rare voices of sanity about Gates testimony

Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 1:54 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1656 -- 3/13/2007 >>>>>

It seems as though almost everyone in the media is enthralled with Bill
Gates and there is no skepticism about his request to the Senate for
unlimited H-1B visas. There are a few voices of dissent but they aren't in
the mainstream media. This is an example of two of them.

Example #1
Goldline International has a radio show hosted by Joe Battaglia. It's
mostly a show about investing in gold but a broad range of economic issues
are discussed.

Go to this page and listen to the March 12 audio clip:
http://www.theamericanadvisor.com/archive-radio-show.html

If you go to about the 11 minute mark there is a very interesting
conversation about our national debt. At about the 16 minute mark Battaglia
made some very disparaging remarks about Bill Gates and his lobbying for
more H-1B visas.

Example #2
The op-ed below is excellent, although it's unlikely to ever see the light
of day in a newspaper.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh031207-story10.html

Gates Says Infinite H1-B Visas, Scholarships Needed to Boost Tech
Competitiveness

Published: March 12, 2007

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Mr. Gates went to Washington last week, and as part of a series of hearings
on American competitiveness in the global economy, the richest man in the
world and the founder of Microsoft, politely told the United States
Congress that they had a lot of work to do to clean up the American
educational system and that, in the meantime, what the U.S. economy needed
was the ability to import highly skilled technical labor from other
countries without any of the visa caps that are in place today.

"Any discussion of competitiveness in the 21st century must begin by
recognizing the central role that technology and innovation play in today's
economy," Gates explained in his opening statement to the Senate. "The
United States has a great deal to be proud of in this respect. Many of the
most important advances in computing, healthcare, telecommunications,
manufacturing, and many other fields have originated here in the United
States. Yet when I reflect on the state of American competitiveness, my
feeling of pride is mixed with deep anxiety. Too often, it seems we're
content to live off the investments previous generations made, and that we
are failing to live up to our obligation to make the investments needed to
make sure the U.S. remains competitive in the future."

Gates said that we should ensure that every American child should graduate
from high school, and that by 2010, any worker in America should be able to
get the training they need to participate in the knowledge economy,
including doubling the number of math and science graduates in the country
each year by 2015. This, he said, could be driven by an additional 25,000
undergraduate and 5,000 graduate scholarships in these fields. Gates, of
course, is one of the few people on planet Earth who could make that happen
by writing one check. It is important to note that he did not, in fact, do
that.

The senators at the hearing did not put up much of a fuss when Gates
suggested that there should be no limits on visas for people with high-tech
skills to come to study in American universities and to get jobs here after
they graduate.

"Now we a face a critical shortage of scientific talent," Gates said. "And
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. I cannot overstate the importance of overhauling our high-skilled
immigration system. We have to welcome the great minds in this world, not
shut them out of our country. Unfortunately, our immigration policies are
driving away the world's best and brightest precisely when we need them
most. The fact is that the terrible shortfall in the visa supply for highly
skilled scientists and engineers stems from visa policies that have not
been updated in more than 15 years. We live in a different economy now, and
it makes no sense to tell well-trained, highly skilled individuals--many of
whom are educated at our top universities--that they are not welcome here."

The H-1B visa program is, of course, a boon to high tech companies, since
the provisions in the visas effectively turn employees into indentured
servants. They work for less money, usually have very specific skills and a
lot of education, and because they are being sponsored by their employers,
they are less likely to rock the boat. In a way, it is the 17th century all
over again. (My forebears came over as indentured servants on Mayflower-II
in 1620, and that was how they paid their passage across the Atlantic and
out of Cromwell's England.)

The thing I cannot stomach is that very few American scientists and
engineers will work for less money and under conditions that are like the
H-1B visas, which just lowers the number of students who graduate with math
and science degrees every year even further. It is a vicious cycle for
indigenous mathematicians and scientists, and a virtuous one for the
importing this talent from overseas. If we could not import people from
other countries, wages would be higher for these jobs, and students would
flock to them instead of going to law school, to medical school, or to Wall
Street. And we might end up being just as competitive in the software
field--over the long haul. All I know is, we need more engineers and fewer
lawyers, and I am not yet as global as Microsoft or Bill Gates, inasmuch as
I want people with American citizenship to get in the front of the line for
jobs. That doesn't mean that I am protectionist. I know people in other
countries need opportunities, too.

There's no easy answer to this. There is only the way that allows companies
like Microsoft to maximize product development, minimize development costs,
and maximize profits. So you know which way this will go. And if companies
can't get H-1B visas, they will just outsource their entire development lab
to India or China and pay even less money to get products done. It will all
come to the same in the end. On that, you can bet Bill Gates' last $50
billion.

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