Gates aftermath
Gates aftermath
Date: Monday, March 12, 2007 3:49 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1655 -- 3/12/2007 >>>>>
As expected, the press is embarking on a full-scale propaganda campaign to
promote Bill Gates and his H-1B increase. While it's tough to judge how the
Gates testimony affected public opinion, there is no question that he is
winning very big on Capitol Hill and in the press.
Following below is a sampling of some of the idiotorials that are appearing
across the nation. Pay particular attention to the lack of dissenting
opinions in these articles. They all assume that Bill Gates is a patron
saint of truth and good will.
The Washington Post article is one of the worst but it allows comments to
be posted.
Articles included
http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=187715&srvc=home
Time to expand H-1B visas
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/03/07/0308bizgates.html
Gates: More skilled labor from abroad needed in U.S.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100986.html?referrer=emailarticle
A Self-Inflicted Wound -- The U.S. is blocking the best and brightest
immigrants.
http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/03/12/03122007wacedit.html
Editorial: America needs more skilled workers
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=258335016574290
Brain Barrier
Videos I have posted online
Bill Gates asks Senate for infinite number of H-1B visas
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6817187417246492094
Lou Dobbs - Bill Gates Testifies to Senate: Part 1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9183967286974233731
Lou Dobbs - Bill Gates Testifies to Senate: Part 2
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3581912965027051739
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http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=187715&srvc=home
Time to expand H-1B visas
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Sunday, March 11, 2007
As this state wrestles with the sorrowful aftermath of that immigration
raid in New Bedford, its a good time to remember that not all immigrants
- legal or illegal - slave away at sewing machines under sweatshop
conditions.
No, many bring skill sets critical to keeping our high-tech economy
growing - many, but not nearly enough to fill the needs of American
business.
This past week no less an authority on the subject than Microsoft
founder Bill Gates appeared before Congress to plead for more visas for
skilled foreign workers. Currently only 65,000 such workers are allowed in
a year under the so-called H-1B visa program.
"Even though it may not be realistic, I do not believe there should be
any limit" on the program, Gates told a hearing of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pension Committee, chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
One legislative proposal would increase the number to 300,000 and Gates
gave every indication those would be used up in a heartbeat. His own firm
has 3,000 available jobs that could be filled by foreign workers, he said.
Sure, it would be wonderful to think they could be filled by qualified
U.S. workers too. But that isnt going to happen in the near-term without
vast improvements in public education. (Although on that score Gates,
through his foundation, has truly put his money where is mouth is.)
Too often U.S. companies take an easier - and cheaper - way out. They
either outsource work to foreign companies or take their own operations
offshore, to places from India to Ireland where they can get the skilled
labor they need.
Unless and until U.S. schools are turning out the kind of workforce
this nations corporations need to grow, there is no reason not to lift
the current limit on H-1B visas and thousands of reasons to do so.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/03/07/0308bizgates.html
Gates: More skilled labor from abroad needed in U.S.
By MARILYN GEEWAX
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/08/07
WASHINGTON - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates told Congress on Wednesday
that the United States should welcome an "infinite" number of high-skilled
foreign workers to fill engineering, computer programming and other jobs
that otherwise would be vacant.
Employers face a "critical shortage" of high-tech workers, Gates said.
"There is only one way to solve that crisis today: open our doors to highly
talented scientists and engineers who want to live, work and pay taxes
here."
Gates told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that
Congress should fix the "terrible shortfall" in H-1B visas, which allow
well-educated foreigners to work in the U.S. for several years.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who invited Gates' advice on improving U.S.
competitiveness, agreed that "the U.S. cannot sit back and watch other
countries attract the best talent." Kennedy is working with Sen. John
McCain (R-Ariz.) on an immigration reform package that may include more
H-1B visas.
The government currently issues 65,000 H-1B visas each year. The visas are
quickly snapped up, typically by tech workers from China and India. The cap
had been as high as 195,000 in the past, but was allowed to recede in the
aftermath of the 2001 recession.
Gates said even a return to the previous high level of visas would be
inadequate because of the growing demand for workers with backgrounds in
math, science and engineering. "The country should welcome as many as
possible," he said.
Many U.S. engineers and immigration opponents hope to thwart more visas,
saying companies use foreign workers to drive down U.S. wages.
Kim Berry, a computer programmer in Sacramento, Calif., and president of
the Programmers Guild, said his group opposes creation of more visas
because they already "are pushing Americans out of the market."
Employers are so eager to get access to lower-wage workers that "they don't
first consider qualified Americans," Berry said.
More young Americans would be drawn to such work if the pay were better, he
said. "That's the way supply and demand are supposed to work," he said.
"You boost the salary" and more U.S. students would study engineering and
programming.
Berry said House members are more likely to try to block the Senate from
raising the H-1B visa cap. "Members of the House are more down to earth,"
compared with the Senate, where many are millionaires and may not know
average workers, he said.
Gates faced no harsh challenges from the committee. Even Sen. Sherrod Brown
(D-Ohio) said that in his state, with high unemployment, business owners
have told him "they just could not find the engineers or computer
scientists they needed."
Kennedy did, however, ask Gates whether allowing more health professionals
into the U.S. might cause a "brain drain" in poorer countries. Gates said
that keeping such professionals out of the U.S. is no solution because
"they just go to other countries" with high living standards.
Gates also called for improving high school education and doubling college
graduates in math and science by 2015. He urged lawmakers to boost spending
on basic scientific research.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100986.html?referrer=emailarticle
A Self-Inflicted Wound
The U.S. is blocking the best and brightest immigrants.
Monday, March 12, 2007; A12
ONE OF the more self-defeating aspects of this nation's immigration policy
is its insistence on denying work visas to thousands of the world's most
sought-after doctors, scientists, engineers and technical specialists,
including those finishing their degrees at American universities.
Understandably, U.S. technological corporations, which, unlike Congress,
live in the real world of innovation and cutthroat competition for skilled
workers, are furious that their own government's visa policies give foreign
firms a leg up. As Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., told a Senate
committee last week, "America will find it infinitely more difficult to
maintain its technological leadership if it shuts out the very people who
are most able to help us compete."
That, unfortunately, is precisely the effect of current policy, which for
the past few years has limited the number of visas reserved for skilled
workers to 65,000 annually -- many fewer than American firms would like to
hire. The immigration legislation passed by the Senate last year would have
increased that number to 115,000, but the bill died in the House. As a
result, it is a certainty that thousands of highly trained workers, their
hopes of staying and working in America dashed, are now giving firms in
Europe or Japan a competitive advantage in some of the world's most
cutting-edge industries.
The lunacy of the current state of affairs is exposed by the fact that from
2001 to 2003, Congress raised the number of visas for skilled workers to
195,000 annually, in recognition of marketplace realities, then allowed it
to revert back to 65,000 through what amounted to inattention. At this
point, with the demand for skilled workers soaring, the 65,000 cap is so
inadequate that every single such visa is snapped up by skilled workers who
apply each spring, before the federal government's fiscal year even begins
in October. The system's dysfunction has been recognized by Congress, which
felt compelled to make some exemptions to its own cap. That eased but did
not solve the problem.
Entangled in the broader debate about immigration, the skilled-worker visa
problem has been neglected for too long. Tighter immigration curbs imposed
after the terrorist attacks of 2001 may have been an understandable
reaction at the time.
But there's no excuse for the current logjams, particularly since a
legislative fix is relatively simple: increase the number of visas. And
while Congress is at it, it should also raise the woefully inadequate
annual cap on green cards, which are needed for permanent residency status.
Just 140,000 are granted annually, and the backlog in applications now
requires a waiting period of about five years.
America's knowledge-based economy is increasingly dependent on the best and
brightest immigrants, who account for a quarter of the nation's doctorates
and a third of its engineering professors. Foreign-born entrepreneurs were
among the founders of Sun Microsystems Inc., Intel Corp., Google Inc. and
other leading firms. To educate the next generation of them in America,
only to export them to foreign universities and corporations, is foolish in
the extreme.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/03/12/03122007wacedit.html
Editorial: America needs more skilled workers
Monday, March 12, 2007
The need to bring in highly skilled foreign workers to fill a growing
demand for high-tech workers has gotten caught up in the bitter debate over
solutions to illegal immigration.
Congress should not confuse the two issues.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates testified last week before the Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on U.S. competitiveness.
Gates told Congress that the United States could lose its ability to
"remain a technology powerhouse" if U.S. companies could not fill job
openings for highly skilled workers. That especially includes engineers,
computer scientists, programmers and people in other math and science
specialties.
Gates said high-paying jobs are there for the taking for any American
college graduate with the needed math, science and engineering skills.
Unfortunately, the United States is not now producing enough young
scientists and engineers to meet the demand.
Gates wants Congress to allow more highly skilled foreign workers to accept
jobs in the United States that cannot be filled with qualified American
workers.
Some members of Congress argue that increasing the current 65,000-a-year
limit of visas for skilled foreign workers would deny jobs to American
workers and accelerate the movement of jobs overseas.
Gates doesnt need to be told about the need for better education. He
donates millions to efforts to improve U.S. high schools and encourage more
students to study math and science.
"Far from displacing U.S. workers, highly killed foreign-born workers will
continue to function as they always have: as job creators," Gates said.
Gates wants Congress to permit more foreign students to obtain permanent
resident status once their studies in U.S. universities are complete.
Hes right. These skilled foreign-born workers could become productive,
tax-paying U.S. citizens, themselves creating and sharing wealth.
America needs to produce more highly skilled workers. In the meantime, U.S.
competitiveness requires the help of foreign-born skilled workers.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=258335016574290
Brain Barrier
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 3/9/2007
Immigration: As Bill Gates implied last week, America has it all backward.
Our country's doors are open to the low-skilled while we keep out the
talent that's crucial to our competitiveness.
Testifying Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions, Microsoft's chairman made a point that few would
dispute:
The global economy is a brain game, and the nations with the best-educated
work forces are the ones that win.
That fact leads to two conclusions, one much more controversial than the
other. The first is that American schools need to turn out more scientists
and engineers. Gates called for better education, and he got no arguments.
But school improvement can produce results only in the long run -- like the
time it takes to educate today's first-graders into the engineers of, say,
2023.
In the near term, there's a talent gap that can be filled only by relaxing
restrictions on foreign computer scientists, software engineers and other
highly trained workers who want jobs in the U.S. So Gates also called for
an end to limits on the number of workers, now 65,000, admitted annually on
H-1B visas.
As he surely knew, he was pushing a hot button.
In what passes for a labor movement among skilled technology workers, the
H-1B program is seen as a frontal attack on the wages of native-born
techies and, by extension, a threat to key elements of the American middle
class. The theme has been picked up by economic isolationists such as Lou
Dobbs and anti-immigrant politicians such as Tom Tancredo.
The public concern -- or confusion -- seems to have made Congress wary of
this subject. The Senate has passed a comprehensive immigration bill that
includes a provision to lift the H-1B limit to 115,000 a year, but the
House has not followed suit and the Senate doesn't seem willing at this
point to deal with the H-1B issue in a stand-alone bill. There no takers,
as far as we can tell, for Gates' idea of lifting the visa cap altogether.
Even a cap of 115,000 would leave U.S. technology industries short of
talent. Gates told the senators that applications for H-1B visas hit the
65,000 limit just eight weeks into the current federal fiscal year (which
started Oct. 1). He said demand would be even greater next year.
In practice, this means that employers will quickly run out of approved
immigrant workers for high-skill jobs and will either leave the jobs
unfilled or shift them offshore.
Much of the work in fields such as software development might still get
done offshore. But that would not produce jobs here. More critically in the
long run, it would deny America a stream of capable, creative people.
For many visa holders, the temporary permit is a step toward permanent
residency. Allowed to stay, they may do more than just work here. They may
start their own businesses and create work for others.
The H-1B program is not about cheap labor. It's about attracting and
keeping the brain power that can ensure America's future prosperity.
Congress should pass a bill to lift the H-1B cap at least to a level
(probably well above 115,000) that meets industry needs. And there is no
need to wait for agreement on a wide-ranging measure on illegal
immigration.
The issue here isn't America's failure to control its borders. It's that
America does too good a job of excluding some of the people it most needs.
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