[CLUE-Talk] Media outlets

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Fri, 20 Dec 2002, Jed S. Baer wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Dec 2002 11:02:49 -0700 (MST)
> "Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier" <clue at dissociatedpress.net> wrote:
>
> > When you say "H1B issue" what are you referring to?
>
> I'm assuming:
>
> http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/H1BFAQs.htm
> http://h1b.info/bookmarks.php
>
> Norman Matloff seems to be one the main sources of argument against high
> H1B quotas.

I'd argue against it as well... companies no longer need to be importing
high-tech talent, if they ever did. 195,000 EXTRA people a year being
brought over at low rates can't be good for those of us already scratching
for work here.

Overall, I think it's a rotten program. It's bad for U.S. citizens
and it's not so hot for a lot of the foreign workers, either.

> While I can see the "unemployed US workers" side of the argument, I don't
> come to the conclusion of restricting immigration as a means of protecting
> US jobs. Companies can just move the work elsewhere anyway. If that's the
> alternative, I'd rather see the cash-flow stay inside our borders, i.e.
> the H1B worker spends some of their income on US products/services. That
> helps our economy.

I don't think we should necessarily restrict immigration, but H1B, iirc,
is a special exception allowing people to immigrate specifically for
high-tech jobs. In that situation, the need no longer exists -- it
should be done away with.

This is a situation that doesn't fall neatly into liberal vs.
conservative -- but I think it does fall into corporate vs. public
interest. It's in a corporation's interest to be able to import
people to work at a lower rate, while it's in the public's interest
not to do so... I'd say it's semi-conservative, but certainly there
are plenty of non-corporate conservatives who aren't in favor of
immigration.

This issue is probably not being extensively covered for a couple
of reasons:

1. Corporate influence -- corporations don't really want the public
discussing the fact that they'd import people to save money when
so many people are being laid off. (It'd be a touchy subject any
time, but now...)

2. Boring -- it isn't a topic that can easily be made sensational,
so TV news isn't interested. Now, if an H1B person goes postal,
then it'll be covered...

3. Complex -- it isn't easy to boil down into a "good vs. bad"
situation, so it's too complex for TV. Makes for bad sound bites.

Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
http://www.dissociatedpress.net/