[ale] A nation of the immigrants, by the immigrants, for the immigrants

[Jonathan Gardner]

On Monday 08 July 2002 21:48, Byron A Jeff wrote:
> Aboloshing H1B's would solve very little. Instead of hiring from the
> American work force, the companies would simply ship the jobs overseas.
>

That's the silliest thing I've ever heard. There are several reasons why 
comapnies really don't like to operate overseas:

0) The culture, the language, even the business culture, and the science 
culture, is going to be very different. This requires a team of foreign 
business consultants, who often times aren't much better off than you are.
1) Local laws are very different, requiring a brand new set of lawyers.
2) Local laws? What about the local bribes? You think politics is bad here, 
wait 'til you see the other countries.
3) Foreign countries like to tax the crud out of foreign companies, and they 
will never enjoy the popularity or stability of a local company. The 
citizenry loves to see America get what's coming to them, for being the 
leader in economics for more than 150 years, just like whiny liberal 
democrats like to see businessmen and hard-working intelligent people get 
taxed at half or more.
4) If they think America has a workforce problem, they will find it worse 
anywhere else.

My attitude about the H1-B is to forget it. A manager who is doing the hiring 
won't take a visa-holder over a citizen just because he can pay him a few 
bucks less. Those kinds of companies fail because they think one programmer 
is the same as the next. Look around - it is the companies who hire people 
one at a time, and place them strategically, only as much as is needed and no 
more, that are in the black now. It is who and what kind of people you bring 
together.

-- 
Jonathan Gardner
jgardn at alumni.washington.edu

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