Jesse Jackson: Get rid of foreign tech workers

[Jesus Malverde]

Foreign high-tech workers are taking American jobs and making Silicon Valley's diversity problem worse, Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a Fortune interview.

"There are Americans who can do that work, and H1B workers are cheaper and undercut wages," Jackson said, referring to the class of visas most often used by tech workers. He said the tech community had a problem letting new people in and giving them opportunities.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102290336

[Vattel]

1. Jackson is right!

[whathehell]

4. +100 n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

7. Hell yeah he is.

There are plenty of Americans who can do those jobs. We shouldn't allow this shit.

[uponit7771]

50. Difference being one sector of US jobs has PLENTY of people wanting to make 100,000usd a year

.. and the other one doesn't

Don't think there's near parity in those two contexts

[hollowdweller]

2. Reminds me of this one.

"The point is that, just as much of America’s elite is willing to shut down every factory in the country if it is possible to open cheaper factories in countries like China, so much of the American ruling class would prefer not to hire their fellow Americans, even for jobs done on American soil, if less expensive and more deferential foreign nationals with fewer legal rights can be imported. Small wonder that proposals for “guest worker” programs are so popular in the U.S. establishment. Foreign “guest workers” laboring on American soil like H1Bs and H2Bs — those with non-immigrant visas allowing technical or non-agriculture seasonal workers to be employed in the U.S. — are latter-day coolies who do not have the right to vote."

http://www.salon.com/2010/07/27/american_people_obsolete/

[Jesus Malverde]

9. Losing the right to switch jobs and the prospects of being deported sure keeps them in line.

Excellent points.

[exboyfil]

3. I guess it depends on what you mean by diversity

Indians and Chinese are of a different race.

That being said I thought for a long time that they should scrap the whole H1B Visa process with the shell game fake job postings etc, and go with a yearly payment of $30-$40/K. If a U.S. worker can't compete with that then they need a serious skill upgrade. Less cost for enforcement of the H1-B Visa laws and only companies who really need the talent would spend the money. Feel free to set the bar higher if necessary.

Saved money should go into retraining unemployed technical workers.

My daughter just finished her first semester in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State (she was taking Sophomore/Junior level classes). Her boyfriend and her studied like banshees, but still he barely cracked 3.0. He comes from a very solid background, and I can, as a degreed mechanical engineer from Purdue, attest to the fact that the equivalent courses that my daughter took to what I took in the 1980s are harder now. I worked closely with her on two of the classes (Dynamics and Thermodynamics). It is something of a generalization, but those of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean descent with which I worked with in the past know how to hit the books. Not that many foreign nationals in my daughter's undergraduate program, but loads are in grad school.

[aggiesal]

6. I hate the fact the companies intentionally abuse these programs ...

and I'd like to know why B-Box and Princess DiFi allow this to happen
under their noses in their backyard.

Those that support H1B's claim that salaries are the going salary as a US
engineer, but I don't see it.

I believe that H1B's should be tied to tech sector unemployment.
If the unemployment rate goes up, H1B's should be reduced.
If unemployment rate goes down then H1B's could go up.

It should be extremely difficult to get an H1B. Instead they pass them out
like candy on Halloween.

I just received an email from a recruiter for a position and
was accepting Green Cards, H1B's and US Citizens, which I found completely
illegal, because the position can't be for both US Citizens and H1B's,
they have to mutually exclusive.

[brentspeak]

8. Actually, many of the foreign nationals know how to cheat

As an undergrad, I watched, incredulous, as a bunch of Indian students walked over to each others' desks and consulted one another during a chemistry final exam. To this day, I shake my head as the amazing brazenness of it all (the proctor was a clueless Chinese female grad assistant). Digging deeper, I discovered that cheating is practically a way of life among Indian students. Something of the sort also occurs among Korean students (in Korea). Indian students studying in the US do not have any particular reputation for brilliance.

And while Chinese grad students are, for the most part, much more competent than Indian students, I've had professors tell me that the Chinese students also are seriously lacking in any real inspired imagination; they are very competent, nothing more. In general, they don't have a reputation for cheating, but it is almost a given that they will submit faked GRE test scores when applying to US institutions for graduate study.

Haven't heard anything negative about Japanese students, though.

[JonLP24]

12. You're generalizing

Not to get into the problems with your statements, finding reliable info to counter those claims would take more effort than I'm willing to get into but college students admit to cheating at high percentages. With the pressure to do so (career prospects), a prisoner's dilemma is at-play here much like steroids in baseball (before drug-testing). The honest ones see it so they figure they have to do it so they aren't disadvantaged by the cheaters.

Point is, Americans commonly do it themselves but it doesn't say something about all American college students. Nor do the lacking in imagination American college students as an indicator for overall American college students.

On edit
Many Indian tech workers founded companies. One that I'm aware of is unable to work for it when he choose to get a work visa (H1B requirements are unfair for all involved)

[brentspeak]

28. Report: "Indian Students Claim It's Their 'Birthright' to Cheat in Exams"

"Generalization"?

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/indian-students-claim-its-their-birthright-cheat-exams-1473998

Indian Students Claim It's Their 'Birthright' to Cheat in Exams

By Ewan Palmer
November 10, 2014 10:33 GMT

The amount of cheating done in exams by Indian students is becoming so severe teachers are no longer attempting to properly teach their pupils, according to a report.

A look into the level of corruption in parts of the Indian university exam system reveals some students believe cheating in exams is a "birthright", according to the BBC.

Some students are also known to have placed daggers on their desk during exams in an attempt to warn off any invigilators whose job it is to watch out for cheating in exams.

"India's university system is in crisis," said Pratap Singh, a university student from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. "Cheating happens at every level. Students use bribes to get admissions and good results. Research students get professors to write their dissertations. And the professors cheat too, publishing articles in bogus journals."

[Odin2005]

31. I wonder how much of that is a relic of caste.

I wonder how many of the cheaters saying that they have a right to cheat are of the Brahmin caste and so see themselves as entitled to a high place in society.

[JonLP24]

42. The key words "some students"

Definition - a general statement : a statement about a group of people or things that is based on only a few people or things in that group

The part of the article you went out of your way to hyperlink specifies the claims they're making to the rich & political connections. Now how is that much different than Americans or Capitalism or the justice system.

This fact is troubling on many levels, not least of which is that making bail at arraignment is probably the most critical factor in the outcome of a criminal case. According to Robin Steinberg of the Bronx Defenders:

"If they have you in jail, the power has shifted to the prosecutorial arm of the system, and they can force you to make a plea. If you are out of jail, the power dynamic is completely different. Our research shows that when bail is posted, at least half the cases are going to be dismissed outright and most will result in no jail time at all. This is why prosecutors fight so desperately for bail."

Norman Reimer, executive director of the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers, was less circumspect when he recently spoke about this issue:

"Bail is used as ransom to extract a guilty plea. Fact."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/14/america-bail-system-law-rich-poor

On a personal note, I was a pretrial defendant at Maricopa County Jail. It was a very iffy terry stop and had a decent shot (better than most stop and discovery cases -- I never figured knocking on someone's door was probable cause to give you an idea, basically I knocked on the wrong person's door at the wrong time). First of all, the fact that it was football season is the #1 reason I pled guilty but also those court-side holding cells were cold as hell. I have a conspiracy theory that they refergerate the holding cells so that the defendant would want to hurry up and get out of jail and plead guilty. Being woken up early, handed clean stripes, go through the very long process of verifying the iternerary, sitting in an entire gym full of detainees sit through a roll call, waiting for hours in ice cold holding cells (with just the stripes keeping you warm -- no lie -- other inmates advised me to get XL ones since it is cold in there) was a more painful process in in-processing. They actually made that part relatively efficient with the exception of putting 20 people in a holding cell trying to sleep with the limited space you have--this is where the bullying starts--some inmate may decide or that you're too much of a "punk" that the spot on the block bench you occupy belongs to him but luckily I avoided that kind of problem, it isn't even a close comparison but people in jail show me a hell of a lot more respect than people do on the outside. Those conditions certainly made it easier to decide "guilty".

I rambled completely off-topic but I think my point was made. India has a well documented problem with wealth distrubution, basically there is India in poverty & rich India. However, I can't imagine rich & politically connected Americans don't have the same issues. We'll bail out the bank CEOs but not the homeowners.

[daredtowork]

16. Perhaps cheating is not the word, but

there is a sort of "group support" that is different from the individualism of American workers that seems unfair from an American point of view - especially if it enables non-American citizens to take available jobs during times of widespread American unemployment.

For example, I once worked in a technical environment that included H1B programmers from a consulting firm as well as in-house programmers. The H1B programmers were paid much more than the in-house people ($200/hr billed to their agency) - yet they were, as individuals, not "better programmers". They were constantly calling their agency or calling friends for how to do things. Or they asked around. They asked me - a low level clerk making minimum wage(!) - how to do things that they I knew I was familiar with (web-related programming).

First, this would make me question whether I should be making $200/hour. It would be just as easy for me to call someone for how to do stuff. They also seemed to have no compunction about lying on their resume and faking recommendations: it was all a game to beat to them. The American "individual" tends to put their actual identity on the line during job interview/application process, and that's why it's such a fraught (indeed, hated) process for the average American.

Second, they used their position inside companies to slip resumes to each other. In fact the ones who did have a position were stressed out by the pressure they felt by the expectation that they would help friends and relatives "get in". While Americans might try to make "connections", I don't think there is nearly anything like this pressure that friends and family have on other people. This pressure is heavily exerted wherever there is an "opening", and a visa/job program is an opening.

All I can do is add to the anecdotal evidence, but I have seen this personal. There is no question in my mind that the H1B program is destructive not only to American jobs, but to the morale of the American programmers who are working.

Ps. Here's an example of "entrepreneurs" gaming the H1B system:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Silicon-Valleys-Body-Shop-Secret-280567322.html

[MH1]

17. "no compunction about lying on their resume" - you got that right.

I have seen it first hand. And yes, it is demoralizing to American programmers.

Not to say that there aren't Americans who cheat. But it seems among the H1Bs, the top priority is to "break in", no matter what they have to do to accomplish that.

Sometimes a business will do a phone interview for a consultant. I've been told to use skype to make sure that the person who shows up for work is the same one who did the phone interview. I.e., if they can get away with it, they will have someone knowledgeable do the phone interview, while the actual applicant is clueless.

[daredtowork]

20. IMHO the job application process needs to be revolutionized somehow

There is too much psychological BS that gets in the way for the applicant (not to mention rework and fragmentation), while the employers are being deluged with too many fraudulent resumes. There are still masses of long-term unemployed people, and there are still supposedly lots of jobs available for them. The problem is an inefficient model.

I'm not sure what has to change, but something has to.

[MH1]

21. We could start with incentives for training entry-level applicants for high tech jobs

instead of insisting on hiring someone with a resume that says "7 years experience" or whatever.

I would like to see the H1B program drastically cut, and mostly replaced with incentives for hiring American college grads and/or 2-year college grads into entry-level positions and training up to the required skill level.

This is kind of a pet peeve of mine, in case it isn't obvious .

[daredtowork]

22. YES!!!

And here's what's missing.

The Department of Rehabilitation will pay for a technical training program. It's kind of wimpy, but it's there. The problem is it requires a 7 month commitment. The program also focuses on work readiness issues: i.e. you have to show up for every class, show up on time, observe their dress requirements, etc.

Now here's the rub: who is paying for the student's housing during the 7 month commitment?

The only people who can do this course are people on SSI. Note people on SSI, especially people who recently obtained SSI, have gone through a long hard struggle to prove they "cannot work". So attending this class that demonstrates their work skills is rather risky for them. Perhaps people on lifelong SSI can get away with it, though.

It would make much more sense to address housing/basic needs while people go through a 7 month commitment. After all, when people go to college, part of their financial aid package is housing/board. College students need shelter/food. Guess what - so do poor people who are trying to get training to get a job.

[Live and Learn]

52. +1 nt

[Odin2005]

30. This is what happens when corporate culture uses credentials as a lazy proxy for ability.

It creates perverse incentives to cheat your way to a piece of paper rather than learning anything.

[treestar]

53. Maybe you can dig up some stereotypes on the Japanese students too.

On DU?

[Zorra]

5. Yep. Rev. Jackson is a Real Deal Union democrat's Democrat.

If he ran for President in 2016 I'd campaign for him.

[appalachiablue]

36. Check. Glad he has the courage to say this. One of my close Indian friends told me about the

regular cheating, bribing, using subs to take tests in universities since 30 years ago. About 10 years ago said how there's too many Asians here. He is totally ethnically proud of his Punjab Sikh family heritage. Thinks Toronto is too filled with Indians, millions. A friend from Pakistan told us laughing how a man he knew cheated throughout Dental School, never hardly went to class, pulled it off. I know it goes on here also. Sick.

[Cha]

10. K

[JonLP24]

11. The problem isn't the worker but the H1B Visa

An alternative which opens up labor to the free market would bring back up the overall wages for the industry.

[MH1]

18. The problem is that companies like the lower wages and greater control / fear

The H1B worker is desperate to stay in their job and will work longer hours and take far more crap than an average "spoiled" American worker.

In other words, kiss your 40-hour work week goodbye.

[appalachiablue]

37. Right. I've heard of the abuse, from a few who are able to talk about it. An Indian friend

mentions a guy on a visa working for a heat & a/c company, like a slave for several years at least. They overwork him intentionally b/c he's vulnerable. Nice guy with a family from Pakistan. The owner is also from there I think. It's all so very predatory, sick and damaging. The business sector drives it for the race to the bottom wages, then people target the immigrants often.

I hear old US business types from RW think tanks on CSPAN say how good Americans have it with their TVs, cellphones. Compared to what? It's all justification for using cheaper labor.

India has 20% of the world population, and I know China and the rest of Asia have a huge percentage of the 7 billion population. India and the Philippines have many decent English speakers, where many banks and corps have sent their 'back office operations". Microsoft engineers in India can live well on 10k. Endless labor supply, until the software robots take over in the next 20 years.

[JonLP24]

43. Exactly

H1B also can't take his or her talents from Microsoft to Apple for higher pay bringing down the overall wages and bargaining power for all workers. Which is why the "prevailing wages" requirements make little sense. If competing companies could bid for their services you'd actually see what the "prevailing wages" are, also they're tied to one company, and many other factors including "temporary" which brings down the prevailing wages. Not to mention tech companies are using H1B Visas to train and later manage IT outsourced firms again bringing down the overall wages.

I think they're common misconceptions for both sides of the debate, one I'd like to tackle is supporters argue we're in a global economy which is true. The problem is labor isn't globalized. If labor had similar rights, freedoms, and ability to move as businesses do (not to mention rigging it in their favor) you wouldn't see this unequal bargaining power you see today. H1B Visas is a contributor to that (lobbied for, sponsored by, hired by big business).

[Scuba]

13. Not everyone agrees ...

[earthside]

27. Why am I not surprised?

And to think, there are Democrats who actually want her to be the party's presidential nominee in 2016.

Can't a real Democrat be nominated?

[Odin2005]

32. This is why I will never vote for Hillary.

[Scuba]

33. There are so many good reasons.

[appalachiablue]

39. Bravo for the spelling bee champ, good kid. I'm becoming tired of SV, CA, DiFi, Clintons,

-heresy, but too bad. My best friends live in Redmond, others are Indian. No wonder we have Sanders and Warren fighting, the two that aren't financially connected insiders. What a force has built up, for corps not people.

[mopinko]

14. this would be a non-issue if wages were not stagnant.

it is more that the h1b's have kept wages in some high paying sectors stagnant.
i find these conversations to be mostly thinly veiled xenophobia.

[MH1]

19. I might have said "xenophobia" also

Until I had the "pleasure" (not) to work in a company that is masterful at bringing in H1B workers.

It isn't just the wage effect, although there's that.

It's that they crowd out opportunities for Americans to break into these high-tech jobs, but frequently the hired H1B worker really isn't very good at the job, because they lied on their resume, or at best grossly inflated their experience. Then there is the fear factor: the H1B is desperate to keep their job, so they lower the bar for the bullshit that the management can give to all the workers.

I could go on an on. A couple decades ago, I had nothing but glowing reviews for the few people from India that I had the opportunity to work with. Unfortunately my perception has changed greatly, as now I have seen the downside of bringing these folks in; and that it's at the expense of opportunity for American college kids. And for what? There is nothing I do that I couldn't teach to a bright community college grad if they would just ask me to. Why should we have high unemployment here and yet import foreign workers? It doesn't make sense.

[mopinko]

25. i think of myself as a citizen of the world. i have been to india, seen the people

who work for cognizant, which is a big outsourcer.
i met one family whose son worked 2 years in chi for them. he is in the middle class there. he has a CAR for his elderly parents, wife any baby to ride in, instead of taking them on his motorcycle.
he owns a condo.

so when you say for what, i say a rising tide lifts all boats.

husband's company hires many h1-b's. they have held down wages. but those workers send a lot of money back home. and they have been excellent employees.

[cascadiance]

35. But can't you see that "sending their money home" worsens OUR economy?

Normally when more people have jobs here who are citizens with their families here, money they earn recycles back in to and reinvigorates the economy. When it goes overseas, it is a sinkhole that shrinks our economy.

And they don't get to spend as much time with their families either. This rising tide only lifts a FEW boats, where the tide is VERY LOW to start with. There is a global effort to keep the levels very low globally, and the H-1B program is part of it. If people want to work here, they should be wanting to become citizens and be a PART of our economy. We should be finding ways of globally raising everyone's wages, not allowing companies to race to the bottom wherever and move that "bottom wage" every place through programs like this.

We need to get rid of programs like this and so-called "free trade" treaties like NAFTA and shut down TPP efforts. Restore tariffs that help us demand that those who sell here are committed to providing goods at a cost that our cost of living reflects here. And for those who want a part of the American dream that many have for centuries, streamline the immigration process so that they don't have to wait 10 years to become citizens, and are herded in to these so-called "guest worker" programs instead, that the PTB intentionally has happen to steal from the poor and the middle class and give more to the rich.

[mopinko]

45. the economy is global.

i dont care what they do with their extra money. it beats giving it to goldman sachs.
i live in a heavily immigrant neighborhood. i am sure there is a lot of money flowing to mexico. but they are good neighbors, and good citizens of the city. they live simple lives. would it be better for the economy for them to put their money into mcmansions in the burbs?

i do agree, tho, that doing away w tariffs was a major mistake. not only should there be tariffs, they should be set so that there is no profit in slave wages.

[cascadiance]

46. But globalization is being used for the race to the bottom.

We should be defining "globalization" as a global effort to organize labor, environmentalists, and others seeking a smaller wealth divide rather than the fascist efforts that the TPP, NAFTA and other similar so-called "free trade" agreements that H-1B and H-2B (Google Katrina and H-2B to see how that program screwed both foreign workers and Americans in that hurricane area in jobs rebuilding that area). We shouldn't accept the rationale that these 1% created programs help spread the wealth when they are more about spreading poverty and helping the rich consolidate the wealth globally to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.

We shouldn't accept their manipulation in dividing us on this issue where they appeal to the right through their xenophobic fears and to some of the left on the need to "help" those in poor countries get jobs as a rationale ti institutionalize corporate rule replacing democratic rule and the globalization of the race to the bottom. We can show support for our brothers and sisters in Mexico, India and many other places as well as our fellow Americans by globalizing decent labor standards and institutions, globalizing environmental standards and institutions, and globalizing democratic laws and institutions to fight back against this fascist 1% efforts to use free trade agreements to take everything away from us. We don't have to just accept the corporate media defining globalization the way the 1% wants it defined.

[mopinko]

48. i'm not talking about the media. i am talking about people i have met.

and this all isnt either/or. it is the way the planet has worked for as long as there have been people capable of traveling the globe.

you give the 1% too much credit.

[Ilsa]

38. I recently spoke with a young man, minority,

Who was having to work retail because his 2 year degree in CS wasn't landing him a job. We talked about him studying JAVA and utilities to help his resumè. He's wondering if he should have studied Sports Management instead.

Part of the problem is also foreign grad students coming here to get a masters, and they are picked first for these jobs with suppressed wages. After a couple of years, they move on with a 50% salary increase. The stable American, willing to hang in there because his family is here, isn't given a chance.

[JonLP24]

44. You still have xenophobic view (which ironically mirrors the views lobbyists use)

I favor opening up the H1b visa to the labor market which would see a push for the most talented and higher salaries from the result of bidding wars. Though it wouldn't be universal, the further down you go when it comes to the importance of skill you see little interest in top talent, cheaper & less talented (or overall talent -- which you would see from businesses with limits when it comes to labor costs like the salary caps in pro sports). Also discrimination would be a factor in hiring decisions--hiring the less talented than the more talented due or hiring at lower cost -- which doesn't make sense from the productivity standpoint allowing your competitors to scoop them up or offer a slightly higher salary than the already low offer. Again, it depends on how important productivity is to the bottom line, something like that would be more pronounced in professional sports but even equal opportunity in the NBA which blows the other men's pro leagues out of the water when it comes to office hiring positions (Spurs assistant coach is a Woman) but black head coaches are given a less benefit of the doubt as evidenced by shorter coaching tenures no matter how you view the data (winning black coaches replaced sooner than white coaches) and still have a lack of opportunity problem. Also who could forget Donald Sterling?

I think H1B Visa is an example of discrimination as well as rigging the game in their (the ones lobbying Congress for more) favor. Of course the argument they use doesn't make sense but unemployed Americans while importing foreign workers makes sense when you examine why it makes sense.

[cascadiance]

24. Read my post further down...

As I note there, it is the system that is screwing both these H-1B workers that are being screwed under its conditions, and those of us who are put out of work because of the exploitation of others for cheaper wages.

Yes, there are many workers that are right wing that do have xenophobic attitudes towards foreign workers, and I think we need to approach them carefully and push aside those that aren't really motivated to building a better working world for all workers, American and foreign, but just kicking out foreigners because they are foreigners...

[appalachiablue]

41. Interesting. I've commented here how Indian and Pakistani friends also say it's too much,

and there's much cheating going on. They're very proud of their heritage. I'll let them know you think they're Xenophobic.

[True Blue Door]

15. Corproations treat foreign labor like welfare.

They are subsidized by the poverty of other countries, and become addicted to the subsidy so much they just will never again voluntarily hire American workers at decent compensation levels. They have to be have their asses kicked into hiring Americans again.

[cascadiance]

23. They should completely down size the H-1B and move more towards streamlining REAL immigration!

The problem isn't "foreign workers", but a system that exploits them and through doing so screws us!

I think many of these workers would rather go for the traditional American dream of moving here to become citizens and be apart of that. But the H-1B is where they are being herded in to with less rights and less money, but more money than they would make in their existing countries.

I for one like the diversity of working with different ethnic groups in tech settings. That was one reason for me moving to the coast where there was more diversity. But I do not like this massive effort to devalue tech jobs and push everyone down the ladder through H-1B programs. If someone wants to work here, I say great, but let them become citizens along with their families and all live here and be a part of the system, where they can vote, be a member of a union (which the tech sector sorely needs but is kept from having them with this program), and enjoy all the different privileges and responsibilities of being an American.

If instead of shipping their earnings back home so that their families can build up savings there in lower cost of living locales, they should be all here as part of that migration so that:
1) their families can be together instead of split apart.
2) they spend all of what they earn HERE so that money recycles in our economy and doesn't "leak" to other economies.
3) we build up expertise and working experience of workers that ultimately will work HERE and not in other countries when their H-1B contract runs out and they go back there.

Jesse and others need to be careful so that their words aren't misinterpreted to representing a xenophobic point of view of rejecting them working here at all. I think if we welcome the traditional way without this messed up program that only benefits the wealthy over all of us, tech workers would be well paid and employed again, and companies would only rarely hire foreign workers when their experience and intellect qualifies them that much more, not that they can be had "cheaper". If we have an even playing field, I'm not about to oppose a standard immigration process for those who want to work (and perhaps live and become citizens here eventually which should be a goal of theirs when they come here to work).

The other things that can be done to help balance this equation is to work more on making getting a college education (especially tech educations) not so costly as it is now that keeps many bright Americans away from this field when they figure the expense of an education isn't worth the hassle they will have when dealing with the outsourcing and the H-1B that goes along with it to keep this industry underpaying it's workers. Indians for example, get subsidized bachelor degrees in their own schools, and only have to look for investing money in graduate degree educations, and many of them come here to get them to get them from a more recognized school. Most American kids have a hard enough time affording a bachelor's degree let alone a graduate degree. This also needs fixing to correct the labor imbalances that H-1B is a part of along with the many abusive "free trade" agreements we have.

And for those who try to rationalize that the few at the top should get more money because *they* are the ones that pave the way to have more automation to have us less dependent on as much labor, I would argue that tech workers THEMSELVES are probably far more responsible for helping automate processes that reduces the need for larger work forces, and that THEY should deserve the extra pay (if it is justified doing so) rather than those on top, who I would argue have far less to do with providing the ability to downsize work forces and produce similar output. But I think all workers should be paid more when the work force is downsized. In most cases they are more productive in what they do in terms of generating output as well, not just those who build these processes to help build greater output per worker.

[randys1]

26. Why we allow employment and trade policies to favor the wealthiest among us, is insane

[Odin2005]

29. How long before the "Free Trade" propagandists call him a racist xenophobe?

That is the usual Establishment retort to arguments of the sort Jackson is making.

[appalachiablue]

40. Correct. It's unfair & unhealthy that's all. F the zenophobia card.

[cascadiance]

47. About the only benefit xenophobia may be...

... is to perhaps help us get some less corporatist tea party congress critters to help us pull h-1b expansion out of any future immigration bills if any happen, albeit for the wrong reasons.

Hopefully in 2016 we can retake congress and put some real immigration and decent trade legislation that works for all of us and not corporate America.

[hootinholler]

34. Don't have to get rid of them...

Just pay them on par with US Citizens and level the field.