President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, signs the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020, in front of the South Portico of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
At the Institute for Political Economy, Paul Craig Roberts explains his belief that Donald Trump is coming down on the wrong side of the H-1B visa issue. He writes:
Divisions are already appearing in MAGA ranks. President-elect Trump and Elon Musk have aligned with the H-1B work visas that allow foreigners to be brought in to fill American jobs. This disappoints the Trump working class that believed making America great again meant they were going to get their jobs back.
American corporations, universities, and non-profit organizations like H-1B work visas for a variety of reasons. A H-1B visa recipient is an indentured servant. He or she is paid substantially less but cannot leave the employer for higher pay as the visa is tied to the specific employer. This also has the result of denying the indentured servant employment or protest rights as the indentured servant’s presence in the US is tied to the visa that is tied to the employer. For example, a H-1B visa holder cannot file a discrimination complaint.
As Senator Bernie Sanders puts it:
“The main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad. The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make.” See here.
The case for H-1B visas is fraudulent. The claim is that America’s huge numbers of universities are incapable of producing enough American graduates to meet America’s need for “highly educated individuals with skills critical to our country’s economic future,” to use the words of Todd Schulte, president of an immigrant advocacy organization with ties to big tech. Or as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas disguised the scam, “American businesses rely on the H-1B visa program for the recruitment of highly-skilled talent, benefitting communities across the country.”
Imagine, the United States relies on the Third World, not on its many world prestigious universities, to supply its need for “highly-skilled talent.” The communities are not benefitting. The American residents are losing the jobs. Wages and salaries are being paid to foreigners who have displaced Americans. The difference between the US wage and the H-1B wage goes to corporate profits and executive “performance bonuses.”
I pointed all of this out years ago and summarized it 12 years ago in my book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Disintegration of the West, Clarity Press.
It is a fairy tale told by shills to enhance corporate profits and executive bonuses that Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, University of California, University of Chicago, and the large numbers of private and state universities cannot turn out enough educated people to fill the economy’s needs.
If Americans are not studying for careers in high tech it is because they know the jobs will be given to foreigners on visas. Moreover, Americans who prepare for these careers are hit again by the offshoring of many of the jobs.
Read more here.
If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.
