Digger, Welcome to the soapbox. I have been on it for years but to no avail. Some years ago American industry turned itself over to accountants. Accountants see only one thing, the bottom line. Hence we see products outsourced to third world countries who have no labor laws, no minimum wage, no pollution control laws and governmental oversite to insure quality and suitability for purpose.
Chiese products particularly irritate me. China is not friend of the USA. It hasn't been since the communists exiled Chang Chi Chek to Formosa. I cannot understand how American Companies can, with the blessings and encouragement of the Federal government, engage in commerce with China.
This country has been sold out and the gov't has turned a blind eye. The trade deficit is so skewed there is no comparison and yet it goes on. Microsoft is raising hell to admit more from India etc just to hold down wages. And who do these companies think will buy their products when they reduce spendable income in this country.
Plus the in influx of labor from the north and south running unchecked. And congress only worries about elections. What a deal! We deserve what we elect!
I'm with you on the accountants (and lawyers) running businesses. But the labor-cost difference in Bangladesh is NOT between twenty-five cents a day an $7.50 an hour. The difference is between twenty-five cents an hour and nothing.
Because trade with China creates wealth.
We have a trade deficit with China, ture. China has a trade deficit with India. India has a trade deficit with the U.S.
From the UK so excuse my ignorance (and contradicting a jolly good rant), but isn't there a law in the US that immigrant labour has to be paid the same as an American doing the same job. Bill Gates isn't trying to import cheap labour, he's either trying to export cheap jobs (aka offshoring), or else he is trying to solve a hiring problem where he can't get engineers with degrees. If the US is like the UK, there has been a marked decline in software wages and numbers of jobs due to offshoring, with the consequence that no-one with any brains is doing engineering or science at University because there are no jobs and the wages are crap anyway.
They want the Chinese to be economically dependant on the US, so a war would be economic suicide for them. Of course the big flaw is, once they get their hands on the technology, they reverse engineer it and copy it. Then they sell it back cheaper.
To be exact, he says that he can't find enough US workers at the "starting rate of $100,000."
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for Bill, H1-B visa salaries are public information. It turns out that only 12.7% of the H1B hires by Microsoft get that starting salary or more. The rest he pays less.
Maybe the best answer to offer since I don't have the stats on popular degree programs is that people brought here on a sponsored visa are prone to work on the low end of a broad scale plus I imagine would enhance sales in those countries involved. His stated reason was that MS needed a more broad influx of ideas and thoughts.
Does it bother you that the UK isn't producing engineers or scientists?
That's a BIG flaw when you reach the point that a brief hold back of goods can send a country to the can. You would have thought we could have learned something for letting ourselves become oil dependent! We cut back native production and destroyed most of the independent producers in this country and now just a short term holdout would be devistating.
To misquote Scott Adams, I find myself in the position of an undertaker on hearing of a coach crash nearby. No young engineers means more jobs for old engineers like me, or higher wages due to supply-and-demand, but the beancounters take a different view, and go offshore (actually off-continent, since India is the largest beneficiary) to get their engineering work done. Lay-offs, lower wages, bright students discouraged, lower numbers, offshoring, repeat.
In the UK, the number of students entering engineering and science degrees has declined by 25% or so in the last 3 years, but has been declining by a lesser amount for 20 years - a combination of low wages and low esteem for engineers and scientists. No wonder we have so much pseudo-science these days like the myth of man-made global warming (dont get me started!).
No wonder we have so much pseudo-science these days
No kidding. Just the latest political subject to steer us away from the real problems in this world. Similar to the inflated gasoline prices. I have heard every excuse under the sun for the rising prices. None pan out. Oil is at an all time high and gasoline is almost at a 2 year low.
The people coming in on sponsered visas are certainly at the bottom of the US payscale. I do not have stats to back this up either but I know enough of them who are sponsered by consulting firms and every one that I showed the payscale for programmers to (which you can get at Monster.com) all said they were being paid between the low and the mean and, usually, closer to the low end. Not very scientific, I know, but it confirmed my suspicions.
I asked several of them how they have been able to live on some of those salaries and they all said that it is easy. They live here but still live like they are in their homeland. They are vegetarians in the strictest sense and they have upwards of eight to ten to more living in a four-bedroom apartment to spread out housing costs and they all share one car between them with one or two being the drivers all the time while the others are only ever passengers. Thus, they are saving tons on the three of the most expensive things: housing, food, and transportation.
Worst of all, in my opinion, is that they feel they are less crowded and have much more flexibility than ever over here. I don't know about the rest of you but I am not prepared to move my mother and my two susters and their families into my house to live with my family, eat beans and rice (and not even cheese or eggs!), and be a taxi driver for everybody.
I think the saddest thing is that these people are being used and abused in the worst way but they are oblivious to it. They are being held captive by their sponsering company because they cannot find a job someplace else or risk being deported and they are being paid peanuts. This is also helping drive down salaries in the "high tech" jobs that were supposed to be our future since manufacturing went overseas. And it is also hurting the people wanting to come into the US because they are being paid less and less, thus it is better to stay in their home country and be allowed to move around and get raises with each move.
I don't know when this merry-go-round will stop but it doesn't bode well for ANY workers in ANY country.
LMAO I understand, you are very astute. And we must acknowledge the leader who in his political campaign told us "he had planted tobacco with his bare hands" in Tennessee a state he lost and then turned around and lambasted tobacco for his sisters death! BUT he is buying carbon credits so his personal excess is ok! From what I am reading here the intimidation from the politically correct group has modified many a scientific opinion. We are destroying ourselves from within!!
Well,there's always the "move to India" option. I know a few people that did. Apparently they hate the weather, like the food, hate the social life, like ... etc. And, given what their pay buys in India, they are very, very well off.
I'd rather move to the US. You guys must realise how inexpensive your country is compared to Europe (or maybe you do). For example, my 1800 sq ft house, big by UK standards and 50 miles from London, is worth around $950,000. A crappy steak and, uh, fries meal is $40, a small family car is $30,000 and petrol is $10 a gallon. All thanks to our new, prudent, Prime Minister who spent 10 years in charge of the money under the B'Liar.
It's interesting how little we know about each other. I used to have business dealings with people from the UK, and they refused to believe me when I told them that there were counties in the US where a third of the houses don't have electricity. After I sent them a lot of articles, they finally believed me, but they said no one else in the UK would, because everyone there believes the streets in the US are paved with gold. Obviously, the streets in the UK must be paved with gold, or else you wouldn't be able to afford those prices!
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