Something I agree with for once...

[Seattle or Bust]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck5yngl2y4gpo

The Trump Administration has barred Microsoft from hiring through the H1B visa and PERM programs. They are making an example out of Microsoft but I hope it does not stop there.

This idea that there are not enough qualified American workers to fill the growing need for tech jobs is utter bullshit. 100,000 computer science majors graduate from universities every year. They are leaving 10's of thousands of Americans out of an opportunity to build a career and wonderful life through working at one of America's great tech companies.

Microsoft should be investing in the American work force... training young professionals... investing in their lives/careers... especially in a time where Americans are struggling to afford homes and rents are sky-high in the Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond area.

Microsoft claims that they pay H1B visa recipients the same salary as an American worker. Difference is, they know they're hiring borderline slave labor in immigrants who will work 80 hours a week and be shipped back to India before they can advance in their careers and be paid more.

That's the point... hire an American worker and 20 years down the road they'll be making significant money. Hire an H1B employee and they're replaced by another H1B worker who they'll just replace and replace and replace without ever needing to pay them for a career.

I played golf with a MSoft manager not too long ago who told me that they are given a budget and that you can hire 5x immigrants at the cost of one American over time. I'm told they are encouraged to go the immigrant route to maximize productivity vs cost.

Hiring and bringing so many immigrants in temporary statuses has created a real housing crisis locally. You hire 1 American... that's 1 person/family occupying a home or apartment. Hire 5 immigrants for that 1 American and that's 5x houses/apartments now occupied. It's no wonder homes and rents are so expensive and why they had to build 20 new apartment buildings downtown.

This bullshit is the REAL invasion. Head to Redmond... these people didn't get here at the Southern border. They got here at the hands of greedy corporations trying to import cheap labor.

[DavidGee24]

Good to see you put aside your biases and just focus on the singular issue in formulating your opinion. Very well said and people really should do that much more often. I actually had an instance where I was emphatically 100% in agreement with a decision Joe Biden made, specifically the one where he decided not to run for re-election.

[douche]

Greed. Plain and simple. There was a time when companies wanted to invest for the long haul... hire the right people, train them and retain them. Now? It's all about the greed and making a quick buck. Then sell said company, pocket the money and walk away.

So many companies swallowed up as product quality goes down. It's all about the cheap labor.

[gil]

I'm generally in favor of free markets and free trade. I don't think that it's "greed" to try to increase profits, as long as a business does that legally. (Just like it's not greed for an individual to try to get more income, again, if done so legally. I don't really like the way things are: you describe it very well, douche, but I'll leave moral considerations aside for the moment.)

But I am in favor of restrictions (i.e., exceptions to the free market or free trade) where there is a clear national interest.

What SoB cites is for me is an instance of where freedom (for a business to maximize its profits) collides with a national interest (to have a prosperous citizenry). I come down on the side of reasonable restrictions IF we have the talent and skills among American workers. I have a couple of friends who are computer science professors, and they report a lot of unemployment among their new graduates. If these graduates are not prepared to do the jobs, then I think we should allow the companies to bring in foreign nationals. Also, if these graduates are not prepared to do the jobs, I think we have a big problem with university education.

But my professor friends have said pretty much what you say, SoB, the companies are doing this to make more money, not because American graduates are unqualified.

The problem in my mind, is NOT that companies are increasing profits, but that these young people with college degrees are being shut out of not just a job, but as you point out SoB, a career. An opportunity to thrive and build up American society. An opportunity to create generational wealth. To me, that is worth an exception to the principles of free markets and free trade.

[GL_Storm]

The issue with programs like H1B is the abuse. The idea was ALWAYS that those slots were supposed to be for roles that couldn't be filled by a legal US resident. But somewhere along the line the US government stopped enforcing that requirement.