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      If that is true, either you must not have read their resume...

      Yeah, these people don't make it to an interview. Their resume is pretty much all we see of them.

    24. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      I have never had a developer "fall in my lap"...

      LOL - that's pretty much how my company found me! They've been lamenting ever since that they haven't been able to find anyone else that way...

      ...we have trained each one that was successful ...

      That's what I'd be doing if I was in charge of hiring/HR

      It generally takes a year but anyone that is going to stick around adds value equal to the starting pay inside a month or two.

      Provided they actually DO stick around! Many shops are quite reluctant to "hire & train" because of the potential wasted investment if they leave...

    25. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      They're really only willing to hire senior devs who already know what they're doing.

      and there you go. that's perfectly reasonable ... and it's also perfectly reasonable for those senior devs to command a high salary. should it be any other way?

    26. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Major economics fail here. Are you trying to tell us that if you doubled or quintupled the salary for those positions, you still would not be able to find people capable of doing them? Good qualified engineers would not happily leave their other jobs for a far better paying one at your company?

      ^^^ of course they would. and it wouldn't take 5x, or even 2x. most people are willing to hop for a 20-25% bump.

    27. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      I mean companies are rich, right? They can afford to pay their entire workforce salaries that fall in the top 1% income bracket nationally. For Google, this would only be about $26 billion dollars. No sweat.

      he was being facetious. it only takes a 20-25% bump to get people to hop jobs.

      and yes, companies are rich. companies like google make billions in profits. could they afford to bump (a small subset of) salaries by 20-25%? and if they can't so be it. companies don't deserve to exist at any cost to society. we have all manner of regulations that prevent companies from doing harmful things that would otherwise increase their profits. this isn't any different.

    28. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      What I'm seeing you say here is: "I refuse to work unless I get paid more than the CEO, but I hate brown people so it's their fault"

      you're an idiot.

    29. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      If bumping salaries by 20-25% was all it took, they would probably do it. But for companies like Google, it is not a small subset of salaries, it is the majority of their workforce.

      Companies don't deserve to exist, but if they don't exist there is nobody to employ you or make products for you to buy. Not every company is a Google-size monolith. There are quite a few that barely stay in the black each quarter. I'm not saying companies should be given a free reign to do whatever they want, just that discussions like this on \. are very one-sided. There are multiple viewpoints to consider and consequences to every course of action that must be weighed for pros and cons.

    30. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      ... and it's also perfectly reasonable for those senior devs to command a high salary. should it be any other way?

      No, it shouldn't be any other way. However, we ARE offering the kind of salaries that should attract qualified senior devs. (better even!)

      The problem isn't that we aren't offering good enough pay to attract applicants - we get plenty of applicants. The problem also isn't that we're not attracting senior or experienced devs - we get plenty of applicants with tons of experience "on paper".

      The problem is that they're failing the interviews - it turns that unemployed "experienced" devs are generally unemployed for good reason. We have people show up with 10-20yrs "experience" on their resume who are useless at some truly basic shit: like they can't tell the difference between a linked list and an array, between pointers and references, between thread and processes, between mutexes and semaphores etc etc etc... don't know what boxing/unboxing is, can't define latency, ping and jitter and can't hash out an algorithm in pseudo-code on paper to save their lives.

    31. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by JoeDuncan · · Score: 1

      Don't normally reply to ACs, but here goes.

      What you complain about as "bigotry" (I've noticed your ilk love the "moral panic" caused by that word) is actually just simple self interest.

      I find it ironic that a nice left winger...

      There's nothing that self-identifies a bigot quite like the use of phrases like "your ilk" and labeling anyone that says something they don't want to hear as a "left winger".

      ...is it in our nation's best interests to bring in workers who will take high paying jobs from US citizens?

      LOL - AC, you can't even logic! This assumes that H-1Bs ARE taking "high paying jobs from US citizens". I argued this is not the case, and gave my reasons. You can't show the opposite by simply assuming the conclusion - that's circular reasoning!

      You offer more and more money so that people languishing in dead-end but comfy jobs will change jobs...

      Right, and then who's going to fill those now vacant jobs?

      By your "logic" we can double our food supply by just cutting it in half!

      If there are only a dozen eggs available - but you need *two* dozen - you can offer $1 million per egg but you're still only going to be able to buy a dozen.

    32. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Major economics fail here.

      Nope.

      ...if you doubled or quintupled the salary for those positions, you still would not be able to find people capable of doing them? Good qualified engineers would not happily leave their other jobs...

      And that solves the overall issue of not enough qualified people how? You can't make a blanket longer by cutting 2 feet off the top and sewing it onto the bottom. Those companies losing people are then going to need to fill those jobs somehow...

      ...for a 5x bump in salary I'd probably be happy to buy a few extra layers of clothing and move up north.

      For a 5x bump in my salary, I'd move to the bloody moon, but it's not going to happen. There's just no way a business is going to pay it's employees 2-5x what competitors are without hemorrhaging money.

      What I'm seeing you say here is "We don't want to pay the market price for this labor."

      Again, nope. We pay slightly *above* market rates...

      Your racist screed aside, you seem to have the same issue my business had. I offered to buy the rights to a new NBA franchise for and also offered separate deals to hire the top players of every other tea. while back. Shockingly, my offer was turned down by the NBA. Clearly there is a shortage of franchise opportunities since my VERY competitive* offer attracted no QUALIFIED interest.

      *I claimed my offer is competitive, but provide no context, so I'm just as valid in my complaint as you are in yours.

    33. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      Here in the US that happens because people on unemployment insurance are required to make a specific number of applications per week. So people apply for jobs they know they won't get to keep the benefits flowing.

    34. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      I don't get it. This whole "H1-B is an evil scam!" moral panic seems to me to be just another aspect of the virulent anti-immigration bigotry

      You got the first part right. ;)

    35. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by PurplePhase · · Score: 1

      We're out there. Where are your jobs listed?

      Between the pure job sites and the social sites and the tech sites and and and... Where is a person supposed to look for your job?

      Do you only post yours on your company's contact page? I have no idea if I'm typical, but I'd never see it unless your company had an extremely positive reputation in a hobby I enjoy. Otherwise I never check out a company's website for posted positions - because most of them don't put them there.

      Or does your company require applicants to use Taleo, Brassring, or some other job application provider which is not only obtuse and anti-user-friendly, but requires a person to type in EXACTLY THE SAME THING in all the blanks as they did for the previous company they applied to using the same website? And give no way to report a bug or other significant problem?

      Whether or not you use an outside website or recruiting firm to screen or locate clients, do you ever give applicants feedback?

      I'm with the AC above (http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8314383&cid=50910581) - "Excellent Benefits Package" is a slur in the industry meaning "exactly the same POS as anywhere else".

    36. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by T.E.D. · · Score: 2

      Again, nope. We pay slightly *above* market rates...

      Obviously not. Market rate is BY DEFINTION the rate at which a buyer can acquire a good when they want it. If you can't acquire the type of labor you want at the salary you are offering, then you are, again by definition, not paying the market rate for that type of labor. That's what the term means.

    37. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      First off, Canada doesn't have an H1-B program. We have the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

      Thus the reason for my caveat.

      Dozens of employees at Canada’s largest bank are losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers, who are in Canada to take over the work of their department.

      If that was actually true then either those laid off IT workers AREN'T looking for jobs, or they were replaced because they're not actually competent enough to do the job.

      They had to train their replacements, who were not qualified to do the job. Too lazy to click on the links? Or just trolling because you don't have a clue as to what you're talking about :-)

      maybe it's because ... we get completely out of the field. Change career paths. Retire. Whatever.

      In that case then, you're not actually *losing* jobs to temporary foreign workers, are you? Where do you expect businesses to find talent if the only competent, qualified local people out there have decided to leave the field?

      It's because of the abuses of businesses that the talent is leaving. In many cases, it's constructive dismissal via a toxic work environment. So the ones to blame are the people who created that toxic environment. Look in the mirror.

      ...if you're getting people who think that knowing Dreamweaver and Photoshop makes them qualified, then you (or your HR department) obviously have a problem spelling out minimum requirements...

      Nope. We don't use recruiting agencies, and our job requirements are anal retentively clear. We still get these people applying anyway. It's not like they actually make it to the interview though...

      So what's your problem? Toxic environment, people leave the field for greener pastures, and then you complain that you can't find qualified people, all the while importing workers who are not qualified and have to be trained by the suckers who stayed behind when the writing was on the wall. There is no shortage of qualified people, but there is a shortage of qualified people willing to be crapped on.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    38. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by blue9steel · · Score: 1

      Good if you are fond of fruitless police states, I suppose.

      How about states where corporations are expected to follow the laws just like the rest of us? I'd be happy to live in that dystopia.

    39. Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!! by Rutulian · · Score: 1

      Well, first of all they don't. I think it should be abundantly obvious that the laws of economics have little to nothing to do with compensation of CEOs and star athletes or celebrities. Second, a CEO can be paid a large salary (which isn't always the case, btw, they usually get other forms of compensation) because he is one person, rightly or wrongly. You can't pay 10,000 people the salary of a CEO. Even the majority of board members don't even come close.

  14. Re:WARNING: Malkin detected by halivar · · Score: 1

    *does not *grumble* *grumble*

  15. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Not to worry, giving illegals the right to vote will put Democrats so far ahead the Republican party may as well only exist in memory.

  16. Nicely balanced versus clear point by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That title definitely makes this book sound like it takes a balanced and objective viewpoint of the situation, with both sides of the argument covered.

    There seems to be a cultural shift in recent decades where you can't make a clear argument any more.

    This starts with journalism, where "balanced reporting" initially meant that news organizations couldn't show only one side of a controversial issue (abortion, roughly 50% of Americans on one side or the other), and has progressed to where "balanced" journalism includes giving equal air time to climate change deniers (less than 3% of scientists), ESP and paranormal believers, and other completely fringe views.

    To be completely fair, about 40% of Americans believe in Creationism, so it's probably OK that this gets equal billing. The point isn't about the beliefs per-se, it's about journalists unwilling to choose a side. Equal billing tends to prop up failing modes of thought.

    I've read numerous books and papers that posit a claim and then cite evidence to support that claim... I *thought* that's how science debate worked. For example, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind does precisely this: establish a point, then bolster it with reams and reams (well, one ream - 512 pages) of evidence.

    Why does someone with a position to argue need to lay out both sides of an argument?

    That's not how human perception works. We rely on experts to sort through the information we don't have time or expertise to deal with.

    What's wrong with making a clear point in a book tagline?

    1. Re:Nicely balanced versus clear point by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

      Just a sec...

      I agree with the gist of your post and all, but there's a problem with it.

      Political opinions? Yeah, whatever. However, scientific opinions with any controversy in it at all should always get equal airing of opposing viewpoints, so long as there is science backing up the opposition (and yes campers, in the AGW debate there is enough of that to be worth looking at and/or airing.)

      One other thing, now that I think about it - it never hurts to lay out the opposing viewpoints in your writings, because you're going to have to face/refute them eventually, so why not in the book? As long as that opposition is tacked honestly (and not grossly misrepresented or minimized), it can only bolster your own viewpoint.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:Nicely balanced versus clear point by Ambassador+Kosh · · Score: 1

      It should not be equal since that makes it seem like the evidence is equal. Maybe under the talking heads there should be some kind of number of bar to indicate the percent support for the view. 97% vs 3% is not an equal debate. Especially when the 97% is from a pretty wide mix of fields that are involved with the environment.

      Other viewpoints should be shown but you should have some kind of threshold. Should the media cover the 99.99% vs 0.01% ? At what point can you disregard the other side until it has at least gained traction in the scientific community.

      You could even have the media only report scientific consensus on the issues, report that there is still 3% opposition to it within the scientific community and say that research is still being done. There is really no reason that scientific controversy to air in the media since the people watching are completely unqualified to take any part in the issue. Armchair scientist does not work and people massively misunderstand what is said and what it means because scientists don't use words the same way the average person does.

      --
      Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
    3. Re:Nicely balanced versus clear point by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      The clear point being made by this book. Corporate contractor propagandists as they lost propaganda value and their corporate pay checks shrunk felt sold out and screwed over by corporate crap weasels and decided to change sides. Stop paying the propagandists enough to preach for you and they will immediately seek to preach against you and try to get money from the other side. The authors, whose names are not to be mentioned (that's how they make their money) are manoeuvring to change sides as a result of reduced incomes as they wore out the right wing propaganda value because no one was listening any more. Their lead head audience is dying of old age and they are now looking to appeal to a younger crowd. Don't buy the book but do cheer in the public acknowledgement that the far right is losing all over the place.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:Nicely balanced versus clear point by khallow · · Score: 1

      97% vs 3% is not an equal debate.

      Oh, what sort of consensus (hint: climate change propaganda) could we be thinking of here with this peculiar number? This may well be an "equal" debate, if the 97% wasn't actually 97%.

    5. Re:Nicely balanced versus clear point by KGIII · · Score: 1

      You do know that it was the left that made this off-shoring and bringing in H1-B visas popular, right? The whole idea of off-shoring was the idea that a rising tide raises all ships and that we'd be helping out impoverished people. Does that really sound like the right? No, the left instituted these policies, removed tariffs, and encouraged businesses to seek to help the poorer nations out. The right, and the greedy, of course completely bastardized this but they're not really the ones who started the mess.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    6. Re:Nicely balanced versus clear point by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      It was a corporate controlled government that did it all, trying to keep score red or blue is bullshit as if those colours made the slightest bit of difference. The excuse they used were not the reason, just typical corporate designed public relations bullshit, there is a formula for it PR=B$, no matter what the fuck they include in their parade of lies or liars, it is all about unlimited power and profits for a very tiny psychopathic minority. The actual real progressive left has been saying this for decades, only to be continually ignored by the pathologically ignorant right and to be some how in the most twisted fashion, even though the actual progressive left has been arguing against it all along, blamed for it by PR=B$.

      The progressive left are actual real died in the wool conservatives, where conservatives are people who actually want to conserve things, that much fewer chances, think about things before doing them and plan ahead, a long way ahead. People who want to conserve quality of life for families, people who want to conserve the environment, people who want to conserve resources (so they can be used by many generations in the long term). The far right just abuses the word conservatives when they are in fact ruthless exploiters who want to exploiter every possible thing to feed their insatiable lusts and egos, for them there is no such thing as too much wealth or power in the hands of a minority, no matter how many have to suffer as a result.

      Stop pointing to PR=B$ as if it is true or their excuses having any bounds to reality except possibly in the double speak sense ie flipping what they say likely leads you closer to reality.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  17. Work from home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If someone is in a position where they are able to work from home a few days a week isn't there a pretty good chance that their job will be outsourced in the near future?

    1. Re:Work from home by rholtzjr · · Score: 2

      Not necessarily, because if they call and absolutely need you in the office, they can not say "be there in 10-20 minutes".

    2. Re:Work from home by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Their job could deal with restricted export systems.

  18. Moving jobs around by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Reduce the cost of labor instead of raising minimum wage.

    High labor costs accelerate and, more importantly, compact the removal of jobs, while slowing the reuptake of jobs. Jobs always reduce: we've come from every single individual requiring 15-20 labor-hours per week to acquire food (that means a population of 1,000 people needs 20,000 working-hours per week to feed it) to a society where 2% of workers are ag and we expend 27 labor-hours per year producing food (so a population of 1,000 people needs 520 working-hours per week to feed itself). With the spare time, we've been able to build roads, cars, space ships.

    The Industrial Revolution shows us an important model: machines suddenly became cheap, and the 479 labor-hours going into making clothes immediately dropped to 96 labor-hours--80% unemployment even 60 years later. What would today be a $4,000 shirt ($8.75/hr * 479) is now a $15 shirt, as we've improved the manufacture processes to use even less labor-time. Back then, that $4,000 shirt became an $800 shirt; most of the consumer base vanished--not for shirts, but for food and everything else--and much of the economy fell apart.

    Contrast that to agriculture or car manufacture. In 1970, India was producing 2 tonnes of rice per hectare and selling for $500 per tonne; by 2001, they were making 6 tonnes per hectare at cost so low the sale price had dropped to below $200/tonne--note that inflation would have raised that $500 to over $3,000 in 2001, and so India was investing less than 6% labor per tonne of rice produced in 2001, compared to 1970. That transition occurred spread over 30 years.

    During the spread transition, jobs were lost, and rice became cheaper. A few jobs lost--3% in one year is kind of rough, but that's only 3% of the agricultural sector and much less of the whole market--and a whole shitload of consumers (over 99% of the market) facing cheaper food meant they had almost a whole population with more money to spend. Find a way to make a product with little enough labor and you can sell it to those consumers, pay your workers, and come away with captured profits. Looking at the Industrial Revolution, we can conjecture this works less well when only a fifth of your population still has jobs.

    What can we take away from this?

    Alternate management--geoshifting jobs (H1-B or outsource to India), automation (outsource to machines), or rearrangement (cellular manufacture uses less labor than assembly lines, which are less labor-intensive than guilds and artisans)--transfers your labor needs to another form. That form often takes less or lower-priced (cost) direct labor, but may require more total labor (e.g. the machines are expensive, or QA to try and make standard measures work in 803BC is ridiculously labor-intensive thanks to undeveloped technological capabilities). If it takes more total labor, then you're paying someone more--the machines are expensive, you just hire real people.

    By this, reducing the cost of labor at least delays the transition to geoshifting or automation (less outsourcing, fewer machines, for a while).

    With the march of technology on a low-cost labor market, early adopters will get screwed. Your strategic adopters will recognize $10/hr labor vs $8/hr machines, but also notice the machines coming down in price: if they invest $25 million in a 30-year machine that will cost $8/hr to maintain now, they'll find themselves less-advantaged as if they wait up to 5 years for a cost range of $6/hr or lower, and so will decide how much risk they're willing to take and will jump into the automation game at that point. You get traditionalists who wait until their business nearly collapses, too.

    By this, spiking labor costs *rapidly* moves labor to cheaper sources (including automation and H1-B): a $15/hr laborer versus a $10/hr machine is more encouraging to the entrepreneur considering a mechanized labor force. Lower labor costs *spread* the loss of jobs.

    Lower labor costs translate, eventually, into

    1. Re:Moving jobs around by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Faulty analysis. Prices going down reduces inflation. You can't say that inflation would have raised that $500 in 1970 to over $3000 in 2001. Different goods hand services have different rates of inflation.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Moving jobs around by MyNameIsJohn · · Score: 1

      Forgive me if the parent post mentions this as I only got part way through, but the first few lines caught my attention.

      We should NOT reduce the cost of labour, if anything labour costs should be a higher portion of the cost of a product. I realize that foreign workers make this impossible because they will work for cheaper if they are coming from a developing country, but at the same time, developed nations have to realize that their citizens needs to earn enough to afford their lifestyles, otherwise their populace is kept down through depressed salaries. If the cost of living in the USA, which I would term as a person able to afford the basics AND a certain level of opportunity/mobility to achieve more, requires higher labour rates then maybe that is what needs to happen.

      Obviously you cannot stop immigration and putting tariffs on everything is not the best solution. Perhaps governments should start penalizing companies that import items assembled by workers not being paid an adequate wage by US standards. Essentially the US saying 'if you as a company want to sell a product to an American you need to treat your employees as American's'. It would promote worker's rights, probably keep jobs in America, and help keep wages at appropriate levels. It would also raise prices of goods, but with that comes better wages, perhaps better spending habits, and perhaps more home grown solutions to manufacture or source goods from inside the US.

      You cannot get away from an endless supply of cheaper labour, so instead, implement policies that ensure companies cannot create a 'slave class' by preying on developing economies.

    3. Re:Moving jobs around by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Not faulty. Inflation is a matter of how much money versus how much goods. The short of it is you have 3x as much money, but it buys 5x as much goods, even though those goods bear a price of 1.67x as much.

      If that $500 of rice were made with as much labor in 2001, it would cost over $3,000. You couldn't sell it for $200 because you'd pay your agricultural workers over $3,000 to make it, and you'd take more than a $2,800 loss. You're trying to say that the rice was cheaper to produce--less human labor--so there wasn't inflation; but then how do you explain wages increasing? Do you assume that keeping wages the same would arrest inflation?

      Your manner of thinking makes inflation and deflation spooky things which can't be identified because they just happen in a mass: prices go up and we don't understand why or how, just that it is what it is. This method of thinking makes it impossible to assess if the cost of a good has actually gone up or down.

      Inflation is total income divided by total buying power. Total buying power is equivalent to total productive output. Produce more with the same labor-hours and provide no more pay? Deflation: the same money represents more goods purchased (their prices must come down, but that happens because you invest fewer labor-hours for those goods and thus pay less in wages, thus the cost comes down, thus you can reduce prices as other market factors create downward price pressures). Inflation: The same money represents fewer goods purchased.

      Yes, this makes the implication that the price of a good can rise slower than the price of inflation--that a good in 1970 may cost $100, and that same good may cost $130 in 1990, and that the good is *cheaper* and costs *less* in 1990 even though 130 is greater than 100. That is actually how it goes: prices go up, but the price goes down.

      Consider the Chevrolet Camaro in 1970, with its sale price of $6,800-$8,400. In 2012 dollars, that's $40,000-$50,000; yet the 2012 Camaro, with its newer technology, its air conditioner, MP3 CD system with 6 speakers, tilt steering wheel, TPMS, limited-slip differential, air bags, electronic stability control, anti-lock brakes, security systems, power seats, and 4-wheel independent suspension, cost $25,000. The more luxury model cost around $28,000; the super-high-end model did hit above $50,000.

      This car had a lot more than your 1970 Camaro in it. It had so many things. Every single part in that 1970 car carries a higher price today than it did in 1970; and yet all of these new parts packed into the car command a price that isn't *six* times higher.

      Inflation: there's six times as much money. Prices going down through inflation: the stuff doesn't cost six times as much.

    4. Re:Moving jobs around by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      We should NOT reduce the cost of labour, if anything labour costs should be a higher portion of the cost of a product.

      That leads to poverty. It leads to making the poor poorer. It leads to starving children, homeless men, unemployment, the slow growth of jobs, the reduction of product available to the common man.

      The cost of a product--the minimum price--*is* the price of labor. It takes man-hours to harvest oil, man-hours to transport steel, man-hours to refine parts, man-hours to assemble, man-hours to sell, man-hours to process credit, man-hours to manage. Make those man-hours more expensive and the product actually costs $10,000 to make, and you have to sell it for more than that to make a profit. Make those man-hours less expensive and the product only costs $2,000 to make, and can be sold for cheap.

      If the consumer has $600 available to spend and you have a new product to sell for $400, you can sell that product. You'll have to employ man-hours of a total cost per unit lower than $400, and the consumer will be able to afford your product. If those same man-hours required to build your product cost $800, then you don't have a market; you can't sell your product, and you don't create jobs. Those laborers stay unemployed.

      You have ideals which wrench the heart from the common man and hold it bleeding and still beating above his lifeless body.

    5. Re:Moving jobs around by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      If that $500 of rice were made with as much labor in 2001, it would cost over $3,000

      That's like saying if my mother had wheels, she'd be a car. The fact is, it doesn't take as much labor. The simple fact is, more automation means less price, at every step of the way. Competition assures that prices will more or less represent the value-add of labor at each stage (including design, marketing, etc) with a margin that is competitive with the competition.

      Inflation or deflation is the result of too much or too little money chasing after goods. That's why the central banks are pouring money into the economy in an effort to avert a deflationary spiral, which is self-feeding (the longer you wait, the cheaper it will be, so don't buy, so money doesn't circulate, so depression. Inflation results in increasing prices, because with more money in circulation, people can and will pay more if the supply of goods remains constant or diminishes, rather than wait until the price goes up some more,

      Neither inflation nor deflation is directly linked to labor. If nobody's got money, desperate sellers will sell cheaper. Deflation. If everyone is flush (like the liar loans mortgages) prices for the same commodity go up because people can bid up prices. The exact same commodity (the exact same house on the same street) went up in price as too much easy money flooded the market, then dropped (in some places by 90% or more - see Chicago) because the mortgage market (and credit markets all over) froze. Then. with renewed credit, prices started rising again, Even though it was the exact same house. The number of hours put into it didn't change. Just the availability of money.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    6. Re:Moving jobs around by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      That's like saying if my mother had wheels, she'd be a car. The fact is, it doesn't take as much labor.

      That was exactly the point.

      The simple fact is, more automation means less price, at every step of the way.

      Less *cost*. Labor cost is labor price times labor hours; if it costs $500 to produce a thing, you can't sell it for $450 and profit. Lowering these costs to $200 lets you sell it for less and still profit. Price comes down due to many factors, but those factors either pressure you to lower profits or to bankruptcy.

      Competition assures that prices will more or less represent the value-add of labor at each stage (including design, marketing, etc) with a margin that is competitive with the competition.

      Complicated.

      Direct competition is fast at reducing prices; while indirect competition is less-fast. For example: Crocs, once all the rage, have become boring; now it's iPhones, and the shoes have to compete with iPhones for limited consumer money.

      As well, you have capability. If you own the best coal mines, the next mining company can't dig coal out of the ground and sell it below the inflated price you're charging. You get 100% anthracite out of a 100 cubic meter block for 10 labor-hours, he gets 25% anthracite and 75% rocks and dirt out of a 100 cubic meter block for 10 labor-hours, you charge 4 times as much and he can't undercut your prices. If that guy invents a way to do it in 5 labor-hours, you'll have to bring your massive inflated prices down, at least long enough to undercut him and drive him out of business so you can buy his mine and his patents.

      Inflation also tends to push prices down. You have 10% inflation, but consumers hate rising prices, and so you have to stay competitive by only raising your prices 8%.

      Neither inflation nor deflation is directly linked to labor.

      The buying power of a unit currency follows the total income divided by the total production. Lower the labor required for production and you increase the ability to produce, as well as allow for lower prices. Production is influenced by labor requirements, which are influenced entirely by technology--do we have assembly lines or artisans? Power tools or hand tools?--and thus labor can impact inflation or deflation. If labor efficiency--productivity--increases without an increase in per-capita income, you get deflation, as the competition pressure actually pushes prices down in an absolute sense, rather than simply in the sense of percent of total buying power.

      There are a lot of interactions predicated on other interactions.

  19. conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin by Britz · · Score: 1

    Malkin is a professional troll. Shouldn't /. know that you shouldn't feed trolls? What gives?

  20. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by Zantac69 · · Score: 2

    Ahh....let us know when you start leaving everything unlocked and leave all of your assets for use by others.

    --
    1331461 is only semiprime *sigh* Alas - I am just short of 1337.
  21. Supply and Demand by AF_Cheddar_Head · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The problem is the billionaires have rigged the Supply and Demand thing. The Demand for IT workers was high while the supply was low so salaries climbed. Now how to we get more supply to drive the salaries down, train more citizens? No that costs money and those new workers will want a good salary. I know, let's import foreign workers that are used to making 1/10th the salary and pay them less, Win Win, more supply less cost.

    That's how the H1B visa program has been used to keep salaries down.

    The Law of Supply and Demand says that if you pay enough you will get enough IT workers. The billionaires just don't want to pay enough.

  22. Re:conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malk by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    >> Shouldn't /. know that you shouldn't feed trolls?

    If there were no trolls there would be no /. It's why this place is considered an "entertainment site" not a "news site."

  23. Re:WARNING: Malkin detected by halivar · · Score: 1

    Fox News regularly plugs pro-H1B establishment candidates. They aren't conservative; they're pro business. At times that may align with conservative causes, but that is not the case here.

  24. Kickstarter Campaign by hoffmanjon · · Score: 1

    I think we need a kickstarter campaign to raise enough money to buy every member of congress a copy of this book. I would suggest that we also buy a copy for each presidential candidate as well but I doubt any of them are smart enough to have the ability to read.

    1. Re:Kickstarter Campaign by ErichTheRed · · Score: 1

      Only half-joking -- what about just using Kickstarter to buy the members of Congress directly? I know it's not polite to talk about, but I do wonder how many truckloads of money lobbyists and donors funnel directly to these guys every year. After all, lobbyists wouldn't do the job unless it was lucrative, and I don't see too many politicians who aren't fabulously wealthy. It's certainly not their Congressional salaries...

    2. Re:Kickstarter Campaign by maharvey · · Score: 1

      They don't read the bills they are passing into law, why would they read this?

  25. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by bkmoore · · Score: 1

    You miss the fact that as people age (which many of the Obama supporters have), they tend to mature from D to R.

    That might have been true in your father's Republican Party. But the current party has become an activistic party and activists scare off most voters over a certain age and life experience.

  26. Not a provocative title at all... by ErichTheRed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OK, I'm pretty left leaning, but unfortunately the conservatives appear to be the only ones attacking this issue at all. I think that's just because it doesn't affect "average people" yet, but it's creeping that way slowly.

    I posted a piece the other day about Cengage Learning kicking out their entire IT department to Cognizant and forcing their "unskilled, unqualified" staff to train their H-1B replacements. Here's the deal -- nothing is going to get done until some of us become "beltway crapweasels" and buy favorable legislation through a professional organization. Not a union, an AMA-style guild dedicated to making sure salaries stay reasonably high and employment remains stable. Every single one of these Zuckerberg "everyone can code" initiatives or pushes to increase the visa cap is designed to get what these companies want - cheap labor.

    I walk the employee-manager line in a "lead" role, so I have to hire staff as well as do actual work. (I'm a pretty well-seasoned systems integration guy with a solid reputation, if that matters.) I'm not entirely deaf to the "we can't find talent" argument, but I do think it's overblown. Even if you're not looking for a drop-in replacement for someone who left, and I'm not, there are some pretty big gaps in knowledge. Nothing is insurmountable given the right attitude and background, but I've seen lots of padded resumes and people who call themselves "expert level" without any justification for that label. It makes the hiring process frustrating because you have to wade through the obvious liars, then phone-screen the people who might be somewhat close, and then still interview a bunch of duds.

    Being "experienced," I don't like the trend of entry level IT and dev jobs going away, because that kills your talent pipeline. I like the idea of a professional organization for the following reasons:
    - If done right, it could ensure a basic vendor-agnostic, technology-agnostic fundamental education for members. No more "web architects" who can only stich together node.js snippets they saw on Stack Overflow or MCSEs who can't troubleshoot basic TCP connectivity.
    - Gives members a career progression while still allowing them to be individuals -- makes the Libertarian crowd happy.
    - Unlike a union, each member would be their own person rather than bargaining collectively.
    - Gives employers a consistent experience and recourse in the case of malpractice -- professionals would need to be responsible for their work, which is sorely lacking today.
    - Allows members to buy favorable legislation via lobbyists. I can't imagine Congressmen would turn down millions in campaign donations in exchange for a few limits on the H-1B program.
    - Provides a pipeline of newbies to train as apprentices so companies aren't reliant on these offshoring firms for basic work in the future.

    I just don't know how bad it's going to get before people wake up and realize they're not going to become billionaires just because they let them get away with things like this.

  27. Re:Not a Good Outcome by jpapon · · Score: 1

    The dollar is so weak overseas it's laughable.

    Wait, what? The dollar is extremely strong - too strong in fact. What currency do you think is stronger than the dollar?

    --
    -- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
  28. Re:conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malk by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    >> Shouldn't /. know that you shouldn't feed trolls?

    If there were no trolls there would be no /. It's why this place is considered an "entertainment site" not a "news site."

    Damn - you've let the "secret sauce" out! Next thing you'll be telling everyone to browse at -1.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  29. The problem with H1B goes back to 1998 by Pontiac · · Score: 4, Informative

    When the H1B bill was passed in 1998 it set a reasonable for the time exemption pay of $60,000 pr year. Paying a H1B employee more than $60k let the employer bypass the no displaced worker requirement. At the time you could almost fall out of a tree and get an IT job. Workers were hard to find and H1B filled a need.

    Now here we are 17 years later and the $60k threshold has never been adjusted for inflation. What was once a tool to protect US workers is now a low wage target off shore outsourcing company's use to bid low ball IT contracts that displace US workers.

    Adjusted for inflation the limit should be closer to $90,000 in 2015 dollars. Congress needs to bring the H1B minimum pay back into balance with today's job market.

    --
    If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
    1. Re:The problem with H1B goes back to 1998 by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      and $150K in the bay area / other high cost areas

  30. You know I read a lot. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Seriously where did people get the idea that opinion pieces need to be objective or balanced?

    They tend to work better if they appear to be, or at least look like they're making a fair effort.

    You know I read a lot. Especially things that have to do with history & strategy and all that. I find that shit fascinating. So when you're trying to knock out the US Navy in one afternoon, you don't lead up to it by taking out ads in the Washington Post saying "OI! Pearl Harbor! We're gonna blow your ass off, LOL BANZAI!!!eleventyoneone".

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  31. Re:Here's some sound advice by rholtzjr · · Score: 1

    No wonder you posted AC. You got trounced on facts that you can not refute. COWARD.

  32. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    The Republican Party needs younger voters more than the Democratic Party does, as conservative voters are dying off at a faster rate than liberal voters.

    No, they just have to stop trying to pull right to the history that never was, and gradually those of us on the right side of democrat will gradually shift to the left side of republican.

    The present course results in them being the party of the rich, which will not generate enough votes to win an election. Especially as atheism or just general apathy pushes the younger crowd to generally feel more comfortable with democrat social policies, even if they don't trust their financial policy.

  33. Re:WARNING: Malkin detected by Raseri · · Score: 1

    Michelle Malkin hates brown people? That's a new one. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mich...

    --
    Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove.
  34. Re:Not a Good Outcome by sabri · · Score: 1

    The dollar is so weak overseas it's laughable.

    USDxEUR now: 0.93. A year ago: 0.79
    USDxCAD now: 1.33. A year ago: 1.12
    USDxINR now: 66. A year ago: 61.

    Your facts are so off, it's laughable.

    --
    I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  35. Sorry, but no. by admiralh · · Score: 2

    Michelle Malkin has the credibility of a ... a .. um .. a "crapweasel."

    Why can't an actual journalist have written this?

    --
    Hopelessly pedantic since 1963.
    1. Re:Sorry, but no. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Why are you such a misogynist? Women can be journalists. Go back to your cave and celebrate with your KKK buddies, sexist pig.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:Sorry, but no. by admiralh · · Score: 1

      Hilariously, I got called a member of the KKK/misogynist and also someone who gets all their news from Daily Kos in response to the same posting.

      1) I couldn't care less what race/gender Malkin is. She has simply been demonstrably wrong time and time again (for example, the Jamil Hussein controversy, where Malkin claimed without evidence that this person, who the AP was using as the source for several stories in Irag, simply did not exist) and some of here demagoguery has put people in real physical danger.

      2) She has been a contributor to VDARE, a site that uses a lot of white supremacist rhetoric and supports descredited ideas, like that there is scientific evidence that supports idea that some races are mentally inferior to others.

      --
      Hopelessly pedantic since 1963.
  36. Great post! by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    Just wanted to say that this is a great post. It takes a position, supports it with statistics, and makes predictions and recommendations.

    Whether I agree with it or not, it's very well constructed.

    Bravo!

    (Can someone with points mod his post up?)

  37. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    No, they just have to stop trying to pull right to the history that never was, and gradually those of us on the right side of democrat will gradually shift to the left side of republican.

    Moderates are not welcomed by the Republican Party, but they are welcomed by the Democratic Party. After being a Republican for 25 years, I switched parties and embraced my inner RINO and embraced reality.

    generally feel more comfortable with democrat social policies, even if they don't trust their financial policy

    Never mind that a two-term Republican president cratered the economy and a two-term Democrat president presided over a seven-year bull market run on Wall Street.I expect things to get better under President Hillary.

  38. Re:conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malk by Pro777 · · Score: 1

    And your post is the text book definition of an ad hominem attack. Peddle your logical fallacies elsewhere.

  39. H1B is good by backslashdot · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What's wrong with a global marketplace? If somebody needs someone to do a job for them, what's immoral with choosing the best deal? When you go to the grocery store do you not choose the best value for your money? The free market works, and even if it didn't it's the only moral solution. Why shouldn't some chick in India who learns programming have the same shot at a job as you .. Especially if she is offering a better value to whoever is hiring her?

    The more people we have building stuff the better for everyone. By saving money, companies get to survive, increase capital expenditures other stuff.

    1. Re:H1B is good by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

      If the straw-woman chick in your story is in India, then you are describing "offshoring" rather than H1B. In that case, it is very likely she was awarded the work purely because her hourly rate is lower than a worker with the same title in the U.S., without regard to differences in actual productivity.

  40. As good as it gets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Having worked through the last boom/bubble, it saddens me that this time around "this is as good as it gets". Sure, H-1B existed back then but without large companies gaming the system. What we ought to see with constant complaints of "no qualified candidates" is improving benefits and salaries in the IT/software/technology sector. I just don't see it. Sure- better in the Bay Area, Austin, etc. But with corresponding rising cost of living.

    Last time around, there were generous compensation packages (4+ weeks vacation to start, large sign-on and retention bonuses, etc) that I just don't see now. And, by the way, how *dare* you ask about that... don't you remember 2008/9? You ought to be happy to have a job. Entitled worker? Perhaps. But I have many engineering/technology peers in other sectors such as oil and gas. During the good times, they've made money hand over fist, readying to retire at 50. Good luck with that in software/IT or any sector swamped by desperate foreign labor.

  41. Then pay more by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    and quit bitching. You literally just said outright that you have qualified applicants ("The good ones"). They're working for startups because it's better for them. If you want to get them from the start ups pay more. A lot more.

    The other option is to train people and retain them (that's "retain", not "retrain"). That means you don't get to pay someone for 9 months and ship 'em back to India when you're done. You keep them for that 3 months between projects. What India gets you are on demand workers trained to do EXACTLY what you want them to do and trained CHEAPLY. You used to pay through the nose for those guys because they worked for you for 9 months and then spent 3 months off. They spent a good chunk of that 3 months updating their skills, and lived off the excess you paid them ( including paying their own health benefits). You don't like doing that because it's expensive. Stop hiding behind "There are no qualified applicants". That's bullshit and you know it (like I said, you said so in your post).

    Jeez, the crap that gets modded up on /. these days...

    --
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    1. Re:Then pay more by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      Pretty sure you give as good a spirited argument in favor of affirmative action too. Which is what this is.

  42. That's what makes it interesting by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    She's breaking ranks by even discussing the issue much less coming out against it. She's either throwing her career away to make a stand/point, no longer has a career or this is an elaborate ruse. Damned if I know which.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  43. Re: Sold Out: The American Worker by backslashdot · · Score: 1

    Is that why conservatives believe foreigners have no rights and it's ok to torture them?
    He never said theft should be allowed.

    And btw I can think of many situations that any sane person would agree it's ok to steal. For example if a plane crashed in the woods and the only first aid is in a locked cabin nearby .. I bet even you would agree it's ok to break in and steal it with the intent of replenishing in the future it if your own (not other peoples') loved ones or kids were injured.

    I think stealing can be classified as conservative too because as the fifth amendment makes clear even the founding fathers believed it was ok for the public, acting through government, to take stuff it needed if you were to be "justly compensated" .. But that means you don't have the right to refuse to sell .. So in effect it's theft. I mean if I took your car and left you money that me and the neighbors thought is fair wouldn't you consider it stealing?

  44. You have socialized medicine by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    and a bit of a social safety net left. In America our medical care, access to financial help when unemployed, credit and pretty much all other aspects related to our quality of life it tied to our jobs. It's something we did in the 50s, I forget why (IIRC it wasn't for the sake of evil, it just turned out that way). I've seen several jobs outsourced to Canada because health care is so pricey for businesses here it's a better deal even with your taxes being higher (which are usually negotiable for a business anyway).

    Basically there aren't a lot of middle class jobs left, and the only way to go here is down. 62% of us live paycheck to paycheck. We're one layoff away from homelessness.

    Also, we've gutted our school system and training. Actually, it's sounding like you're doing that too. 20 years ago we'd just train people to do what you're asking for. It's really not hard. But it would cost money. Why spend it when there's a guy in India who already has that training and was living off $2/day while he was getting it. Sure, a lot of his buddies dropped out because they got a girl preggers, or were drunk, or died from lack of health care or just couldn't make it. But with 3 billion people you can burn through a lot of human misery on your way to that cheap, fully trained H1-B.

    Those of us in America who are smart see what life is like in India for those guys that didn't make it, see how many of them there are and realize it could be us. We're just one undetected congenital heart disease away. All of us are. Some of us Americans kid ourselves, say we're the 'alphas' in our lot. That's just to make us feel better. The real alphas haven't noticed. Their tall, good looking, have their hair and are VPs. You've got some of those too in Canada. You're 1%ers have noticed how much more money ours make, and they're coming after you. I think you noticed though and it looks like you voted some of 'em out last election. Good for you.

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  45. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I got something even more funnier:

    Barack Obama is the first president in more than five decades to win at least 51 percent of the national popular vote twice, according to a revised vote count in New York eight weeks after the Nov. 6 election.

    Obama is the first president to achieve the 51 percent mark in two elections since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, who did it in 1952 and 1956, and the first Democrat to do so since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four consecutive White House races. Roosevelt received 53.4 percent of the vote -- his lowest -- in his last race in 1944.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-01-03/final-tally-shows-obama-first-since-56-to-win-51-twice

  46. Re:Pff, as if H1B had anything to do. by rholtzjr · · Score: 1

    And now a local US citizen is out of a job. Who will buy their product? The US citizen who is no longer able to afford it as they no longer have a job? Do you think for a minute that they will lower the price of the product because it was produced cheaper so the lesser paid EU folks can buy it?

  47. Eradicating polio for fun and profit by GrantRobertson · · Score: 1

    ... only if said eradication involves governments committing to buying huge quantities of drugs from companies owned by said billionaire.

  48. Re:Sold Out: The American Worker by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

    They are not fiscally conservative because of their need to embrace the religious right, and end up in a strange dilemma of talking about cutting costs but being unable to do so effectively. For example, legalizing and even subsidizing abortions would solve many social woes and probably allow for a smaller government. But they can't do that without alienating God. Handing out contraceptives on street corners probably would, in the long run, reduce the amount of welfare and social services (and aforementioned subsidized abortions) at the federal and state level...but God. There's also a little bit of "I got mine so fuck you", but I believe hta can be moderated out once they lose the religious right. Those guys really should be voting democrat, or making a third party.

    The republican party can win me over, but they have to drop Jesus and the implicit hatred of anything darker than off-white, and stop TELLING people things and start by doing and joining. I'm absolutely against hand-outs, but I also see the government as a tool to enable greater and wider worker productivity, and absolutely believe that is the key behind any sensible economic policy. However that is not enabled via racism, religious voodoo, or just sitting around with my thumb up my ass refusing to acknowledge the utility of government or the need to pay taxes.

  49. Re:Pff, as if H1B had anything to do. by goruka · · Score: 1

    As if a few techies in the street would make a difference. The will eventually work for less or find something else to do.

  50. Crapweasels? by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    Who puts 'Crapweasels' in a book title? [looks at TFS] Oh; Michelle Malkin {retching sounds}.

    Good luck with all the fleas after lying down with her ilk.

  51. Re:Not a Good Outcome by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    None of those guys were really left, despite the rhetoric. They wanted sole power and used whatever populist notion they could to get there. Stalin never had any intention of creating a workers paradise.

  52. Re:Pff, as if H1B had anything to do. by rholtzjr · · Score: 1

    You are exacerbating the issue with that attitude. The only reason you are thinking that way is you were provided the option to come work here and desperately want to try and make a living in an industry that was built by people you are displacing. Do us all a favor and stay in your own country and make it better, build your dream life and make your country a place that will attract every techie wannabe in the world.

  53. Expel Brahmin From Your Country by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Expel Brahmin From Your Country;
    http://wh.gov/iyhMK

  54. Irwin Feerst by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

    That is the name, you IEEE rats might remember him. In 1983, he tried and failed to seize the board to replace corporate friendly H1-B advocates with Practicing Engineers.
    He warned us, before his death about 5 years later, that one day we would be replaceable at will by foreign labor, whose educations were subsidized with taxes on YOUR income, and that YOUR BOSS would replace you just because he can own the H1-B and replace him at will
    Irwin was right, but "professionals" pussied out.
    Enjoy being as stupid as 19th Century Coal Miners!!

  55. Re:Try a legitimate argument by admiralh · · Score: 1

    Notice that I said nothing about her gender. I try not to do that.

    You just need to look at her Wikipedia page to see the laundry list of controversies she has been involved in.

    A particularly egregious example that jumped out at me was her "In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror" book where she was justifying the internment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II (but yet German-Americans were not subject to the same internment). To quote from Wikipedia, "The book's message has been condemned by Japanese American groups and civil rights advocates. Its scholarship has been criticized by academics."

    I see her as being a biased source, easily dismissed by many. That's why I believe that we would be better served in the H1-B debate with someone whose position is not so stridently well-known.

    --
    Hopelessly pedantic since 1963.
  56. Re:Try a legitimate argument by admiralh · · Score: 1

    One other thing:

    I have simply NEVER heard a right-winger tell anybody "Don't watch MSNBC!" or "Don't read Slate!" etc. Right wingers usually just roll their eyes over left-wing sources (which they DO read and watch).

    Funny, because I have heard right-wingers say things like "Rachel Maddow shouldn't be on TV", etc. To believe that one political side is squeaky clean while the other is totally corrupt is simply ludicrous.

    --
    Hopelessly pedantic since 1963.
  57. Simply do what my employer did... by weweedmaniii · · Score: 1

    My soon to be ex-employer (leaving by choice) did the old-fashioned way, they simply offshored as much as of our work as they could. When I started here 5 years ago the org chart was straightforward with SVP for different aspects of our business or locations and more or less straight lines down. Recently they released a revised org chart. So much of our business has been offshored to India that on the org chart is a note, please see other chart for India. There is more of our business in India than in the US. I think all that is in North America is HQ (of course, along with their pet projects) the call center (in Mexico) and the businesses that will not allow off-shoring of certain aspects of their business (including one company I do work for with that is heavily regulated by the government on their IP [defense related]).

    --
    "If stupid things work...then they are not stupid."