Comments on: Hilarity Abounds As Reality Bites, Aaaarrrrggghhh (With a Ggggrrrrr for Emphasis)

By: C.S.

C.S. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:09:28 +0000

One of the reasons our tech industry is now so far behind Japan and Korea is this "no one available" scam. When unemployment among U. S. engineers was so high in the 2000s, and companies were bringing in engineers under that "no one available" clause they were hiring them at higher salaries than the engineers they laid off; in addition to paying moving costs here and back and guaranteeing passage back to their native country if they lost their job. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out they cost more than hiring an out of work American. And yes, I knew people in both groups.

By: C.S.

C.S. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:54:43 +0000

I think our country has too little respect for workers. Workers built this great country and workers of the “greatest generation” helped win WWII. We haven’t changed, our brainpower remains the same and we’re still this country’s biggest economic asset. Our government divested us of our factories, our tech and now any service job they can outsource but it’s the workers “fault” we can’t spend our way out of this crisis?

Workers have a skill to sell to business and when business no longer “buys” it workers will sell it elsewhere. And when American business is no longer willing to pay workers they have to find another way to survive. When Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers and crippled our airline industry, those air traffic controllers went to other countries who gladly hired them. And when government decided to”forgive and forget” these experienced people were no longer around.

We’re in that same situation today; workers either relocate or find new ways to survive. It may “pay off” for business, but it certainly isn’t good for the nation. If we American workers cost so much then why do we have so many ex-Pats who say they are better off working in foreign countries.

By: barb

barb — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:31:23 +0000

Oh, there is always the satisfaction of watching Obama f*ck up. That really is a good incentive for getting up in the morning! I agree that all this moaning and growning is not helping the situation. We all know things are bad financially out there, we don’t need the media beating a dead horse. The media hypes it all to try to make Obama look like a hero.

By: TeakWoodKite

TeakWoodKite — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:50:46 +0000

Chuck Grassley, D-Iowa, oops Did he switch parties? or is it the Republicrats now?

By: jbjd

jbjd — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:08:19 +0000

Yes; this is important information, to grasp the absurdity of the whole picture.

By: jbjd

jbjd — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:06:15 +0000

And remind him that, the bill he – we – spent so much money shuttling him back and forth to sign, then sat on BO’s ‘desk’ for the next 3 days, planned in advance, so as not to deprive him of another photo-op (and, of course, so that Nancy Pelosi would not miss her plane to visit the Pope).

Include sympathies for his loss.

By: JozefAL

JozefAL — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:46:38 +0000

The only problem with your proposal is that you’re not really solving the actual problem.
How many times have we heard politician wannabes promise that they’ll be so much better than the do-nothing currently in office only for the wannabe to turn into the very creature he spent the campaign deriding? He dupes the voters with all the promises to do a “better job for” and “keep more in touch with” the constituents but ends up going along with The Leadership (when he’s not voting against The Leadership as a vendetta for some slight, real or imagined).
As it stands, with the people currently in the House and Senate, there IS a record of accomplishments (or lack thereof), while most of their would-be opponents have little-to-no record on which to stand. The biggest problem is that most people running for office (either in office or hoping to attain the office) rely on 30-second commercial soundbites to get their “message” across with far too much of that “message” being “my opponent is scum and here’s why . . .” rather than any serious argument to support his own candidacy. A newcomer often is forced to rely on such a message because of his own lack of real experience in the political realm and the sad reality is that very little non-political experience offers any insight into the candidate’s future as a Representative/Senator/whatever. Just being the anti-whoever is rarely sufficient, but too many people get suckered into believing it is.

By: churl

churl — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:11:55 +0000

I second that emotion. Times are rough but they are not desperate. Desperate is The Stand or 12 Monkeys or Deep Impact or Red Dawn or Fallout 1,2,3. For God’s sake people, have a spine, have some faith. We won’t survive if everyone lays down and dies.

By: I'm a Linda too

I'm a Linda too — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:04:00 +0000

and,

“The top visa sponsors in the area are the very same banks that have received TARP money. Those banks also have significant overseas operations, says Kathy Wylde, and this provision will hurt most when the economy turns around and the banks look to hire talent to tap new markets. …

“When they require someone with a language or other skill who they feel is the best person for the job, if they can’t bring them to New York, they will move the function,” says Wylde. “That’s what’s happened in the past when we’ve had a shortage of the H-1B visas.”

WHAT A CROCK OF SH!T MS. WYLDE. Sell that to some idiot you pull from obama’s email list. THAT IS WHY THE CLAUSE STATES TO FILL IT WITH AMERICAN WORKERS FIRST, then H1B 2nd. There is already protection if the jobs cannot be filled by an American experienced “TALENT” then it can go to an H1B. So your bucket is filled with holes and is leaking koolaid all over the place.

By: I'm a Linda too

I'm a Linda too — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:58:08 +0000

No doubt Senator "Chuckles" Schumer believes wanting jobs for our country is "Protectionist Chatter".

By: I'm a Linda too

I'm a Linda too — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:39:27 +0000

Surely Senator Schumer isn’t trying to say that this is not supposed to be a “stimulus” bill to jump start the economy and create jobs here as was advised when asking to pass this historical record spending bill.

Is Senator Schumer actually telling us his special interests pockets who lobby Congress for international workers for lower wages over citizens of their own country and our countries welfare is more important? Bravo for his honesty, even if it is stupid and can actually be considered high crime at, according to them, to most critical in the face of disaster for the worst of times.

By: Peggy Sue

Peggy Sue — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:24:06 +0000

Oh, this is too perfect, Susan. And remember Schumer said the “chattering classes” didn’t care about what was in the bill. A little earmark here, a little earmark there. We were all suppose to jump on the runaway train and trust the legislators.

Second thoughts, indeed!

By: allimom99

allimom99 — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:05:41 +0000

I actually don’t have a problem with this. The biggest reason these visas are used (in general) is that the imports are paid far less than the norm. the long-term effect of this has been to depress Americans’ wages. When the economy comes back, the restrictions can be revisited.

Bear in mind that this applies ONLY to companies taking the TARP funds. Don’t like the rules? Don’t take our cash. Maybe if these geniuses had played by the rules in the first place, we wouldn’t have to be paying for their mistakes.

By: Sassy

Sassy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:05:23 +0000

We have plenty of qualified workers, with the necessary skills for these jobs. These workers are paid a smaller salary than American workers, and their country of origin benefits as well.
I saw the accounts of many highly educated people from Silicon Valley who trained their replacements before they were dumped!
We can enjoy all the glitches in this unread bill, if we can get C-Span in the poor house!

By: lark

lark — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:45:46 +0000

These legislatures don’t seem to realize that if the grass is greener in other countries it’s probably because we haven’t been watering ours.

I think we over-water ours. The banking industry relies on well educated foreign immigrants because nationals cost them a fortune to train and they loose them to thousands of reasons, but mostly insubordination. Through experience they have found that sponsoring these immigrants pay off big time.