H1b

[flucifredi at acm.org (Federico Lucifredi)]

Dear BLU,

> >I've worked alongside a number of immigrants and found that they simply
take
> >advantage of whatever opportunity is presented.  Some are competent, some
> >aren't:  it varies just like everyone else.  [..snap!...]

I appreciate the balanced and economics-aware point of view of this one.
However, more "I got the right answer here" points of view are doomed to
appear, as the *obscene* one following:

> off-shore, we need to have a "if you want to sell here, you have to
> employ from here" trade policy.  Corporations can move off-shore but
> then they can't make money off the 300M people in the U.S.

Ok. Where do I start ? Perhaps if your middle initial is not 'W' you know
that the other sovereign states of the world are going to *demand* exactly
the same. We call the barriers that arise when someone does what you
suggested "protectionism" and an impediment to Free Trade. Of course, Free
Trade is good when it is your goods that are being freely traded, and not
others, as in the case of Steel, where the Free-Trade-toting US tried to
impose protectionistic quotas to (guess?) save companies and jobs on the
inside.

Stop whining, in Europe the level of unemployment the US has right now would
be considered good, in South America (in "Free Trade" mode) it would be
considered outstanding. Now explain to me why would someone abroad buy US
goods when they can just slap the condition you mentioned above that "it's
gotta be made *here*, or at least you must employ, dunno, at least one
Scottish "clan" ;-)  to be able to sell x goods in Scotland, two clans if
your selling more, three clans if you are selling thrice that, and so on.

 There are millions of people out there dying of famine, and the US is the
place where people (on average) have the most (materially speaking). Wanna
complain ? Move to Buenos Aires, and I will be glad to introduce you to 30%
unemployment - this while the White House keeps telling the Argentine
government that the most important thing is, lest not forget, Free Trade.

I am not an H1, before you wonder, and I lived both in South America, Europe
and the US for extensive periods of time, I have the passports of two
countries in the areas mentioned, and perhaps because I am so cosmopolitan,
I am revolted by these outbursts of xenofobia of "H1B's *stealing* jobs from
veterans" or "ya gotta employ here" bull. This is the country that felt it
perfectly appropriate to send a fleet of dreadnaughts into the bay of Tokio
with the message, "you trade with us or we shoot" in the name of "Free
Trade" - something that is otrageous enough without the notion that, all of
a sudden, it is OK to be protectionistic when it is American jobs that are
lost.


this crap makes me very irritable AND it is *totally* off topic, so why dont
we give it a rest ?

-F