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Tim Cook Told Trump Tech Employees Are 'Nervous' About Immigration (cnbc.com)

Behind the scenes at the White House tech CEO meeting, Apple CEO Tim Cook told President Donald Trump that technology employees are "nervous" about the administration's approach to immigration, CNBC reports, citing a source familiar with the exchange. From the report: The source said the president told the CEOs on Monday that the Senate's health-care bill needs "more heart." That would be a second known instance of the president criticizing the GOP plan in private meetings. To that, the source said, Cook replied that the immigration approach by the administration also "needs more heart." Cook cited the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is under review by the Trump administration. He also said people in tech and their co-workers were nervous about their status, and added that it "would be great" if the president could "send them a signal." Here's what executives of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft said.

329 comments

  1. Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah I'm nervous. I'm nervous about foreigners taking good tech jobs. Hopefully Trump can put an end to it.

    1. Re:Tech employee here by sudden.zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly, me too! Tim Cook is only worried about not being able to hire as many H1-B workers as he needs. Jump off a bridge Cook!

    2. Re:Tech employee here by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      I'm not. The IT industry industry will have a 1M+ shortage of skilled IT workers by 2030, when all the baby boomers are retired, foreign workers have gone home, and young people are going into healthcare for the money. We're already seeing that for the construction trades.

    3. Re:Tech employee here by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And do you know why there's going to be a shortage? Because young people don't want to go into IT, because IT jobs are being paid low wages to foreign workers.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, it won't be any shortage because the companies have all moved away to some other country that lets them hire whoever they want to.

    5. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seen what? More people in construction than ever before? More skilled labor now then in the past 20 or 30 years? It's the only way to get those that have money to spend it in large quantities. They want their shiny new meccas for their corporation to show off. Construction is booming and will continue to do so until banks run a foul in real estate again. Then it'll boom again since all the shiny buildings will be more than 15 years old and will require a new face and feel.

    6. Re:Tech employee here by sunking2 · · Score: 1

      IT wages are what they should be. The days of getting crazy money because you have rudimentary computer skills are over. However, if we're going to pay low wages, they might as well go to Americans.

    7. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we're a dime a dozen

      That's the problem.

    8. Re:Tech employee here by Major+Blud · · Score: 1

      So does Apple have "heart" and give 100% covered health care to it's employees too? Because although the health plan is good, it's not covered completely:
      https://www.glassdoor.com/Bene...

      Sounds like Tim wants the Senate to do something he isn't willing to do himself.

      --
      If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
    9. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah I'm nervous. I'm nervous about foreigners taking good tech jobs. Hopefully Trump can put an end to it.

      "The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(17)(H). It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. If a foreign worker in H-1B status quits or is dismissed from the sponsoring employer, the worker must either apply for and be granted a change of status to another non-immigrant status, find another employer (subject to application for adjustment of status and/or change of visa), or leave the United States."

      "In 2016, there were over 230,000 applicants for the H-1B."

      "The current population of the United States of America is 326,394,797 as of Tuesday, June 20, 2017, based on the latest United Nations estimates."

      maybe lowering higher education costs there would be enough cheap qualified workers in the US to wash away the H-1B boogeyman

    10. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fine, just get it over with and move your company already. They have been threatening to do this for the past 10 years. Most are sick of this idle threat. JUST DO IT ALREADY!

    11. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's merely a power play. I doubt Trump has any intention of really changing policies that screw your average work and benefit billionaires. I suspect this is something he can use to pressure his peers into pretending to like him more.

    12. Re:Tech employee here by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Construction is booming and will continue to do so until banks run a foul in real estate again.

      How long will the boom last without workers?

      http://www.forconstructionpros.com/latest-news/news/20865090/25-states-and-dc-lose-construction-jobs-in-may-amid-skilled-worker-shortage

    13. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And do you know why there's going to be a shortage? Because young people don't want to go into IT, because IT jobs are being paid low wages to foreign workers.

      oh the beauty of capitalism

    14. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey at least the 7-11 guy speaks english now.

    15. Re:Tech employee here by GLMDesigns · · Score: 4, Funny

      What makes this a factor of capitalism?

      Socialists wouldn't do the same? Oh, Rights. Forgot. Governments always act in the best interest of the governed. Got that. My Bad.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    16. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is that British wit again that always tries to tell others how everything should be in the world especially those outside their own country.

    17. Re:Tech employee here by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah...I"m of the thought that most immigrant tech workers are NOT here as illegal aliens, and are not in imminent in danger of being deported.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    18. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't see how you can say IT wages are what they should be, as presumably they'd be higher if the work was necessary and companies weren't managing to pay relatively low wages to people with H1-B Visas. Without those Visas, wages would be higher, so ignoring that factor and essentially declaring that the market has properly priced the work is silly - are wages for work done in China appropriate simply because that work can be done in China? Certainly not from a Western perspective, and probably not if whatever person in China can hardly even manage to live off of them. I'm not an anti-immigration person at all, though I do think abusing the process to get cheaper foreign workers is wrong if people in the US can do the job for a more reasonable wage, but you can't just claim that IT wages are definitely what they should be.

    19. Re:Tech employee here by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How long will the boom last without workers?

      Well, if you didn't have so many illegal aliens working for lower wages and, often, being paid under the table....you'd have Americans working in construction again, I hear this from friends that want to do that work, but can't afford to any longer due to the illegals suppressing wages.

      Construction jobs are not jobs that American's don't want...as is often brought up.

      They want them, but at reasonable true market driven wages like they used to be.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    20. Re:Tech employee here by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Wow. What I get from that is people really have understanding of how to rate insurance and health care. No wonder the healthcare debate is so messed up.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    21. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought all liberty loving republicans loved free market and competition as well as detest the government meddling with the free market? Slash your rates, be competitive and you'll do just fine.

    22. Re: Tech employee here by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      i do remember trump saying hire americans...us citizens.

    23. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A worker owned co-op would work in the best interest of the workers.

      Oh, Rights. Forgot. Socialism is a political system, not an economic one.

    24. Re:Tech employee here by sunking2 · · Score: 1

      That's like saying the guy flipping burgers at McDonalds should be making more because he has a pivotal role. The reality is most IT labor is fairly low skill. Obviously not all, the real problem is that anyone who touches a computer calls themselves IT and thinks they are highly skilled and 20 years ago they could get away with demanding a high wage. IT organizations now are a big mess and half of those employed are getting more than they deserve wage wise. Sorry to burst the IT bubble.

    25. Re:Tech employee here by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 1

      Socialists* would pay lower wages for entirely different reasons - because they think that nobody deserves the kind of salaries that accurately priced IT workers are receiving. Let's be clear though, I'm talking about actual "nationalize all the companies" socialists, not "socialists" as defined by the U.S. right-wing media, which simply means "anyone that isn't a rabid ultraconservative".

      100$ Really the answer is to be found somewhere in between 100% socialism and unrestricted laissez-faire capitalism, both of which are wildly problematic, and have caused numerous problems anywhere they've been fully implemented. Giving all the power to the corporations is just as bad as giving all the power to the government. Both have their place, and both need to be kept in check.

    26. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's right! Dem good jobs is bein' givin' away -- just GIVIN' AWAY - to them dern fern'ers. It makes me so mad I could spit. Why if'n we could jist stop all this here im-me-gray-shun, why there'd be plenty o' good jobs fer us 'Mericans.

      Now git off me lawn you fliberty-gigits, I gots me a heap o' corn cobs to clean.

    27. Re:Tech employee here by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      only a dime a dozen? sure ill take 12, you can go work in the coal mines for me

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    28. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like they're taking jobs Americans don't want anymore. Problem solved.

    29. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You are right, but only if IT was truly a 9-5 job.

      It's a 24/7/365 job...if something breaks, it's on you to fix it, NOW. That is worth a bit more.

    30. Re:Tech employee here by pnutjam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You know, a McDonalds won't be around long without a burger flipper. There is plenty of room for that wage to grow before it becomes financially better to not run the McDonalds.

      Labor is vastly undervalued in America.

    31. Re:Tech employee here by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Carl's Jr already doesn't employ _any_ burger flippers. Conveyor grills are cheap.

      Low skill labor is overpaid already.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    32. Re:Tech employee here by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah...I"m of the thought that most immigrant tech workers are NOT here as illegal aliens, and are not in imminent in danger of being deported.

      Stop challenging the narrative! Trump is an evil, bigoted, racist, homophobic Islamophobe who wants to kill everyone who isn't a straight white evangelical! Anyone who doesn't agree is an evil, bigoted, racist, homophobic Islamophobe who wants to kill everyone who isn't a straight white evangelical!

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    33. Re:Tech employee here by sycodon · · Score: 1

      How about getting paid crazy wages to ensure that sorry asses like you get your pay check ever week?

      Without IT, most businesses would come to a screeching halt. Managers that treat It like their janitorial staff have already paid the price.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    34. Re:Tech employee here by sycodon · · Score: 1

      I expect you know exactly Jack Shit about IT.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    35. Re:Tech employee here by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      If IT wages are as they should be then there must not really be an issue for these companies to get skilled workers. Since the only way in the market to get more/better workers is to raise wages.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    36. Re:Tech employee here by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      You are right, but only if IT was truly a 9-5 job.

      Depends on where you are in the food chain. My current government IT is 7-3 to avoid the crazy Silicon Valley commute. I'm also not allowed to work more than 40 hours per week. I haven't done overtime in 10+ years.

    37. Re:Tech employee here by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      You know, a McDonalds won't be around long without a burger flipper.

      But the burger flipper can be easily replaced by someone willing to accept a similar wage.

      There is plenty of room for that wage to grow before it becomes financially better to not run the McDonalds.

      It doesn't need to grow much to price burgers out of the market, and people will eat something else that requires less labor. Or the McDonalds franchisee will switch to an automatic grilling machine. Or hire fewer but more productive people.

      Go to a Walmart and look at the people working there. My local store has one worker in a wheelchair, and a few that look and act like they have Down's Syndrome. Raising wages won't help these people, because if wages go up, Walmart will be able to hire different people, and their current workers will be priced out of the market.

    38. Re:Tech employee here by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I don't care if I get lower wages, as long as everyone is lower across the board and the economy levels out so that I can afford more things with the money I get.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    39. Re:Tech employee here by ferro+lad · · Score: 2

      You mean "indentured servants" rather than H1B visa holders.

    40. Re:Tech employee here by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This.

      Look, anyone with a computer science degree has probably learned between six and forty computing languages and mastered them in his or her lifetime.

      Stop bringing in foreign experts - who rarely are - and start investing in our own human capital.

      Reminds me of the days, two years after Java was released, where job postings asked for five years of Java programming experience.

      Oh, and start actually hiring women. They can code. And, no, they don't want to be your work girlfriend. It's a job.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    41. Re:Tech employee here by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      That's a good thing, so long as government contracts are for citizens only, right?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    42. Re:Tech employee here by kaur · · Score: 4, Interesting

      European here.
      Healthcare is a public service, not a corporate one.
      Cook should pay salaries and taxes, and the gov't should do the rest.

      The idea that Americans consider healthcare an employer's responsibility is simply awkward from our point of view.

    43. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First both McDonald's and Walmart have been making healthy profits for decades so there certainly is more pay available to the burger flipper now even if you don't reduce the enormous over bloated salaries the executives and owners of these companies are receiving.

      Second the "different people" at Walmart can't be priced out of the market as their pay is subsidized by the government. American tax payers are paying Walmart to employ people. Walmart and McDonald's both can only stay in business as they currently are being run because they rely on the US social safety net by not providing adequate living wages to their employees in most of the areas they operate in without considering government assistance.

    44. Re:Tech employee here by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      Oh, and start actually hiring women. They can code. And, no, they don't want to be your work girlfriend. It's a job.

      As Barbie proves.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    45. Re:Tech employee here by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 0

      Amazing, people are able to decide for themselves, something others have no clue about but love dictating in the name of "fairness".

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    46. Re:Tech employee here by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Healthcare is a service, provided by people. You might as well say, housing, food, internet, cars, sex and a just about anything.

      Conscripting Healthcare workers, and producers in a government run system is nothing short of slavery, and is morally corrupt.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    47. Re:Tech employee here by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      You do care, you just care in the wrong places. You think your worth is dependent upon others, when it is tied to you and your skills and ability alone. You're willing to make trades for everyone else (on their behalf) without understanding, some of us do not want to be limited by your view of your worth.

      No thank you.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    48. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Simple solution - figure out a way that H1B workers could (a) change employers and keep H1B status and (b) renew their guest status on their own. (c) would be nice - a path to citizenship, i.e. 6 years of gainful employment (less maternity leave)... (Maternity leave - in the USA - what dat?)

      Therefore, would solve 2 problems - companies that under-pay workers would quickly lose more mobile and competent guest workers; they would simply become additions to the overall labour pool. Plus, there'd be no incentive to obtain visas for guest workers unless you planned to pay competitive wages and keep them on your payroll. Meaning you REALLY could not find qualified American workers at a competitive wage. Meaning the visa program was doing what it was intended to do.

      Plus, I would watch for people who create "temp agency" situations - withholding someone's passport should be a felony; any employer (or principals in that company) who had a record of importing and losing too many tech workers should be barred from further visa applications. Simple solution to the "withhold passport" situation - worker must personally show up in government immigration office with passport every 3 or 6 months and declare nobody was holding on to it for him.

    49. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...but, but, but... aren't the construction jobs supposed to be done with 3D printers, not illegal aliens?

    50. Re:Tech employee here by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 0

      The true wages are exactly what imported workers are being paid. That's the cost of importing labor. And always has been. Dirty Italians, Dumb Irish, hard headed Germans ... all previously were imported workers.

      Eventually, they work to the point of being productive citizens complaining about foreign workers ;)

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    51. Re:Tech employee here by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      You have a very simplified view of worth. A person with no skills can inherit money. A person with skills may not be able to afford an education that will get the attention of top paying companies. A person may be highly skilled but unable to market themselves effectively or find a place that values all of their skills. Heck their earning potential may be limited simply by geography and family responsibilities. There is a very low correlation to how skilled a person is and how much they earn.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    52. Re:Tech employee here by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      I was also talking about Venezuelan / USSR socialism.

      Lower wages are not a function of capitalism.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    53. Re:Tech employee here by chip_0 · · Score: 1

      Foreigner tech employee here. Can you please explain how Trump can prevent me from taking the good tech jobs, when most of the best jobs are in companies spread around the globe, or in cool startups which allow flexibility in location?

    54. Re:Tech employee here by Major+Blud · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Cook should pay salaries and taxes, and the gov't should do the rest.

      Considering he isn't doing the taxes part, I'd say he's trying to avoid ALL responsibility.

      --
      If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
    55. Re:Tech employee here by lgw · · Score: 2

      Conscription was never an element.

      So what happens if not enough people want to be doctors? Wait times grow arbitrarily. (This is also a problem in the US for some specialties, but it illustrates my point).

      You need a system for rationing the available care-providing resources. You need a system for deciding how much to fund care and research. A market-based system couples these, giving an optimal answer. The current US system is the worst of both worlds, because health insurance is procured by companies, not by consumers. No market signal, and some people aren't covered. The only worse idea is the O-care exchanges.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    56. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Foreigner tech employee here. Can you please explain how Trump can prevent me from taking the good tech jobs, when most of the best jobs are in companies spread around the globe, or in cool startups which allow flexibility in location?

      Shows what you know! Good tech jobs are in real American places like West Virginia and Iowa, where un-white, un-Christian people know their place and real Americans show the world how things get done!

      You can't argue with success!

    57. Re:Tech employee here by no1nose · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I hate that companies can legally bring in workers to take our jobs at a fraction of our pay.

    58. Re:Tech employee here by no1nose · · Score: 1

      Agreed. The only reason labor is so cheap in other countries is due to lack of safety standards and the low standards of living for the workers.

    59. Re:Tech employee here by no1nose · · Score: 1

      Walmart description checks out. Made me lol - out loud in my quiet office.

    60. Re:Tech employee here by no1nose · · Score: 2

      This. And aren't women cheaper to employ then men? /sarcasm :)

    61. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you offer better value than them why wouldn't you get hired?

      Many of the iPhone's key designers who came up with its look are immigrants. Examples: Bas Ording who came up with most of the cool UI things in both OS X and iOS. Jony Ive who designed the iPhone.
      Heck even the ARM chip used by the iPhone was designed in the UK.
      Apple wouldn't even exist if Donald Trump and your Muslim ban had been in effect in the 1950's since Steve Jobs biological dad was a Muslim Syrian immigrant.

    62. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple, Google, and Yahoo wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for immigrants. Heck most of the iPhone's key designers are immigrants. So the job you think you are owed won't be there anyways. At least you got a smartphone out if it.

    63. Re:Tech employee here by fightinfilipino · · Score: 3, Informative

      Conscription was never an element.

      So what happens if not enough people want to be doctors? Wait times grow arbitrarily. (This is also a problem in the US for some specialties, but it illustrates my point).

      You need a system for rationing the available care-providing resources. You need a system for deciding how much to fund care and research. A market-based system couples these, giving an optimal answer. The current US system is the worst of both worlds, because health insurance is procured by companies, not by consumers. No market signal, and some people aren't covered. The only worse idea is the O-care exchanges.

      the market is terrible for this. it results in gougers like Martin Shkreli. or the deplorables running EpiPen. capitalism demands making an immediate profit in the short term with no care for the long term - the absolute opposite of what health care should be about.

    64. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "So what happens if not enough people want to be doctors?" Worst understanding of human social status chasing ever!

    65. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you anti-profit???

    66. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly! They should be nervous, not us, for once!

    67. Re:Tech employee here by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "shortage of skilled IT workers"
      Why are US universities not covering that? Or why is vocational education not providing a path way into been an IT worker?
      Its more failure of educators and employees.
      Foreign workers do not help bring more new US workers into the sector. All they do is drive wages, standards and quality down.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    68. Re:Tech employee here by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Why would a young person read and study to get into tech?
      Even if they are poor? For the same amount of study they can get into law, medicine, or become a veterinarian.
      Thats standing and pride in their own family, local community. The ability to get a better wage and later set their own hours.
      US computer work has to return to an engineering profession. With a real wage and standing in the wider community.
      Get a security clearance, get some university work, sell what people outside the USA can never offer.
      All foreign works do is drive down costs.
      A US company then has to risk its products and reputation to workers who are loyal to their own nation, cult, faith, cash or other needs.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    69. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No kidding. When average technology skill among highly-paid professionals is measured by barely knowing how to bookmark a webpage and configure gmail on a smartphone, saying "most IT labor is fairly low skill" is a bad joke.

    70. Re:Tech employee here by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

      Lower wages are not a function of capitalism.

      Yeah go check out the wage gap and working conditions in the golden gilded age.... a time of pure unbridled capitalism. A wide earning gap between rich and working poor, horrendous working and safety conditions, 10 hour work days x 6 days week. Political influence was available for the taking by those who were able to pay.

    71. Re:Tech employee here by rogoshen1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      capitalism has existed for a few hundred years (the dutch were selling stocks in the 17th century for example) -- yet those examples you cited are symptoms of something that's only really been happening fairly recently.

      i'd be more apt blame modern business's absolute lack of civic responsibility, MBA programs, and of course globalism.

      Bear in mind guys like ford and vanderbilt basically built this country; sure they were greedy fucking cunts, but society as a whole benefited from that greed. It wasn't until MBA's started getting shat out, that the race-to-the-bottom mentality that we are plagued by today took over.

      But that's not a problem with capitalism per se, more like a society which above all cherishes instant gratification (and rewards it).

    72. Re: Tech employee here by andymadigan · · Score: 1

      If you're a techie and you're against immigration you've got some odd bedfellows. Most of the other anti-immigration people either fear technology because it eliminates blue collar jobs, or else they dislike nerds because "nerds are weird".

      --
      The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
    73. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Political influence was available for the taking by those who were able to pay.

      Seems like just yesterday...

    74. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are retarted.

    75. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah I'm nervous. I'm nervous about foreigners taking good tech jobs. Hopefully Trump can put an end to it.

      "In 2016, there were over 230,000 applicants for the H-1B."

      "The current population of the United States of America is 326,394,797 as of Tuesday, June 20, 2017, based on the latest United Nations estimates."

      maybe lowering higher education costs there would be enough cheap qualified workers in the US to wash away the H-1B boogeyman

      This is stupid. Who cares what the current population of the U.S is?
      There are about 6.7 Million tech workers.
      http://www.techrepublic.com/article/tech-industry-employment-soars-past-6-7-million-led-by-it-services/

      There are about 900,000 H1-B holders in the US
      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/business/h-1b-visa-tech-cheers-for-foreign-workers.html?_r=0

      So almost 13.5% of tech workers are here on an H1-B. That's a very significant number.

    76. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty much, yes. And as long as citizens get priority consideration for existing jobs.

      Dems hate it though, since most of the tech immigrants, once they get citizenship, do not vote Democrat. Illegals, on the other hand, vote Dem right away.

    77. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should I know something that's so easily outsourced?

    78. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every dollar of profit for the capitalist is a dollar stolen from the working man's pocket.

    79. Re:Tech employee here by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Damn straight! Those filthy low skill plebs should go die in the street like dogs, and be thankful for it.

    80. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does laughing at the disabled make you feel better about working in a low-status, no-future IT job?

    81. Re:Tech employee here by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      A factor of capitalism? Son, exploitation of workers is the heart of capitalism. If you don't alienate the product of another man's labor, you're never going to have very impressive "profits".

    82. Re:Tech employee here by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      The Soviet Union, for all it's many and well-documented flaws, achieved for the average citizen a huge increase in standard of living compared with the system it replaced.

    83. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice racism! Do you hate Appalachian whites because you personally benefit from their poverty; because you think it will make you sound "cool" to your silverspoon Progressive friends; or because you fear that you yourself may sink to their level of destitution?

    84. Re:Tech employee here by Reverend+Green · · Score: 2

      Actually they earn more money for the same role, and bring much higher risk to the company. But thanks for playing anyways!

    85. Re:Tech employee here by Reverend+Green · · Score: 2

      Nope. The Italians, Irish, and Germans you mention were all new citizens. Back when America had a virtuous policy of more-or-less open immigration. Poem on the Statue of Liberty & all that.

      Nowadays we have "guest workers" instead of new citizens. Indentured servants who will go the fuck back home after they've done their work of suppressing wages for Americans. With this change there's an entirely different set of economic incentives on both sides.

    86. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dirty Italians, Dumb Irish, hard headed Germans ... all previously were imported workers.

      Eventually, they work to the point of being productive citizens complaining about foreign workers ;)

      The wops, micks, and krauts did not get welfare benefits as a shocking number of illegal aliens do today. Furthermore, you're talking about immigrants in an era when the United States did not really have an immigration policy. That is, those immigrants were not in the country illegally as many of the unskilled laborers in the U.S. currently are.

      It is absolutely sickening that there are shantytowns in the U.S., filled with Americans, who are being ignored while free government benefits (subsidized housing, free medical care, food stamps, and government services in languages other than English) are being provided for foreigners who WERE NOT invited and are in this country illegally.

      All illegal immigrants should be deported and, perhaps, most especially illegal immigrants still here on DACA. Programs such as DACA just further encourage more illegal immigrants to try to game the system.

    87. Re:Tech employee here by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Considering he wrote "Made me laugh out loud out loud in my quiet office", I think he's part of said group.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    88. Re:Tech employee here by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Excuse me, but I know Jack. He's a great guy, good fit for the job and all - BUT - don't talk to him about Linux or you'll never hear the end of it.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    89. Re:Tech employee here by dbIII · · Score: 1

      There is capitalism and there is unfettered capitalism red in tooth and claw.
      A bit of morality mixed in with capitalism is what we look at when we say capitalism works. Remove that and you have what Conrad wrote about in "Heart of Darkness", and a pile of other examples elsewhere.

    90. Re:Tech employee here by lgw · · Score: 2

      Doctors have social status because they make vast sums. Remove the money, remove the status. This is why software developer can be a higher-status job in India than doctor or lawyer.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    91. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They also didn't pay into Social Security, pay sales taxes, or other burdens upon them.

      They also weren't forcibly enslaved.

      Furthermore, you're talking about immigrants in an era when the United States did not really have an immigration policy. That is, those immigrants were not in the country illegally as many of the unskilled laborers in the U.S. currently are.

      The Know-Nothing Party would disagree. Even before them, the Naturalization Act was passed to disadvantage immigrants.

      Politics has always been involved.

      It is absolutely sickening that there are shantytowns in the U.S., filled with Americans, who are being ignored while free government benefits (subsidized housing, free medical care, food stamps, and government services in languages other than English) are being provided for foreigners who WERE NOT invited and are in this country illegally.

      If there are, why don't you go find them and ask them why they aren't getting help. Ask them if it is the pointless drug tests. Or the lack of application forms.

      PS, the Cubans were invited. Don't go dissing them because they don't speak English so well. Especially if you are going to insist on more broken Embargo policy.

      All illegal immigrants should be deported and, perhaps, most especially illegal immigrants still here on DACA. Programs such as DACA just further encourage more illegal immigrants to try to game the system.

      Yes, because perpetuating a broken and flawed system that isn't serving any goals effectively has to be defended, to the point of flagrant wastefulness.

      And you're going to make US pay for it. Even as actual Americans are unlawfully deported.

      Tell you what, instead of deportation, punish the people, like Donald Trump, who hire illegal immigrants because they choose to do so.

    92. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Half right. H1B's are basically stuck to one employer, and are in fact in imminent danger of being deported if they leave their jobs. Giving the employer the freedom to treat them like crap, on the basis that it's very hard for an H1B to find another US employer to pick up their sponsorship.

    93. Re:Tech employee here by i286NiNJA · · Score: 1

      Your words show you know this is a lie.
      Conscription means you have no choice but to perform some labor.
      It's all quite short of slavery and doctors under such a system can work outside of the government if they want.
      You know this as w.... wait.. that sig. Agent "K"?

      Your sig is from MIB.. Men In Black? You quote a will smith action/sci-fi/comedy like it's something deep?

      Ok sorry forget I said anything at all.

    94. Re:Tech employee here by XopherMV · · Score: 2

      Start hiring women? Every company I've worked at has gone out of their way to hire as many women as they could find. All the interns we've hired were women. We want women working with us. The problem is that they're damn difficult to find.

    95. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      STFU.

      The biggest taxpayer was the most profitable: Apple, which reserved $15.8 billion for income taxes on $59 billion in operating income.

    96. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they have to compete in the free market because any restriction on that = Venezuela. If they're undercut by someone cheaper then it's tough shit - they should have been more awesome like me.
      --
      cayenne8.

    97. Re:Tech employee here by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      It's not a new thing at all. Back in the industrial revolution the market failed to even deliver a safe work environment where a person's life and limbs were valued enough to be protected.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    98. Re:Tech employee here by ls671 · · Score: 1

      GP must be in the six figures. Pretty standard for a little more money as he stated.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    99. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They want them, but at reasonable true market driven wages like they used to be.

      Not that I completely disagree with what you say, but...

      1) "Reasonable" is a very subjective word. What's reasonable for some people may not be reasonable for others. Clearly, wages being paid right now must be, to some degree, considered "reasonable" by at least some people (since they are working for such wages);

      2) The current state of wages is truly "market driven". In a TRULY free, no-barriers, labor market, you'll get such situations: if there's lots of supply of labor, wages tend to go down. That's what happens when you have "true market driven wages".

      What you are suggesting (and I'm not saying I necessarily disagree with your suggestion), on the other hand, is not a "true market driven" approach, but actually an "interventionist" (or "State-regulated market") approach: to ensure that wages in a certain sector remain above a certain level, the State should do things such as "ensure the national labor market is not unduly diluted by cheap foreign labor" (your suggestion), "enforce minimum wages", "enforce labor laws", etc.

      TL;DR: Be careful what you ask for and make sure it's what you *actually* want.

    100. Re:Tech employee here by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

      So if they can't afford to do that work, what do they do instead? What is more lucrative than construction work yet somehow also less attractive?

      This kind of thing, where new people enter a relatively low skill market and are resented, has been happening for centuries. Chinese people building railways, Jews coming to the UK around 1900... I'm not unsympathetic to people affected by it, but everyone has to re-skill now, that's just the way it is.

      If it wasn't immigrants, they would be complaining that robots (e.g. pre-fab) are doing the same thing.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    101. Re:Tech employee here by ls671 · · Score: 1

      I guess you misunderstand how real booms work.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    102. Re:Tech employee here by ls671 · · Score: 1

      The shortage you are talking about has already been there for quite a while.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    103. Re:Tech employee here by kaur · · Score: 1

      I have to correct myself. I did not mean that the government should provide free healthcare for all citizens; this would be a communist utopia. A mix of public and private / for-profit services should exist. The state should provide governance over the system and ensure that all citizens are covered, at least to a degree.

      My point is that employers are not a part of this system.

      The US situation where healthcare is so expensive and mis-governed that companies must kick in and use it as a hiring advantage - is perverse.

    104. Re:Tech employee here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Exactly, me too! Tim Cook is only worried about not being able to hire as many H1-B workers as he needs. Jump off a bridge Cook!

      "Cook cited the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program" - are you claiming his H1-B workers are all under aged too?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    105. Re:Tech employee here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      You know, a McDonalds won't be around long without a burger flipp

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/09/genius-burger-flipping-robot-replaces-humans-first-day-work/ - doesn't spit on you burger either, so no more "special sauce".

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    106. Re:Tech employee here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      The Soviet Union, for all it's many and well-documented flaws, achieved for the average citizen a huge increase in standard of living compared with the system it replaced.

      Many Russians say it was also better than the one it was replaced with https://www.thetrumpet.com/13769-more-than-half-of-russians-want-the-soviet-union-resurrected. Funny thing: the government is basically working the same it did back then.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    107. Re: Tech employee here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Apple wouldn't even exist if Donald Trump and your Muslim ban had been in effect in the 1950's since Steve Jobs biological dad was a Muslim Syrian immigrant.

      Whoa, slow down - you are giving people here ideas.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    108. Re:Tech employee here by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      Trump hires a lot of foreigners. Look at his vineyard...Trump offer so low pay that no US worker was willing to take any of the jobs. Trump had to request to add cheap Mexican workers to keep the business going. Same with the many Trump hotels and resorts, he offers the lowest salaries in the industry with the most obnoxious work conditions. If you are not a 9 or 10 on his scale you do not get to interact with guests...if you get hired in the first place. To top that off, Trump is notorious for not paying his bills causing already many small companies to fold. Also, Trump went bankrupt with plenty of his own businesses due to shoddy management decisions. Furthermore, all his branded merchandise is made in Chinese sweat shops. Is that really the guy you are looking to for keeping your job or getting it back? If your answer is yes, then you are chronically naive beyond repair...or just dumb.

    109. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The one main reason I want all foreigners kicked out on their asses is I can charge more. I am also personally not thrilled with all these brown people and Asians,but am okay with them driving the airport shuttle or working at a laundromat as an employee (not owner). I wouldn't even complain so much about them if they didn't take away from my income.

      There. Now go fuck yourself.

    110. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i agree with you, but your hyperbole is a bit ridiculous. a typical person has learnt up to 40 programming languages? hmmmm. seems high. maybe functionally proficient in 3-6 and actually good in 1-2. i know plenty that aren't good at all. start hiring women? like there's some effort out there to "not hire women"? i'd also have to guess that women having to deal with over-enthusiastic guys more interested in them than "just a coworker" is a pretty general problem in society and in no way related to tech. so carry on, but maybe tone down the rhetoric a bit.

    111. Re:Tech employee here by jandersen · · Score: 1

      Stop bringing in foreign experts

      - like Albert Einstein, von Neumann, Wernher von Braun, Fritz Zwicky and so on. America's scientific leadership was built, by and large, on a lot of foreign experts, who then went on to develop your own, human capital, so it is not necessarily a good idea to keep them out.

    112. Re:Tech employee here by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Take a look at the age BEFORE capitalism; then look at the beginning of industrialism (Charles Dickens era) then look at Golden Gilded age.

      The lives of the average person sucked in all. BUT they were getting wealthier.

      How do we know? Because poor people started leaving wills. Whereas before they had nothing now they mattresses and oak furniture and this and tht.

      Wealth for the common man increased as a result of capitalism. Was their life still brutal by our standareds? F**k yes. Would I like to trade places with them? F**k no. But to say that capitalism did not increase the material well being of the society (and even those at the bottom) flies in the face of the evidence.

      Oh, by the way, come the 1950s even Marxist historians were not disputing this - what Hobsbawn and others were saying was that there was more to life than material goods and that workers lost ... x, y, z That's not relevant to this discussion. Material wealth among the poor increased,

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    113. Re:Tech employee here by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Sorry. Profit is not the result of exploitation of labor.

      Wealth is not a zero-sum game.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    114. Re:Tech employee here by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      There is nothing wrong with automation. It provides livable wages to people designing and building the robots. There is nothing inherently noble in doing a crappy repetitive job, but if your going to hire someone to do one, you have to pay them.

    115. Re:Tech employee here by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      That's a good thing, so long as government contracts are for citizens only, right?

      I have absolutely NO problem if that were to ever be the case.

      Why not?

      It is our tax dollars paying those government contracts, let's keep that money IN the US!!!

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    116. Re:Tech employee here by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      They should quit crying and learn a skill, like the rest of us. 'Low skill' is curable, generally pretty quickly.

      There is a large overlap between 'low skill' and 'unteachable'. They mostly grow out of that, shit/no jobs help.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    117. Re:Tech employee here by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      The problem is un-moderated, unregulated, illegal immigration.

      If we could close the border, and monitor who gets into the country, then we could regulate what skill levels get in....and help keep jobs filled, while at the same time, keeping wages higher at levels that are good for US working families...especially the CITIZENS.

      :)

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    118. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "people in tech and their co-workers were nervous about their status"

      Different AC here. Did you miss this part?

    119. Re:Tech employee here by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      How do we know? Because poor people started leaving wills. Whereas before they had nothing now they mattresses and oak furniture and this and tht.

      People who were too poor to learn how to read and write left wills for their mattresses? Yeah, right.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    120. Re:Tech employee here by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Closing the border would just create more problems and misery. Better to manage immigration properly, and give people legitimate ways to come so that they are part of the system instead of outside it.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    121. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why "start actually hiring women"? Is something preventing women from setting up their own software companies, or offering their programming services on Peopleperhour.com or similar websites?

    122. Re:Tech employee here by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

      Yes. (before I got into tech I was going for a Doctorate in History - not that it really matters, but I have a strong background in this subject)

      First of all the will need not be written by the person himself. Often times put into writing at the local church. Second the level of literacy was not 0. Many were illiterate by our standards but not so illiterate that they could not make a list. Literacy was way over 50% by the 16th C

      iron kettle - aaron
      oak bed - bill
      down comforter - charlie
      horse - david
      pig - earnie

      Literacy was way over 50% in Western Europe and North America by the end of the 18th C. (This number is for males.) Take a look at the letters we have from the Revolutionary War, the pamphlet wars, the broadside.Take a look at the letters written by average soldiers in the Civil War. They weren't the mass of illiterate peasants you imagine them to be. Most every male, white child in the US learned his letters and 'rithmetic.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
    123. Re:Tech employee here by PontifexMaximus · · Score: 0

      Amen, brother. However, Cook is more upset that he won't be able to hire less qualified workers at FAR LESS pay than Americans. Him, and all his liberal ilk need to be stripped of every dime they have and made to live on the streets for a while.

      Asshole motherfuckers.

      --
      Pax Vobiscum
    124. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really, I had two H1B visa holders that turned out to be in the country illegally. But, the CTO didn't want to fire them because we paid them almost nothing. And they both underperformed. Sure, there are good H1B Visa holders but most are just replacing a person of a higher level of pay.

    125. Re:Tech employee here by LesserWeevil · · Score: 1

      Amen. I remember a posting in 2009 that *required* "8 years experience with Solaris 10" ..which was released in 2005. Companies continue to hide behind automated HR screening systems with nonsensical requirements so they can then say there were "no qualified US citizens to fill those jobs" .. bring in the H-1B hires.

    126. Re:Tech employee here by Oceanplexian · · Score: 1

      Capitalism doesn't 'demand' anything. It's not a person.

      A capitalist society does not prevent you from forgoing an immediate profit to start a long term business. That's ridiculous. A socialist or communist society, likewise, does not prevent price gouging or rationing or people from getting sick. It simply changes the ownership to the government, instead of private individuals, which has no less a shortage of corruption and short-term thinking.

    127. Re:Tech employee here by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      There is nothing to move all priduct develolpment to Canada,India/China/Asia, Australia,

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    128. Re:Tech employee here by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      you'd rather that the poor were poorer, merely so the rich weren't so well off. You just said it. But the prices of goods bear almost no relation to wages any longer...

    129. Re:Tech employee here by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      I'm a senior engineer. I've sat on many, many, many interviewing and hiring decision boards in my time. When we had women who applied, we often hired then because they were competent. However, in doing every 100 interviews in my career, typically there were two or three female candidates.

    130. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, imagine this, hire qualified people regardless of gender. And hell while your at it stop being an easily-manipulatable twat brainlessly repeating slogans that have no basis in reality.

    131. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doctors have social status because they make vast sums.

      You seem to have misplaced your citation. Perhaps there are other reasons for their status. For example, there are those of us who can easily imagine their status comes from oh, I don't know, being really fucking smart, or making daily life-and-death decisions and not crumbing under stress, a commitment to a lifelong education, or perhaps there's that bit about saving lives?

      Money may be everything to YOU, but don't confuse you with the rest of us.

    132. Re:Tech employee here by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      They're screened out by HR before they even get to the tech review stage.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    133. Re:Tech employee here by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      Closing the border would just create more problems and misery. Better to manage immigration properly, and give people legitimate ways to come so that they are part of the system instead of outside it.

      Worse and misery for whom...? Illegals or citizens?

      But, that being said, I did say close the border sealed shut to keep illegals out...but also to ease immigration process, but use that to meter who gets in here....based on skill level, etc...

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    134. Re:Tech employee here by XopherMV · · Score: 1

      No, we get women coming through the system. Almost universally, they're from other countries such as India and China where there are fewer opportunities for women. We hire many of these people.

      American women have countless career options. Due to that, it's relatively rare to find an American woman interested in writing code over every other career possibility. We see few American women entering computer science. We see fewer of these women graduating in computer science. We see yet fewer American women applying for development internships. Fewer yet stick it out over years, gain experience, and apply for the jobs requiring experience that we hire for.

    135. Re:Tech employee here by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Isn't the American Dream that anyone can come and work hard and make it? Doesn't seem to require in-demand skills.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    136. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Ones born in certain Middle Eastern countries are often in doubt about whether they dare leave the country.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    137. Re:Tech employee here by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      Isn't the American Dream that anyone can come and work hard and make it?

      It does...but ONLY for US citizens....we're not trying to save the world here.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    138. Re:Tech employee here by Methadras · · Score: 1

      Health benefits by employers were used as incentives at one time based on how well they were as a recruiting tool. Now they are basically entitlements since they are state by state enforcement inducements for them. There is a reason why Europe is in a serious decline and you stated it as government doing the rest. That is the antithesis of the American system of responsibility, accountability, and self-governance. I as an individual citizen am responsible for my own healthcare and health maintenance. Not government. What are the inducements for me to do anything to care for myself if government/tax payers are there to pick up the tab for my bad habits and behaviors? If I want to smoke, drink, do drugs and suffer the ill-effects of such behavior, who's responsible for making sure I get treated for treating myself so badly? Me or everyone else? This is the fundamental nature of the argument for universal healthcare. Why should my money and my work be responsible and used for other people's bad behaviors? If I screw up, that's for me to cover. Not government.

    139. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      IT wages are what they should be.

      I wonder about all such claims. How does one determine what wages "should be"? Why were they "crazy money" if employers thought it was worth paying those wages?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    140. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Profit sure can be the result of exploitation of labor. Wealth isn't a zero-sum game, but there are parts of the economy that are.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    141. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The prices of goods are set by supply-demand curves, and the demand curves depend heavily on how much money potential purchasers have. If wages go up, demand curves go up, and prices go up.

      I believe fluffernutter was referring do currency units, not real wealth, in his comment.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    142. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Is that the thing that should be titled something like Barbie as a software management consultant?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    143. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      If dumb Irish didn't like their arduous, dangerous, low-paying factory jobs, they could go to other companies for arduous, dangerous, low-paying factory jobs. If a company had jobs that were a little less arduous and dangerous and had slightly higher pay, they could get all the good workers they could handle. Since any number of people could play that game, factory jobs eventually became reasonably safe and paid reasonably well.

      This works if the worker is legally able to work in the country and free to job-hop. It doesn't work with illegal aliens and H-1B holders.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    144. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Should we hire legal or illegal immigrants to grind down that poem on the Statue of Liberty?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    145. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The shortage may be on the supply side. Make IT work sufficiently unattractive and there will be a shortage of workers.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    146. Re:Tech employee here by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Make it easier for people to legally immigrate and become part of the system. The US is almost uniquely well placed to manage immigration.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    147. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The idea that Americans consider healthcare an employer's responsibility is simply awkward from our point of view.

      US citizen here....

      The idea that considers healthcare an employer's responsibility is simply stupid from my point of view.

      There fix that for ya.

    148. Re:Tech employee here by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Unless the labor was coerced, all perfectly ethical. No being hungry is not coercion.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    149. Re:Tech employee here by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      How long do you think CS or EE takes? Medicine, vet or law are all graduate programs.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    150. Re:Tech employee here by houghi · · Score: 1

      Nice that you gave the Dutch as an example. There was the VOC with a monopoly. And also obviously the first crash in The Netherlands due to Tulips.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    151. Re:Tech employee here by wienerschnizzel · · Score: 1

      You have no idea what Shkreli did and why (hint - he didn't get any money from the drug price increase). You need to be more careful before jumping to conclusions.

    152. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Unless we provide the necessities for people who do not work, almost all labor is coerced to some extent. We have no facilities for large numbers of people deciding to leave the system and support themselves.

      Inequality of negotiating leverage eases into coercion. There's no sharp bright moral line. This particularly applies with a society set up to favor large businesses, which this one is. The rules of the economy are neither natural nor divinely inspired.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    153. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless the labor was coerced, all perfectly ethical.

      Then wouldn't slavery be ethical, provided you weren't coerced to sign away your (and your descendants') freedom?

      And euthanasia should be fine too. Someone wanted to die, and someone wanted to help.

      And why stop there? Why not just pay people to die for entertainment? Hey, that poor bastard wants to leave mone behind for his family. He willingly signed up to the our RL version of the Hunger Games.

      No being hungry is not coercion.

      That's not what many people from BOTH left and right think when their favorite personalities lose their jobs for holding/expressing certain political views (while the other side will tell them no, it's not a violation of your free speech as long as it isn't government doing it)

    154. Re:Tech employee here by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Your belly might coerce you. But your belly isn't your employer and your employer isn't guilty of coercion because you are hungry. Become a breatharian.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    155. Re:Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your belly might coerce you. But your belly isn't your employer and your employer isn't guilty of coercion because you are hungry. Become a breatharian.

      Why stop at hungry? None of our homeostasis functions are your employer. Your employer is not coercing you in any way because you are losing homeostasis. Just become a corpse!

    156. Re:Tech employee here by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      But not in the private sector. There it's all free market this and competition that.

      You don't mind people getting replaced by H1-Bs if it means cheaper shit for you. But heaven forbid you'd have to face competition yourself, because you're special.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    157. Re:Tech employee here by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Really? So what's the deal with all those buildings on Ellis Island?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    158. Re:Tech employee here by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The employer is functioning in a society that says that people in general have to work to live. Usually, it's considered coercion when it's comply or die.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    159. Re: Tech employee here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Under that logic, you should argue against:
      - mandatory car insurance. If someone without insurance hits you and can't afford to pay your healthcare and car replacement, then jail. Your insurance should cover your own stuff.
      - mandatory schooling (though it seems some do already, considering some conspiracy nuts)
      - roads and any public service. You should be responsible for your own roads that you drive on. Police should be paid by you when you call for protection, fire as well.

      Why should i pay for other's irresponsible cigarette smoking / cooking or living in a high crime neighborhood?

  2. Tim Cook doesn't speak for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What do I have to be worried about, I'm a natural born US citizen and I'm in tech. Now what? Tim Cook doesn't speak for me.

    1. Re:Tim Cook doesn't speak for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're white and male, it's actually worse than you think.

    2. Re:Tim Cook doesn't speak for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're white and male and hetero, it's actually worse than you think.

      There, FTFY.

    3. Re:Tim Cook doesn't speak for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh I guess I'm good then. I'm bisexual.

    4. Re:Tim Cook doesn't speak for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You either suck dicks or you don't!

  3. Sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...upper management is nervous about the administration's approach to immigration, maybe. Those of us on the ground are nervous about immigration in a different way, like some H1B replacement trainings.
    Fuck you, Tim Cook. Eat the rich.

    1. Re:Sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Money always wins in the end. ALWAYS.

    2. Re:Sure... by unixisc · · Score: 2

      The only thing I've noticed Tim be concerned about is LGBTQ causes. Not his company or employees

    3. Re:Sure... by pnutjam · · Score: 2

      You don't learn what the drone bees want by asking the queen.

    4. Re:Sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only thing I've noticed Tim be concerned about is LGBTQ causes.

      That might be because he's a fudgepacker.

    5. Re:Sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple is nervous because with no H1Bs the candidate pool would be significantly shrunk. It is very difficult to find good people for some positions, and once you do, money is not a concern.

      Apple is not Wipro or Infosys. Apple's in it for people, not for the money.

    6. Re:Sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LGBTQ

      I believe the currently preferred term is "GayBLT".

    7. Re:Sure... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      That's what I liked about something I read about being a Trump proposal, that H-1B applications be awarded based on pay rather than randomly. We could get the ones for whom money is no object without allowing companies to underpay H-1Bs to lower the pay in the field.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  4. Yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure Tim Cook is fighting for American workers... O wait, he's fighting _against_ American workers. Thanks super rich CEO.

  5. Signal is there - American jobs for Americans! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Read Trump lips (or just listen to what he said every opportunity). American jobs for Americans! This means no outsourcing. No H-1B exploiting.

    1. Re:Signal is there - American jobs for Americans! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read Trump lips (or just listen to what he said every opportunity). American jobs for Americans! This means no outsourcing. No H-1B exploiting.

      Are you dreaming or being ignorant? Even though outsourcing may bring people here, it does not always mean those people have physically be here in the US. Your wish will never be true about no more outsourcing because big corporations will look for a new way to work around the laws (abuse the current laws/regulations).

    2. Re:Signal is there - American jobs for Americans! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If corporations want to outsource and keep money and operations overseas - they are free to do so. They will have to deal with rule of the law (or lack of thereof) of overseas locales. What I don't want to see continuing is US sales and services being outsourced elsewhere.

      You want to make and sell iPhones in China? More power to you! Moment you bring Chinese-made iPhones to US you better pay tariffs (or make them in US) and taxes. Apple is a huge tax dodger and outsources. Instead they could have fueled electronic manufacturing resurgence in US. You know, good old "Made in USA" fueling middle class that would buy more iPhones.

    3. Re:Signal is there - American jobs for Americans! by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Read Trump lips (or just listen to what he said every opportunity). American jobs for Americans! This means no outsourcing. No H-1B exploiting.

      Or look at who works at his construction sites and resorts.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  6. They needn't be by rsilvergun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Trump hasn't done anything of substance to even mildly inconvenience the wealthy, and the H1-B program (which, let's face it, is what Timmy's talking about) is no different. He made a few pointless proclamations to great fan fare but he didn't even bother rescinding Obama's executive order letting their spouses work.

    Trump's entire cabinet is comprised of billionaires and Goldman Sachs people. The swamp is not getting drained. Face it, we got Hilary's economics with the right wing's Health Care and social issues slants.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:They needn't be by elrous0 · · Score: 2

      Yeah, sadly, it looks like Trump has no intention of keeping his promises on meaningful H1B reform. Oh well, I always gave it about a 30% chance he would follow through at best. Better than the 0% chance that Hillary Clinton would have done anything to reform the H1B program, but ultimately useless either way.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:They needn't be by hackel · · Score: 1

      Yeah, fuck the spouses of legal immigrants! They're bankrupting our country with all their damn taxes and productivity and contributions to insurance pools we don't need.

    3. Re:They needn't be by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1

      Trump's entire cabinet is comprised of billionaires and Goldman Sachs people.

      I was gonna rebut with SecDef Mattis, but according to Forbes, the fucker's worth 5 million.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    4. Re:They needn't be by shess · · Score: 1

      Trump hasn't done anything of substance to even mildly inconvenience the wealthy, and the H1-B program (which, let's face it, is what Timmy's talking about) is no different.

      No. Cook might be concerned about H1-B (though I think he's a good guy and is probably not as cynical as you put things). But employees are concerned about whether they, as an American citizen, can travel to visit their relatives in a banned state without being hassled about getting back to their home. Or whether their relatives can visit them at home. Or whether a non-citizen (greencard holder or on a working visa) will have their papers confiscated by customs officials with no recourse. Or whether they will be stuffed in a back room for 17 hours without access to counsel or contact with friends and relatives waiting for them, etc.

      How do I know this? Because I have heard these kinds of concerns directly from people via the old-fashioned social network, directly talking to people. And it is pretty damn upsetting to hear.

      Now, I will agree, only a small proportion of overall tech employees will be directly affected by this. But that doesn't mean it's not a general problem for tech, because those employees are mixed in with all the rest of the employees, so when the shit hits the fan for them, everyone will hear about it and get upset that someone we know is having their life worked over through no fault of their own.

    5. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Laissez faire. Let the free market decide. Next thing we know, you'll be forcing employers to feed and clothe you.

    6. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, sadly, it looks like Trump has no intention of keeping his promises on meaningful H1B reform. Oh well, I always gave it about a 30% chance he would follow through at best. Better than the 0% chance that Hillary Clinton would have done anything to reform the H1B program, but ultimately useless either way.

      For Pete's sake... Trump has been stymied by the courts just trying to institute a pause in entries by people for a number of countries for some things he said during the campaign (when his opponent could issue said order, because She didn't say something during the campaign).. What makes you think the courts will allow him to enforce any kind of limits on immigration? His opponents will just run off to the 9th Circus and get his orders reversed...

    7. Re:They needn't be by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Why would Trump promise things that would be difficult to pass in the courts? He was the one that was supposed to anticipate these issues, and it's not the court's fault. Either he was lying or he has no idea what he is doing.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    8. Re:They needn't be by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      Then let the economy be free and price goods according to their global average, not according to what the people in that country can pay for them.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    9. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The latter is the free market. Nobody is holding a gun to your head when you pay what the market will bear. Don't like it, don't buy an iPhone et al

    10. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not the court's fault for saying it's illegal cause Trump said mean words while campaigning and that it would have been perfectly legal if someone with goodness in their hearts did the same thing. yup.

    11. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Face it, we got Hilary's economics with the right wing's Health Care and social issues slants

      In other words, nothing will change from the previous three 2-term administrations.

      Admit it folks, there is just no difference in substance between these two parties.

    12. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either he was lying or he has no idea what he is doing.

      Both. Which is a yuuuge plus among his followers.

    13. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty simple actually. How many presidents offered some sort of amnesty? To the best of my knowledge - every one back to Reagan. Yet not a single one did anything to help control the flow of immigration.

      This was Trump's first plan on the agenda, put off by some liberal judge with his nuts tied around his neck like a bowtie. Until SCOTUS throws the bogus ruling out any further legislation would be a waste of time and money. Plus it would give more ammo for the ever so ignorant 'hate Trump no matter what crew'.

    14. Re:They needn't be by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      The Courts are not the Executive Branch, nor the Legislative Branch. They are starting to act like all three. Our Republic is doomed.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    15. Re:They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That sad part about this truth are all the social justice freaks and their protests about wimminz and queers and trannies. Masterful misdirection of the ruling class. Absolutely masterful. Both sides, oblivious to reality.

    16. Re: They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      only when they pay meaningful taxes to support the infrastructure and laws

    17. Re:They needn't be by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "that would be difficult to pass in the courts? "
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      The changes to US law can be seen over the years.
      US courts are now taking into consideration the feelings of people with no legal standing outside the USA who want to enter the USA.
      Law has not changed, US policy is the same, the US courts are just been very political.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    18. Re: They needn't be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You clearly live in a bubble. Step out of your county once in awhile, douche.

    19. Re:They needn't be by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      But it's DUH LAW, and we got a show trial to prove it!

    20. Re:They needn't be by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      But they are - literally! - holding a gun to your head when they require you to pay for food and land rent. Don't believe me? Try eating some food, then sleeping somewhere, without paying. =)

    21. Re:They needn't be by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      If you want skilled people you need to allow their spouses in and to work. Most other countries you are competing with do that, because why would someone with valuable skills bring their value to you if it means ripping up their family or their spouse having to suspend their career?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    22. Re:They needn't be by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      Why would Trump promise things that would be difficult to pass in the courts? He was the one that was supposed to anticipate these issues, and it's not the court's fault.

      If it was possible to tell what a court would decide before it decides it, why bother having courts? You look like a fool for suggesting that the outcome of a court decision is known in advance.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    23. Re:They needn't be by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Courts are protecting the rule of law, which is their job.

    24. Re:They needn't be by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      In other words, the courts are issuing rulings you don't like. That's what your statement actually means.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    25. Re:They needn't be by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      An intelligent person will have a good idea what the courts will think of most proposals. Said person won't be right all the time, and won't be able to make a good guess on a few things, but will do a pretty good job of prediction.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    26. Re:They needn't be by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      An intelligent person will have a good idea what the courts will think of most proposals. Said person won't be right all the time, and won't be able to make a good guess on a few things, but will do a pretty good job of prediction.

      And an intelligent person would predict that the court would, most of the time, uphold the law as it is written. That they did not do so in this particular case makes an argument *for* Trump, not against him.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    27. Re:They needn't be by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      You seem awfully sure that the Supreme Court didn't apply the law as written. It's not a matter of strict constitutional law (which I do have strong unqualified opinions on), and I didn't read anything the Supreme Court wrote about the case, so I'm not nearly so sure. The Constitution specifies that border regulation is Congress's job, and I'm not familiar with all the statutes. The Court, however, seems convinced that this is a Constitutional end-run to discriminate against Muslims because they're Muslims. Since Trump's tweets have been announced to be official Presidential documents, and he keeps tweeting about a Muslim ban, the Court had to interpret his executive order in that light.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    28. Re:They needn't be by unixisc · · Score: 1

      So is Apple full of employees related to people from Somalia or Yemen or any of the other 4 countries in that travel ban list?

  7. Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by JudgeFurious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are "Tech Employees" nervous or are just "H-1B Tech Employees" nervous while most of the rest are thinking they might be staring at an opportunity?

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
    1. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are "Tech Employees" nervous or are just "H-1B Tech Employees" nervous while most of the rest are thinking they might be staring at an opportunity?

      Opportunity for what? To cling to your delusions of racial/cultural superiority while your prospects dwindle and the rest of the world leaves you behind?

      The opportunity to be "the problem" from both the modern economy's perspective and to your soul-mates in the Rust Belt who think tech workers are uppity elites?

    2. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by kqs · · Score: 1

      I'm a "Tech Employee" and American citizen, but many of my co-workers were born in other countries and I am very nervous that Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric is causing them problems. I am nervous that many of my talented co-workers may have problems staying in the US, and that future potential-co-workers will not be hired because of the legal changes.

      Note that some companies abuse the H1B visa program, and I'm happy with changes to fix that. But what I hear is "all immigrants BAD", which is stupid. I feel like the prevailing attitude is "the US's borders should have been closed the day after MY ancestors got here".

      If you're in the US, you are the descendant of immigrants. (Though full-blooded native americans at least have a stringer claim than the rest of us.)

    3. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      what I hear is "all immigrants BAD", which is stupid. I feel like the prevailing attitude is "the US's borders should have been closed the day after MY ancestors got here".

      It's pretty much this, yeah. Economics is complex and difficult. People want to believe that you have a solid linkage between lever A and trapdoor B; it's not like that. It takes me several hours of research and a few pages of dissertation to work out how moving imports to American manufacture affects America, and it's always three parts: it makes all Americans poorer, no matter what we pay the factory workers; it might create jobs if we pay the Americans as little as possible, and will net-reduce American total jobs faster and faster as we increase the American wage for these factory jobs; and the job change doesn't matter anyway because population and labor force rapidly expand and contract to move toward a stable unemployment level.

      If you want to send a signal to reassure Americans, well. Welcome to politics. Fact: we've created more jobs than population growth year-after-year since the recession (that's what's driving unemployment down). In tech, we've created far more tech jobs than the total lay-offs, year-after-year, meaning those H1-Bs aren't cutting into the total tech job market. These are comforting facts.

      It's also an economic fact that prices are constrained by costs: you can't price something so low that your revenue won't pay the wages required to make it. That's not just about hiring $80,000 Indians instead of $140,000 Americans; the core of wealth is technical progress. Economic growth can be from population growth (when population is below carry capacity) or technical progress; technical progress reduces the wage-hours invested to produce goods and service, meaning we end up able to make and buy more for the same hours of labor worked. Prices come down because of competitive market forces, but only so far as is both profitable and mathematically sustainable.

      That means somebody's gotta lose their job eventually.

      So yes, that reassurance? It's true. It's also political: even without the H1-B labor, we're going to have rounds of layoffs every time things get better. That part you don't call attention to in this context.

      You can call attention to it in another context. Americans do need reassurance against the pain distributed by those general economic forces, after all; and we're currently able to supply that, but only with new policy--and no new taxes. What our nation really hungers for is a new deal for the American people, and it's about time we commit ourselves thusly.

    4. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by ganjadude · · Score: 2

      who is saying "all immigration is bad"??? I have yet to hear a single person say that. Ive hear people claim that others say it, but ive never heard a single person make the claim that " all immigration is bad"

      somehow in the past decade, wanting to protect our borders from ILLEGAL immigrants, has turned into "all immigration is bad"

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    5. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by laie_techie · · Score: 2

      I'm a "Tech Employee" and American citizen, but many of my co-workers were born in other countries and I am very nervous that Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric is causing them problems. I am nervous that many of my talented co-workers may have problems staying in the US, and that future potential-co-workers will not be hired because of the legal changes.

      Note that some companies abuse the H1B visa program, and I'm happy with changes to fix that. But what I hear is "all immigrants BAD", which is stupid. I feel like the prevailing attitude is "the US's borders should have been closed the day after MY ancestors got here".

      If you're in the US, you are the descendant of immigrants. (Though full-blooded native americans at least have a stringer claim than the rest of us.)

      I was born and raised in the US (some of my ancestors arrived here over 300 years ago). I have been an IT professional for 17 years. Over 60% of the workers at my office are foreign nationals, while 80% of project managers are foreigners. My company has a Chief Diversity Officer and designates a Female Worker of the Month (there is no male employee of the month, or just employee of the month).

    6. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are so special, take your talents to an organization that feels the same way. If no such organization exists, the market has spoken and any attempt to use the political system to naysay its judgement is futile.

      The world doesn't owe you a particular place on the Totem pole and neither does the nation.

    7. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by swb · · Score: 1

      Nobody is saying that, but you can't sustain an "anti-immigrant" narrative without claiming that significant plurality is against all immigrants & immigration. And once you get people to believe in that one, then it's pretty easy to convince them that this ephemeral anti-immigrant group is really opposed to immigration because they're racist. Once you've made that association, you're home free -- now anyone who questions immigration on any level can simply be disregarded as a racist.

    8. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      If you're in the US, you are the descendant of immigrants.

      Unless you're the one who came here. Then you are the immigrant.

      And what about those of us who were here before there was a United States?

    9. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you must be old, or do you mean your DNA sources came over on the Mayflower?

    10. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by swillden · · Score: 1

      somehow in the past decade, wanting to protect our borders from ILLEGAL immigrants, has turned into "all immigration is bad"

      Our immigration laws suck and make it insanely hard for people to immigrate legally. If you give people no way to come legally they'll come illegally.

      If you want to convince me that you really favor legal immigration, you need to start by learning about the problems with our immigration system and fix that. Heck, making it possible to immigrate legally will fix most of the illegal immigration problem! If you just fight to bring the hammer down on illegal immigrants while simultaneously maintaining the laws that make it impossible for them to come legally, then you clearly just hate immigrants, and no amount of protesting otherwise is going to convince me that you don't.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    11. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our immigration laws suck and make it insanely hard for people to immigrate legally. If you give people no way to come legally they'll come illegally.

      Our immigration laws are extremely generous by world standards. It's easier to legally immigrate to the US than almost any other country in the world.

      As far as illegal immigrants go, it's orders of magnitude easier to legally immigrate to the US with no money and no skills or education than it is in any other country. Most countries will only take poor immigrants as refugees.

    12. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Relax. Politics has become much more enjoyable to me since I've turned all Democratic statements about anything into a personal game of "find the implicit lie".

      Times that I can't find one in anything a Leftist says or writes are exceedingly rare. The standard disingenuous language manipulations (which is approximately 99% of all Democrat "thoughts") takes remarkably little time to learn to immediately identify, though occasionally the embedding of dishonesty is mildly clever. I credit myself with bonus points for disentangling those. It's like a continually-resupplied game of "Where's Waldo". He's always there, somewhere.

    13. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      It takes me several hours of research and a few pages of dissertation to work out how moving imports to American manufacture affects America, and it's always three parts: it makes all Americans poorer, no matter what we pay the factory workers; it might create jobs if we pay the Americans as little as possible, and will net-reduce American total jobs faster and faster as we increase the American wage for these factory jobs; and the job change doesn't matter anyway because population and labor force rapidly expand and contract to move toward a stable unemployment level.

      Only three pages of dissertation to prove an obvious falsehood? Good job, my brother! Keep up the boot licking!

    14. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Our immigration laws suck and make it insanely hard for people to immigrate legally.

      Agreed. The virtuous position is to allow open immigration. My ancestors came to America in the 1800s under a fairly open regime, and I believe today's immigrants deserve the same. Fuck H1B indentured servant programs, end them all now. But if you want to give up your old citizenship and become an American - well then, my brothers and sisters, welcome to America.

      I can already hear both the kick-the-poor crowd bawling - "but what about the safety net??!? We can't afford to allow all these lazy immigrants into our welfare paradise!!" Well I'm just going to call bullshit on this one now. I've had the ever so enlightening personal experience of being destitute in America. There is NO safety net. Sure, there are long-term welfare dependency programs. Which have very fucking few public supporters. But no safety net. At all. First-hand experience. So I reject out of hand that argument and anyone foolish/insincere enough to advance it.

      Emperor Trump, if you're listening, make America great again: bring back open immigration.

    15. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The problem is that the rules for legal immigration are arbitrary, you can make them whatever you like to exclude whoever you want. The US was built on immigration, almost the entire population is immigrants or the decedents of immigrants, but now you want to pull up the ladder and stop others having the same opportunity.

      On top of that, US foreign police is making life pretty bad for a lot of these people who then out of desperation try to get into the US illegally.

      I'm not saying you could have no controls, but Obama had the right idea with making the system fairer and offering amnesty, rather than trying to build a bloody wall.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    16. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My company has a Chief Diversity Officer and designates a Female Worker of the Month (there is no male employee of the month, or just employee of the month).

      Don't get me started on the Diversity initiative. It's not diversity at all because the only thing they are pushing is Indian culture and nothing else. It's "accept the Indian way" or you will be marked as racist. There is nothing about Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African, European, Brazilian, Mexican, Black, White, Hispanic, or otherwise. It's all just Indian and I don't mean Native American which is totally left out as well. It's all pro outsourcing and on-shoring of Indian workers. So learn to do the needful and make the updation and PFA and other such things.

    17. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      It's also an economic fact that prices are constrained by costs

      Only on the bottom end. On the top end it's constrained by what the market will bear. If the industry has a large margin then moving the labour won't make any difference to the price - they will still be set to what the market is prepared to pay.

      And, like you pointed out, the relationship is more complex than that - moving the labour to the US might actually mean increased profits over the economy as a whole if the move lowers the unemployment and/or reduces the number of people receiving welfare.

      Overall, though, moving the workforce to the US is going to be better than *not* moving the workforce to the US.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    18. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      It's an "obvious falsehood" as much as it's obvious that video games make people violent murderers because there's conflict in video games.

      Look, money is labor trade. You work for $10/hr, I work for $20/hr, I can induce you to work 2 hours for every 1 hour I work. (Caveat: taxes, etc.; it's not that straightforward.) Making a product requires a certain amount of labor, thus wages. To pay wages, you need revenue, thus prices which collect at least that much revenue.

      In other words: the number of sustainable jobs is governed by how much people can trade for their labor. Taking it in one step closer, it's governed by how much people can spend. Jobs are created by demand: you want (and have the money) to buy 1,000,000 of a thing a year, we have enough people to make 500,000 of that thing per year, we gotta hire twice as many people to keep up.

      So Chinese labor, including social insurances (taxes for things like unemployment) costs $3.20/hr. Take a look at Men and Boys's Cotton Trousers and Shorts, at $6.12/pair import cost. It costs under $1,300 to import a 40-foot-long shipping container, roughly 20,000 pairs of trousers, at 6.5 cents per pair. Average retail? $14.97.

      You're talking about 1.89 hours of labor per pair. Trucks that ship 20,000 of these to the warehouses around the country. 987 retail scans per cashier per hour. People stocking shelves. Roughly half the actual cost is domestic shipping; retail is trivial.

      At minimum wage ($8.25/hr), and with 18% overhead (that means your employer pays 6.2% OASDI payroll, 0.2% Medicare payroll, and $1,900/year for all of your benefits), you're looking at $27.25/pair for pants. You're going to lose 40% of the involved shipping and retail jobs. It comes out to be, maybe, 40,000 net new American jobs in total, out of an apparent 171,000 full-time jobs required to produce the number of trousers we import.

      By that time, minimum-wage workers go from working 1.81 hours to working 3.3 hours to buy a pair of pants. The median-income ($54k) household must expend 0.55 hours today to buy a pair of trousers, and 1.01 hours if we stop importing them from China. These expenses mean you either buy fewer pants or buy fewer of other things. If those other things are physical goods, you have less shipping and retail, and fewer jobs there; if they're things like Spotify, Netflix, and other digital services, you have fewer tech jobs.

      Bump that to $21/hr (GM line worker, model cost $24.78) and you're already around a net 90,000 loss of American jobs, with minimum wage workers expending 6.5 hours and the median-income household expending 1.99 hours to buy pants (= poorer). Last I checked, the average cost of an American factory worker was $78/hr.

      So I can pull the number of Chinese imported pairs of pants (it's 195,585,312 pairs in 2015), compute the number of theoretical factory jobs required (it's 171,056), and spend a few pages writing out methodology, information sources, data analytics, and just plain how many retail-level jobs are represented by the same dollars going to fewer people (because that's what paying more for the same thing is: giving someone more money, and giving someone else less); and it'll turn into a huge, huge roll of stuff that would never keep your minuscule attention span.

      It's not that Americans need 6 billion more dollars to keep from cutting into jobs; it's not even that they need to be more-productive on their end to have more wealth. The problem is the labor on the other end--at the factory--is so slow and expensive that it's going to cut into your paycheck. Generally, when you get to this point, someone proposes the correct solution: Reduce the labor by automating the factories. That means create as few American factory worker jobs as possible to avoid destroying other American jobs and spiking unemployment. Of course, with China doing just that on their end as soon as the technology to automate the factories exists, you're still better off just letting them make the damned things; we've got better things to do--like build a gigabit Internet infrastructure.

    19. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Only on the bottom end. On the top end it's constrained by what the market will bear. If the industry has a large margin then moving the labour won't make any difference to the price

      That's not quite true.

      Look at Cell phones. When cell phones came out in 1983, they cost $4,000 (that's over $9,000 with inflation today). The same is true of flat-panel TVs (LCD vs Plasma at first) to replace CRTs. At that level, even with healthy demand, the market looks like ... well, the market for electric vehicles: people who can afford an $80,000 Tesla are not your average American, and there are fewer of them.

      So maybe you can get a 30% profit margin on a luxury good with a market of 100,000 consumers. It's a luxury good because it's expensive and everyone else can't afford it. That means the next guy to come compete with you has got to put down shitloads of money and take enormous risks trying to capture your market away from you. A 1% capture is only 1,000 customers, and isn't going to sustain his business. Likewise, your competitors--or, maybe, competitor, single, at this level--can't very well undercut your prices much and expect to profit for what of your market they capture.

      Now look what happens when electric cars cost $15,000 to make.

      Suddenly, your market is 300,000,000 American and 50,000,000 new vehicles sold per year. You can sell those cars for about $20k off the lot at a 12% net operating profit margin. You're competing with 23 other manufacturers, and a small manufacturer capturing 1% of the market gets 3,000,000 sales--which is why GM bought so many competitors over the years and had over a dozen brands.

      Cell phones gave way to smart phones in the same way, with narrowing margins. These are things people just buy, and they're cheap enough that you have competitors all over the place. They're not like supermarkets, where you're taking a 2% operating profit because every moron who can file for a $20 LLC license and get a $100k bank loan can open a corner grocer. You're looking at a 7% net operating profit five-year average for some of the specialized companies; the gross profit margins are always bigger, and between products those gross margins are bigger on the luxury phones (iPhone, Galaxy S8) than on the commodity phones.

      The market has to bear competition. This is kind of the result. Historically, yes, when costs go down, prices go down. Margins don't necessarily go down; they tend not to increase, because lower costs means lower barriers to entry and thus more robust competition. Sometimes, that robustness is in the form of just squeezing the prices down a bit more; sometimes, it's damned easy for anyone to jump into your market, and now you have 5,000 small businesses. If you want to see how ridiculous it gets, look at the MVNOs--like Ultra/MintSim, Ting, and Cricket.

      Overall, though, moving the workforce to the US is going to be better than *not* moving the workforce to the US.

      Moving the workforce to do X to the U.S. can cause the cost of product X to increase, while the wealth of the U.S. consumer base doesn't increase. Then you end up concentrating more income into fewer hands, but also making everyone poorer because they buy less stuff. That "buying less stuff" means fewer retail scans, thus fewer cashiers, fewer things stocked on shelves, fewer shelf stockers, fewer truck drivers because of less stuff shipped, and so on.

      Now you have a new workforce of 40,000 U.S. factory workers making pants, and you lost 80,000 U.S. truck drivers, retail workers, and so forth. The average American goes from working 0.55 hours to buy a pair of pants to instead having to expend 2 hours of his labor to buy pants.

      Overall, throwing 10% of your virgin teenage girls into a volcano to appease the Volcano God is going to be better than *not* throwing 10% of your virgin teenage girls into the volcano to appease the Volcano God, right?

    20. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should come live in the South. 90% of Trump's base say exactly this. America is for whites only, all browns and blacks should be deported or incarcerated. This is extremely common in the South.

    21. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by laie_techie · · Score: 1

      If you are so special, take your talents to an organization that feels the same way. If no such organization exists, the market has spoken and any attempt to use the political system to naysay its judgement is futile.

      The world doesn't owe you a particular place on the Totem pole and neither does the nation.

      I am not asking for special treatment, just equal treatment. Race, ethnicity, sex, gender, nation of origin: none of these should impact one's ability to perform one's job (although nation of origin could potentially affect one's ability to communicate). None of these should have any bearing on who to hire or promote, or how much pay one should receive for the position.

    22. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1

      I never took an anti-immigrant position. I just asked a simple question about whether American tech workers were unhappy or just those who came here to work.

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
    23. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1

      Honest question because I don't know the answer to it but does anyone in the world today allow open immigration? This isn't the 1800's and allowing anyone in the world who can get here to immigrate is foolish at best. I do think our situation with Mexico is such that we'd be better off allowing any Mexican citizen who passed a simple health screening and had no criminal record to get a green card on request. Instead of trying to keep that labor out of this country we should instead focus on trying to regulate employers who want to pay less than legal wages. If we did that we'd have a much better idea of who was coming here and it would be a better system and safer for all of us. Just make the employers keep the playing field level and let in all the motivated, hard working, and law abiding people who want to come. At that point you have cut the acceptable immigrant candidates out of the "herd" and you make the penalties for smuggling drugs or crossing illegally for those who cannot legally meet those simple requirements much harsher.

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
    24. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      getting into Harvard is also almost impossible. maybe we should all just start going illegally.

      is that REALLY the logic you want to go with??

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    25. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      an anon acoward with no source, yeah i bet 90% of the people down south (ignoring that 90% of the people down south include those people too) think that. its on the internet so it must be true!

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    26. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Net operating profit doesn't quite work like that. Supermarkets get away with very little markup because they have very high turnover. Suppose they pay $1 for a head of lettuce and sell it for $1.01, and on the average a head sells in a couple of days. Then the supermarket makes $1.80 on that shelf spot for a head of lettuce a year. If a book sits on bookstore shelves for an average of two months before selling, the bookstore's going to need a lot more than a 1% operating profit.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    27. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The people whose ancestors were here when the Mayflower arrived generally get really crappy treatment. It's the recent immigrants (as in their ancestors came here in the last few centuries) that do well.

      There are people who'd like to see this illegal immigration business applied retroactively.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    28. Re:Which "Tech Employees" are we talking about? by swillden · · Score: 1

      getting into Harvard is also almost impossible. maybe we should all just start going illegally.

      Do you really want to equate immigrating to the US with attending Harvard? You can't get into Harvard by being born in some particular place; start putting requirements on being in the US and a lot of Americans are going to have to leave.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  8. It would be great if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be great if Tim cook would speak for himself.

  9. "Send them a signal"? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    If Tim Cook hasn't noticed that Trump's been sending bloody obvious signals for the past two plus years, he haven't been paying attention.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:"Send them a signal"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have to talk to people as if they haven't made up their mind yet if you don't want to back them into a corner where you force them to admit they're wrong when they change course.

  10. fuck H-1B holders and tech CEOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He also said people in tech and their co-workers were nervous about their status, and added that it "would be great" if the president could "send them a signal."

    They can all go to hell with the CEOs who exploit them.

  11. Heart and Courage by Kunedog · · Score: 1

    Cook replied that the immigration approach by the administration also "needs more heart." Cook cited the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is under review by the Trump administration. He also said people in tech and their co-workers were nervous about their status, and added that it "would be great" if the president could "send them a signal."

    Cook really has his finger on the pulse of what workers want (lower H1B wages), just as he knows what customers want (fewer useful ports, no headphone jack, and expensive, complicated earphones). It's definitely not just what he wants or anything.

  12. Of course .... by King_TJ · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you're a legal U.S. citizen OR you have a legal work visa, I don't think you have anything to be "nervous" about?

    Yeah, the mainstream media likes to work people up into a frenzy over "what COULD happen" based on the conjecture of reporters with no first-hand knowledge of anything. But just listening to Trump's own speeches (which are so poorly spoken, it's obvious they come from him and aren't the result of careful editing and vetting like most presidential speeches) -- he keeps clarifying that all of his immigration issues are about stopping the "undocumented" people.

    Last I checked, Apple wasn't employing a bunch of illegal immigrants who have no green cards?

    And quite frankly, I've been a bit disappointed that "Mr. Build-a-Wall" has said so little about cracking down on the number of H1B visas we keep granting people to come over here and do our tech jobs. That's one area where it's FAR from provable that we just don't have anyone in America capable of doing the work....

    1. Re:Of course .... by ljw1004 · · Score: 1

      If you're a legal U.S. citizen OR you have a legal work visa, I don't think you have anything to be "nervous" about?

      Are you not thinking of the tech employees with legal work visas who went home for their holidays as normal, but then weren't allowed back into the US because of the short-lived immigration ban? And the tech companies which advised their legal-work-visa-holding employees not to travel abroad for fear of not being allowed back?

      Yep, there were a lot of nervous people.

    2. Re:Of course .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shut up.

    3. Re:Of course .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Were they from the seven (six originally by Obama) countries that are a threat to us?

    4. Re:Of course .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're a legal U.S. citizen OR you have a legal work visa, I don't think you have anything to be "nervous" about?

      Unless, you're a legal US citizen who is deported.

      Turns out that there are lots of problems, that some people do have experience with.

      he keeps clarifying that all of his immigration issues are about stopping the "undocumented" people.

      He keeps exclaiming and frothing at the mouth, actually. It's one of those things. He wants to deport "bad hombres" but so far, I suspect the effort is NOT being focused or directed towards those.

      And quite frankly, I've been a bit disappointed that "Mr. Build-a-Wall" has said so little about cracking down on the number of H1B visas we keep granting people to come over here and do our tech jobs. That's one area where it's FAR from provable that we just don't have anyone in America capable of doing the work....

      He isn't going to do anything meaningful or important, if he was, he'd put himself in jail for employing illegal immigrants.

    5. Re:Of course .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd point you towards Trumps implementation of his muslim ban, valid Visa holders were denied entry as well.

      Under this administration's unguided chaos, there is no telling who will be affected by what and when.

    6. Re:Of course .... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Countries that are a threat to us? Like Saudi Arabia?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  13. Why would we be nervous? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump is talking about doing something about the illegals taking our jobs. We should be less nervous because it looks like something finally might be done.

    Our two worst employees were from Pakistan. They constant committed code that wouldn't even compile. They weren't let back in the US after they returned home last month, and work has been much better without them.

    1. Re:Why would we be nervous? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. We've lost several of our worst programmers since they've either left the country and not been let back in since they're illegals or they left on their own because they were afraid of getting caught. It's been great going to work and not having to deal with so many stupid people that argue constantly just to be assholes and usually smelled bad. Also, not as much used toilet paper on the floor of the bathrooms!

    2. Re:Why would we be nervous? by Altus · · Score: 1

      So you work for a company that doesn't do continuous integration or code reviews and that for some reason can't check on the quality of engineers work well enough to fire people who can't write code but you expect me to believe that 2 Pakistani developers were the source of all your troubles?

      --

      "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    3. Re:Why would we be nervous? by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Sounds like a pretty typical tech company...

  14. Again? by hackel · · Score: 1

    Do we really have to report on every fucking thing Tim Cook says? Come on, msmash... This is ridiculous.

    1. Re:Again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I disagree. I want to be kept up to date on everything that comes out of Tim Cook's mouth. Everything.

    2. Re:Again? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      what about what goes in his mouth?

      ZING

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  15. Nervous about what??? by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nervous about enforcing laws?

    Nervous about actually vetting immigrants?

    Nervous about letting immigrants from other countries have a fair chance at entry, instead of being at an inherent disadvantage because they do not have the privilege of physical proximity that illegal Mexican immigrants have?

    To me it seem utterly crazy to be "nervous" about treating immigration as seriously as any other country on Earth does... you try just wandering into Canada and looking for work and see how well that works for you.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Nervous about what??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nervous that technological progress will be stalled to appease mouth-breathing nativists.

    2. Re:Nervous about what??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nervous about enforcing laws?

      Esequiel Hernández Jr. would be, if he weren't dead. So would Freddie Gray. And Charleena Lyles. And Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca. And Tamir Rice.

      However, Sureshbhai Patel is alive. Why don't you ask him about the enforcement of laws?

      Nervous about actually vetting immigrants?

      I'm worried about actually vetting those deported. Jakadrien Turner was deported to Columbia. She was born in the US, and ran away from home after her parents divorced. Apparently neither Texas Law enforcement, nor BP, could bother to verify her ID. Pedro Guzman was born in Los Angeles. He was deported to Mexico, even though he has developmental issues, because...nobody could bother to read the records they had for him.

      How many others have been illegally deported?

      For example, Dr. Pankaj Satija and Dr. Monika Ummat. Both qualified surgeons. Error in paperwork? The first thought was DEPORTATION!

      Nervous about letting immigrants from other countries have a fair chance at entry, instead of being at an inherent disadvantage because they do not have the privilege of physical proximity that illegal Mexican immigrants have?

      Is that why the Fitzgerald was rammed by a container vessel? It was hauling illegals? Well, at least Trump didn't lose track of where it was going. Right?

      To me it seem utterly crazy to be "nervous" about treating immigration as seriously as any other country on Earth does... you try just wandering into Canada and looking for work and see how well that works for you.

      It should be, Trump and the GOP aren't known for their competency. He's managed to lose track of aircraft carriers, scammed people dozens of times, refused to pay his bills, and his "Executive Order" was demonstrably a failure. That the GOP is responsible for so many useless wars, trillions down the drain, hundreds of thousands of lives lost, and is STILL trying to pass Trumpcare in such secrecy that their own Senators haven't seen it...should be cause for worry.

      Fuck man, if they were as serious as Canada, they wouldn't be half as dangerous. But they're reckless zealots who don't care what they do. They're not serious. They're rampant demagogues that enjoy shouting. And they don't care if it's lies.

      That's why you spent 8 years thinking that Obama wasn't deporting anybody.

    3. Re:Nervous about what??? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      Technological progress is in fact halted by favoring the poorest of the poor over more socially advanced and skilled immigration (even when both groups come from Mexico).

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    4. Re:Nervous about what??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technological progress is in fact halted by favoring the poorest of the poor over more socially advanced and skilled immigration (even when both groups come from Mexico).

      Only if you define "technological progress" as luxury baubles for pampered Americans. Otherwise, if you want to see real ingenuity, visit the third world.

    5. Re:Nervous about what??? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Costs and seeing US workers getting real wages and better conditions again?

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  16. Yep, nervous. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm nervous that the President might actually try to represent his constituents rather than some pie in the sky globalist agenda that tools like Tim Cook are trying to push. After all, I'd hate to have more opportunities for my skills, better pay scales that aren't depressed by a flood of low-skilled foreign workers abusing H1B visas, and a level playing field with other nations that already abuse the system in favor of their employees. It frightens me that the President might actually do something that's good for me rather than Wall Street investors and billionaires with international businesses that are only concerned with quarterly reports. If Trump stays in office I may have to start cutting just to remember how oppressed I am by this regime.

    1. Re:Yep, nervous. by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      He's a President; he doesn't have a constituency.

    2. Re:Yep, nervous. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He's a President; he doesn't have a constituency.

      Wrong.

      Well OK, I grant that he *is* the POTUS, and the spelling is fine.

      His constituency is the entire population of the US.

      Not very bright, are you?

  17. They should be nervous. by sethstorm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When there's a policy that will favor citizens instead of guest workers, nerves should be a bit frazzled.

    That's how we know Trump has chosen the right policy. Besides, it's time that globalists like Cook show a little heart for citizens - by respecting the law and enforcing it consistently.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
    1. Re:They should be nervous. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Alternatively, globalists like Cook will just move the jobs overseas as well.

      Immigration actually helps keep jobs in the US, by allowing gaps to be filled. If it gets to the point where there are a significant numbers of jobs at the US office that can't be filled, but say Paris can provide enough skilled labour for everything, the office can move to Paris.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:They should be nervous. by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Actually the one advantage of a globalist like Cook moving jobs - is that his lies will become quite obvious, yes?

    3. Re:They should be nervous. by sethstorm · · Score: 1

      Easier to mop up any "accidents". If he's not a US citizen, we don't have to protect him.

      --
      Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
    4. Re:They should be nervous. by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Huh? If you're referring to constitutional protections - you're quite wrong. The US constitution determines what government can do - aka "Congress shall make no law..." but maybe I misunderstand what you mean.

  18. Send them another signal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At the end it says "if the president could send them a signal". To my eyes the president has send a large number of signals. The magic 8 ball would say "Outlook not good". And you have to look at the presidents actions not his honey words which mean nothing.
    The signals Trump is sending are good for other nations, not the US.

  19. They went too far replacing people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When a university replaces their tech workers with H1B workers, it has gotten out of hand. These positions were not empty, they had competent people already that were being pushed out.

  20. Tim Cook is out of touch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Silicon Valley is insular and out of touch. Tim Cook is the same way, he only sees DC and the H1B visas, nobody else exists in the USA outside of Silicon Valley, in his mind.

  21. H1Bs by unixisc · · Score: 2

    Here, it's not illegal immigration, but rather, H1B employees that are the topic here.

    From a political POV, the argument has been that H1B workers are used to simply undercut American workers - both citizens & permanent residents. Note that in the Labor Certification process, which a company has to go through while applying for these visas, they have to demonstrate that there are no American citizens or permanent residents available to take that job. That argument is badly undercut when you have outgoing American employees being required to train their replacements. Obviously illustrating a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law.

    From the corporate standpoint, there have been two arguments. One is that it's impossible to find American workers who are interested in doing those jobs. One may add the caveat about the salaries required to do those. If those jobs can be offshored, it's a win-win: the US doesn't have to issue all those H1B visas, and the companies can pay Indian salaries to Indians sitting in Bangalore or Pune. If they cannot be, that's where the companies should be made to cough up the cash.

    The other argument is that it's impossible to find Americans who are qualified to do those, which was the original purpose of the H1B visas. This is where the EB1/2/3 category comes into question. In which case, again, see if they can be done offshore, and if they can't, then issue those visas, but for a big price.

    The best suggestion I've heard about H1B's is to put a floor of $150k on the salary. That would cut out the sub-par coders here that people complain about.

    1. Re:H1Bs by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The big problem is that the bulk of those visas have been used by companies that were clearly violating the intent of the law, by essentially enabling other companies to play a shell game. It works sort of like this:

      Acme Inc. can't just replace its IT staff with H-1Bs. What it can do is replace its internal IT department with a contracted IT services group. Enter Wile E. Coyote Services, a company that hires H-1B workers, who bids on the contract. When WEC Services wins because it can bid cheaply due to using lower-paid H-1B workers, it takes over the IT work formerly done by American employees of Acme Inc - whose jobs are now being done by WEC's H-1Bs.

      A salary floor might go a good way towards fixing some of the problem, though part of the problem isn't because the program is bad as is, so much as it's not being enforced. WEC is already skirting the requirements and is likely making dubious justifications for hiring those lower-paid staff in the first place. We need a Justice Department (and an Administration) that is willing to hit them with a giant boulder, because if the rules change but no one enforces them, it won't really matter in the end.

    2. Re:H1Bs by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re ", they have to demonstrate that there are no American citizens or permanent residents available to take that job."
      That can be done with a few select "newspaper ads" over time to show that part of the law was fully explored before bringing in people from outside the USA.
      If that aspect was in any way legally difficult to show, very few workers would be able to get into the USA.
      Re "One is that it's impossible to find American workers"
      Tell good US universities what the USA needs. What skills all the workers for other nations have that no US university can teach?
      Do other nations educational systems only pass students on merit? Are their tests more difficult? Their exams set to a higher standard?
      More homework? Better labs? Better study? Study for longer? More math? More science?
      What is so lacking in every US university setting that makes cheap workers from other nations so ready for US jobs?

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:H1Bs by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      what I suggest is a way to enforce the current rules, which are 100% ignored.

      how can we do this? start a 'secret shopper' program. you know, stores have fake customers that work for management and they check on the employees to see if they are following rules and treating customers correctly.

      do the same for the h1b farce. the US government should hire a bunch of out-of-work americans who have decent resumes, decent experience and SHOULD be hirable, but they - for 'some reason' - are not. give them jobs checking up on the companies who are abusing h1b rules!

      you'd have definite proof of them breaking the rules; if enough of your skilled secret interviewers are turned away, likely there is something there to be checked on and maybe some nice juicy fines or even jail time for the execs!

      oh, how I'd love to be part of that! I've been on the 'train your replacement' side more than once and so I'd love to get some revenge and teach those SOB companies a lesson they won't soon forget.

      if you don't have a program like this, you won't catch the offenders.

      the fact that we don't have this means we were never serious about stopping this abuse. its just that simple.

      I was out of work for long stretches of time, during my recent past. I have felt the pain of the rich assholes who want a 2nd yacht and refuse to hire locals for available jobs. I would work that secret shopper job knowing that I'm directly helping restore some sanity and balance to the tech employment world.

      (maybe someone with some power to get things done will read this and think a little bit about it.)

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    4. Re:H1Bs by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      It's always possible to find good American workers. Just pay 10% more than the competition. The market solution for shortages of workers in particular fields is to pay the people in those fields more, so they'll be more attractive.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  22. We'll never know. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Face it, we got Hilary's economics with the right wing's Health Care and social issues slants.

    Maybe.

    But keep in mind that Hillary was co-opting some of Sander's platform.

    This brutal beating that the Dems took last Nov is sinking in. I'm at ground zero of the Ossoff election today and I'm seeing some different Dem strategy.

    Ossoff is a moderate Democrat (he'd be a Rep in California or everywhere else before Newt and Fox News started the trend of turning the GOP into a party of right wing nuts.)

    People are still pissed. When I heard Karl Rove on *NPR last Summer, he called the election.

    *The ONLY place I EVER hear reasoned Republican arguments is on NPR. NOT on ANY cable news channel or ANY broadcast channel. I think it's laughable that NPR is called "leftist".

    1. Re:We'll never know. by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Sorry, Karl Rove was a never-Trumper and to the end did not believe that Trump would win PA, much less WI or MI. And on election day, he credited the WI win to Paul Ryan, despite the fact that Ryan refused to campaign w/ Trump due to the Access Hollywood tape. And he had been all over FNC trashing Trump: it was only after the election that he's been somewhat more favorable, but still insufferable

  23. It is real basic math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which you obviously struggle with. Ever hear the phrase "supply and demand"? Maybe you are 13 and not actually an adult who needs a job, but one day will grow up and realize that working for peanuts sucks.

  24. Tech needs a career progression ladder by ErichTheRed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I started out in IT (back sometime after the last Ice Age,) it was very possible to start out as a help desk person, and work your way up learning as you went. I know, because I started out with a non-CS degree and made the hops from help desk to desktop support to (essentially) a data center operator, then several levels of sysadmin and finally where I am now as a senior engineer/architect. The thing I'm worried about is that current generations will see no future in an IT career and choose not to pursue it. One of the contributing factors is the limited prospects for low-end IT jobs needed to get the skills you have to possess at the higher levels. If help desk work is offshored or a minimum wage job, fewer people will go into the field and gain the kind of OJT you only get in the trenches.

    I absolutely don't hold myself out to be some super-genius, but I have noticed that there are a lot more "senior architect" level jobs being filled by people with a much lower skill and experience level than you would expect. This makes sense if there's a whole bunch of missing rungs in the career ladder -- a CS grad will BS his way into a higher level position than they normally would have because of this. This is where you get the architect-level people who just buy whatever's in the Gartner Magic Quadrant because they can't objectively evaluate vendor claims. I've had to work very hard to stay hands on in the company I work for, because the assumption is that once you reach my level all you do is hand-wave a few diagrams and buy million-dollar software tools to badly automate Function X. My boss knows this, but it's hard convincing those above our level that it's worth investing in the talent pool.

    I'm one of those crazy people who really likes my job and loves learning and teaching newbies what I know. I also think companies would be fighting fewer fires if the labor market wasn't so distorted at the low end by the body shops and outsourcing companies.

    1. Re:Tech needs a career progression ladder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Start your own company and own the market based on your insights. Or admit that the industry is, inevitably, what it is.

    2. Re:Tech needs a career progression ladder by xtal · · Score: 1

      I recommend IT as a last option to anyone anymore unless you've got the acumen to work for yourself.

      If you're smart enough to make it in IT you can do something else.. and I'd recommend protected trades (electrician, plumbing, HVAC.. there's even a massive shortage of elevator techs - google it) over going into computing services.

      IT workers need a proper union or trade protection. The older I get the more that becomes very clear.

      My $0.02.

      --
      ..don't panic
  25. They are taking your jobs, putting YOU on benefits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    start protesting, vote with your wallets, let Apple, Microsoft, Facebook etc. know that it is YOU they should hire, not someone from Europe or China or wherever.

  26. Executives are Worried by wisnoskij · · Score: 2

    That Trump will prevent them from outsourcing all work to India, and bringing in Indians for 1/2 the salary of home grown talent.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    1. Re:Executives are Worried by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      In other words, they're afraid Trump will make people do what he says, not what he does.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  27. He's basically Kim Jong-Un by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the hell would Tim Cook know about what tech employees want? He's a manager. A large number of the tech employees that work for him are indentured servants and can't speak out about what they want, else they may lose their job and have to leave the country in retaliation. Just the way any greedy manager without morals would want it.

    It's like asking Kim Jong-Un what the citizens of NK want.

  28. Don;t believe anonymous sources by randomErr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are some many 'anonymous sources' in the news today you don't know what to believe. When I see those words I automatically think 'fake news'. If it true just come and say it.

    BTW: An anonymous source says that /. is about to make me their CEO.

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
    1. Re: Don;t believe anonymous sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't believe me!!!!

    2. Re:Don;t believe anonymous sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do not want that position. You used "fake news" without a sneer. That's subversive to them and trust me, they will out for your destruction. I heard it in a board meeting.

    3. Re:Don;t believe anonymous sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There are some many 'anonymous sources' in the news today you don't know what to believe. When I see those words I automatically think 'fake news'.

      apparently nixon did nothing wrong, because his accusers were anonymous

    4. Re:Don;t believe anonymous sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So if they choose a name like Deep Throat then it's not anonymous, and not fake, right?

    5. Re:Don;t believe anonymous sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How times change...
      Nixon resigned over something that was a "slow day at the office" for Obama. See IRS Lerner, Fast-and-Furious, Benghazi, Press spying, Americans wiretaps, Arab Spring/ISIS funding, Russia "reset," Black Lives Matter..
      need I go on?

    6. Re:Don;t believe anonymous sources by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 1

      The media often abuses the English language to make a biased point. Typically they leave out important information which leads to confusion and vagueness.
      Phrases like "Many people have said" or "A study shows that" deletes important information. *Who* actually says and *which* studies show? ... or are they just made up and fake?

      http://www.angelfire.com/nd/da...

      --
      READY.
      PRINT ""+-0
    7. Re:Don;t believe anonymous sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They cited a CNN journalist who, according to my sources, is a registered sex offender.

  29. We're not talking about spouses of immigrants by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They're spouses of workers here are what are ostensibly temporary visas which were themselves issued for temporary labor shortages. Those 'temporary' shortages have been going on for at least 15 years. That's 3 full college classes start to finish.

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    1. Re:We're not talking about spouses of immigrants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't shortchange. Three full college degrees.

    2. Re:We're not talking about spouses of immigrants by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is no Labor shortages, especially when the labor participation rates are at 40 year lows. The demand doesn't want to pay for the supply. Pure and simple. So they change the supply curve by importing cheaper labor. This is and has been, always the case.

      The fix for "skilled IT" labor is to require businesses to pay a huge tax (20% wage/salary/benefits) for H1B visas as well as increase the filing fee for every H1B visa that they request. I'm pretty sure that they will find qualified US employees without having to resort to H1B. Taxes (like this) are completely avoidable. We could use the taxes to lower taxes on workers or something actually useful to the common person.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    3. Re:We're not talking about spouses of immigrants by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

      Why only 20%?

      Where I live - outside the US - a "low paid" foreign worker costs about 400% as much as a skilled local worker. That means a) jobs are only done by foreigners that really truly cannot be done by locals. And b) the local population aren't particularly resentful of the (very tiny) population of foreigners, since we surely are not taking their jobs or dragging down wages.

      So how about a 300% tax on foreign guest workers? It won't even slightly deter companies who are genuinely using H1B to employ one-in-a-million geniuses. But it would instantly make >99% of H1B work uneconomic.

    4. Re:We're not talking about spouses of immigrants by SnarkSide · · Score: 1

      It's those college students I'm most apt to protect. Everyone says we need to get all these masses of students ready for STEM jobs, but in order for inexperienced workers coming out of school to get good jobs there has to be some pressure on the market so employers are willing to take risks and invest in people. We owe it to young people to protect the market we are so busy telling them is their best path to a future.

  30. why is this down modded? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    this shouldnt be at neg 1

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    1. Re:why is this down modded? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All his posts are modded -1, check his posting history.

    2. Re:why is this down modded? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this shouldnt be at neg 1

      Are you saying it should be at neg 2?

    3. Re:why is this down modded? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      ahh got ya. i guess even a troll is right once in a while

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  31. Trump says a lot by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Almost entirely lies.

    So, don't believe him.

    Verify. Don't trust.

    Think of him as the Russian Liar-in-Chief.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Trump says a lot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IRS Lerner, Fast-and-Furious, Benghazi, Press spying, Americans wiretaps, Arab Spring/ISIS funding, Russian "Reset," Black Lives Matter, Black Panthers, 40 WH officials pleading the 5th in front of Congress.

      Wow, Trump must really suck.

  32. Worried we wont be able steal jobs from Americans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I am an American i would be rather worried about my job being stolen by foreign aliens, who are liining up to take a shot at stealing your jobs. Tech moguls want to lay off their American workforce in droves and replace us with cheap foreign labor so that they have more money to spend on their enormous mansions. Basically, if your an American and you support immigration your shooting yourself in the foot. We need a populist nationalist who will kill H1B and all the H visas, if your American and want to have a job anyway.

    We also need to do something about education in this country. We spend $23,000 per year per student on education in some places like Washington DC and yet the literacy rate there is around 30%. $30k can buy a year in some of the best private schools yet we are cranking out students who cant read and who however might end up brainwashed with all of the latest america hating, globalistic, feminazi, communistic social justice hogwash. It reminds of a cartoon I saw, where you have two registration booths, one for STEM degrees and one for Gender Studies (How to scapegoat men for your own incompetence) degrees. First women are lined up at the gender studies booth with none of them are registering at the STEM booth. Then below that we see women protesting in front the STEM booth with signs "STEM is boys club".

    Charter schools is really a matter of economic rights for these inner city populations. If public schools are so great like Liberals say you wouldnt have 30% literacy in the most solidly Liberal school districts who spend vast amounts of money on public education. Public schools tend to not care because its a monopoly. It is absolutely true if we have school choice there will be accountability. Public schools of course don't want school choice because it means they wont be able to slack off any more raking in vast amounts of taxpayer monies while not having to care or work hard.

  33. it better have medicare for all or we may have to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it better have medicare / medicaid (only income based) for all or we may have to beat the shit out the H1B who took your job or rig the systems to fail after you are canned and make it big so you go to fed prison that has better doctors then state prisons as your local state can cut the medicaid that you need and your mcjob mini med does not cover jack shit.

  34. Why is it supply and demand only works for Capital by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Low wages are always what they should be, but high prices are just the market self regulating. And God forbid you talk about poverty or (gasp) wealth inequality. Fetch me my fainting goats, I do believe I have a case of the vapours...

    --
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  35. I hate this Biz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I graduated college in the late 90s and out of all the places I've worked there was only ONE that had any vested interest in developing a long term career path for its people - then they were bought out by a capital investment firm and all that went out the window in the name of profit.

    It seems like no company puts value on people who stay longer than a few years, certainly there are no career paths other than promotion through making a lateral move to another, similar company.

    No documentation, few senior level people with a any in depth knowledge, lots of half finished things (always in motion.)

    Is the whole IT world this dysfunctional? Can it change?? Can WE make it change?

  36. Ok, I'll respond to the crazy dude by SuperKendall · · Score: 0

    So would Freddie Gray (and list of other petty thieves)

    None of the people on that list were tech workers, now were they? Back to the topic at hand snowflake.

    How many others have been illegally deported?

    My wife works in immigration law, I can assure you not many. There is an abundance of opportunity for appeal and review.

    Is that why the Fitzgerald...(incoherent rambling)..

    I will attempt to respond in your native CrazyTown:

    BLLEPP BLOOP YORP BLOOP BLIP FLOOP

    It should be, Trump and the GOP aren't known for their competency.

    Strange then that so many like you seem to worry about what he is doing!

    Must be hard to live with a rift that wide deep inside your soul, for eight years...

    I'll let you have the last response because after all, BLEEP BLOORP FLOOPWA.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Ok, I'll respond to the crazy dude by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So would Freddie Gray (and list of other petty thieves)

      None of the people on that list were tech workers, now were they? Back to the topic at hand snowflake.

      You wanted to make the topic enforcing laws. That kinda puts you in the problem of dealing with ACTUAL acts of "law enforcement" in action.

      So... we have Esequiel Hernández Jr. and Freddie Gray. And Charleena Lyles. And Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca. And Tamir Rice. What was Tamir Rice stealing? Fun in a playground?

      However, Sureshbhai Patel is alive. Why don't you ask him about the enforcement of laws? What was his crime? Walking while brown?

      Or you could ask Adrian P. Thomas. Ask him about the enforcement of laws.

      Why don't you? Or you could ask Muhammed Ali Jr. Or Hassan Aden. Or Kjell Magne Bondevik. Or Henry Rousso.

      Or you could talk to Sheriff Victor Hill. Or Judge Roy Moore. Or Mike Carona. Or Mark Ciavarella. You know, guys in law enforcement. Formerly. Not to mention Joe Arpaio. That guy knows a lot about law enforcement.

      How many others have been illegally deported?

      My wife works in immigration law, I can assure you not many. There is an abundance of opportunity for appeal and review.

      And yet...Andres Robles Gonzalez may not agree. Nor Eduardo Caraballo. Maybe I don't trust your assurances for some reason.

      You know, besides Trump being so incompetent he didn't even add up his budget properly.

      Is that why the Fitzgerald...(incoherent rambling)..

      I will attempt to respond in your native CrazyTown:

      BLLEPP BLOOP YORP BLOOP BLIP FLOOP

      Ah, somebody's upset that a US Destroyer can't even avoid a slow-moving freighter. I mean really, I know Trump lost a whole carrier task force, but did he have to have them try to play Trireme?

      It should be, Trump and the GOP aren't known for their competency.

      Strange then that so many like you seem to worry about what he is doing!

      Yes, most people tend to worry about what happens when the incompetent get a hold of tools they shouldn't have. Heck, it's enough of a bother when Grandpa grabs the remote. He ends up getting us stuck on the BBC Cheese channel.

      Must be hard to live with a rift that wide deep inside your soul, for eight years...

      Oh? Talking about your experiences with a black man sitting in the Oval Office? Did you ever find his birth certificate?

      I'll let you have the last response because after all, BLEEP BLOORP FLOOPWA.

      I suspect you can't even keep your word on that statement, you tend to proclaim you're going to storm off in a huff, then not even manage that much.

  37. He could go on twitter and demand action by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    from Congress. It's a popular issue. He could easily shame them into putting through laws to stop the program's abuses (or better yet, the program entirely). All it would take is a few tweets. And if it's one thing we know about the Donald, he loves tweets. The fact that he doesn't shows either a) the issue isn't important enough to him and/or b) he doesn't want to act.

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  38. Yep, nervous here too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nervous that as domestic workers get more pay and perks the longer on the job, that instead of teaching the old dogs new tricks, they lay off the old dogs that invented their current tech, to hire H1Bs that are less skilled and paid way less than normal for their job than domestic workers. So Tim, make me less nervous, advise the President to tighten qualifications for H1Bs and make sure they are not displacing domestic workers. And make the end company that uses the H1B responsible for meeting the legalities, or face fines, and further restrictions, eliminate the third party H1B body shops that snap up the majority of visas under false pretenses, eliminating the ability for small shops that actually need a specialized worker the ability to hire one. And H1B hires should be guaranteed work through the time of the visa, through a bond by the hiring company, plus airfare home. And any H1B also gets any long term benefits they can't qualify for as a cash bonus on leaving the country. They can't qualify for a pension, the end company pays into a fund that matches contributions that regular employees get. Essentially remove the profit motive from H1Bs and focus on the original intent to hire specialized workers not domestically available.

  39. Odd title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Versus what I read that said they were excited about how the meeting went.
    But hey, dump on Trump, anyway you can, right?

  40. Fuck them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hint: people who are already here and qualified need work. Sorry they won't work for peanuts, but Silicon Valley can fucking afford it. Zero sympathy for Tim Clown, er . . . Cook.

  41. T is doing it Wrong [Re:They needn't be] by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    [Some offered amnesty] Yet not a single one did anything to help control the flow of [illegal] immigration.

    There's a reason for this: both parties are in on it. Democrats see them or their offspring more likely to vote Democrat; and businesses see them as cheap labor, and therefore (legally) bribe Republicans to look the other way. Thus, Republican representatives pretend to be appalled for their voting base, but have kept making excuses not to sign anything when the opportunity has arisen.

    This was Trump's first plan on the agenda, put off by some liberal judge with his nuts tied around his neck like a bowtie.

    Trump is doing it wrong. Directly booting people out and breaking up families is both mean and bad politics. A law needs to go after businesses with some legal teeth against owners and hiring managers, along with an army of inspectors. Much fewer illegals would come if they couldn't get jobs. It would take longer to see results than direct boot-outs, but eventually has the same effect.

    But, business will never go for that: they'll lobby and bribe to stop it, and they have deep pockets. Trump seems too pro-business to fight that fight, and so does the street-hunter thing instead. Bigly sad.

    And Congress needs get off their butt and fund the hiring of more border guards. That's more effective than a wall. Tunnels and ladders will pop up. Again, both parties have made silly excuses not to fund guards in the past.

    There are multiple entrenched special interests that collectively put up barriers (no pun int.) to real solutions.

  42. H-1B flood == white genocide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no reason to draw all these incompetent programmers from the opposite half of the world. It's social engineering for a "world without whitey".

  43. Mr. President tell them: YOU'RE ALL FIRED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Heres my message to you H1-B income thieves: Go back to India and Pakistan. Without you I could ask for more money. It's my country, I don't give a shit about brown people, go tame a cobra or lay on a bed if nails, I don't care as long as you're not taking money out if my pocket.

  44. Re:They are taking your jobs, putting YOU on benef by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    start protesting, vote with your wallets, let Apple, Microsoft, Facebook etc. know that it is YOU they should hire, not someone from Europe or China or wherever.

    Yeah, exactly. Buy from Samsung or Huawai instead.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  45. Aren't these people needed in their OWN countries? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What with them being so 'intelligent' and 'wonderful', surely if we take all of the 'intelligent' people out of India (obviously not AFRICA, is it... LOL) then India will suffer?
    Still, we can't allow ANY white person ANYWHERE on Earth to simply live in a WHITE country now, can we...

    Why not?

  46. Who's nervous? by LesserWeevil · · Score: 1

    I'd say the folks most nervous are the captains of tech who might actually have to employ tech talent and pay the going rate instead of importing H-1B tech slaves by the thousands.

  47. I Don' Know About Anyone Else by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm starting to think that Tim Cook is the worst CEO Apple's ever had. He was obviously brown-nosing Jobs to get the position. But ever since he's been there nothing about using Apple products had improved from my pov. Just today I just asked Siri to call Godaddy, and it replied, I don't know who your daddy is. And I asked it to open Google Maps Navigation and it said I don't have a app named google maps navigation. It's a new refurbished phone (because my original one bricked) so I thought maybe I had not downloaded it yet, and then there was the app right on the phone. Fuck that guy. That's on the phone that everybody praises.

    The MAC o/s has gone totally feral and that Pages/Numbers crap is beyond belief in 2017. It would have been shit in 1995. Clearly Jobs didn't use a word processor or spreadsheet. Apple's going to fall hard.

  48. Lots of tech employees are nervous by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

    I find many of my tech colleagues are nervous, probably stems from too much coffee.

  49. Haven't seen it happen in practice by sethstorm · · Score: 1

    The only thing that has happened is the outflow of work, not the inflow or increase of citizens hired.

    Besides, Apple can be replaced by a more faithful company.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.