<p>Can he spell H Y P O C R I T E ??? (Well, probably not.)</p>
<p>My husband’s company (a Fortune 100 that has laid of tens of thousands of workers in recent years for cost cutting – including hordes of high tech workers) they are bringing in H1B workers at a clip. They start them at $17,000 a year - compared to $60,000+ for Americans.</p>
<p>When are people going to figure out that this bunch only cares about the CEOs of the country? (Who, of course, got a $3 million raise last year.)</p>
<p>The student loan “cut” mainly hits the banks making the loans. Students now get a fixed rate rather than variable–not a bad deal at around 6.8% I think, and they can actually get more $$ if they need it under the best plan. A lot of this is a red herring being put out by the banks who are losing a nice fat spread.</p>
<p>it’s kind of naive to protect “american” jobs if americans aren’t willing to earn them… global competition necessitates being as efficient as possible, and the companies will go where the talent is. complaining and raising silly barriers isn’t going to solve the problem; going to college and constantly adapting to change is what people need to do. :-)</p>
<p>Agree the best way to fill those jobs is by helping more citizens to develop the necessary skills, not ease visa restrictions. There are no shortage of qualified American IT workers that are losing jobs purely due to $$$ based outsourcing.</p>
<p>How old are you asd…cause if you are in your forties with a family and a kid in college, suddenly having to adapt is a bit difficult</p>
<p>I would think that this country would pride itself on getting as many kids as possible a college education, as we are supposed to be the best country in the world</p>
<p>“it’s kind of naive to protect “american” jobs if americans aren’t willing to earn them… global competition necessitates being as efficient as possible, and the companies will go where the talent is.”</p>
<p>Maybe some of the U.S. corporations could outsource some of the CEO’s - it would probably save enough money to make them more efficient and competitive.</p>
<p>I know so many people who have been doing a perfectly fine job, in a highly skilled & educated tech workforce, who find that their division/project/group is now sent overseas. The bonus is, they get to train the workers who will be taking their place!</p>
<p>I agree that for someone who has grown up in the past, when job stability was guaranteed and you just worked at one company 9-5 every day until you’re 65 and then you retired with a pension, it’s really hard to adapt to the sudden changes that have grown recently. but people who are growing up now are aware of these changes and they can’t avoid the global economy - they have to be able and willing to adapt and continually develop their skills.</p>
<p>(an overly protective government isn’t necessarily the solution. an example is the economic stagnation in europe.)</p>
<p>heh and regarding manager compensation and the agency problem in general, an interesting book to read is Bogle’s Battle for the Soul of Capitalism.</p>
<p>pretty much the employees who are retraining other workers for jobs that will be outsourced to India or Mexico, are currently in their 50s.
If they are lucky their company will find them another position, but most often I have seen them make a lateral or downward move to another company, with fewer benefits etc. If they are lucky. Some, are having to work in areas, little connected with prior job, engineers from General Electric working at Home Depot for example, not uncommon.
It doesn’t have a lot to do with not being able to adapt their skills, it has to do with the cost of living in New Delhi, being cheaper than Redmond.</p>
<p>“pretty much the employees who are retraining other workers for jobs that will be outsourced to India or Mexico, are currently in their 50s.”</p>
<p>Not so in IT. Age is not as much a factor as skill set. Seen it happen to folks in their twenties.</p>
<p>It is rarer and rarer that the company is looking to retrain and/or reposition the exisiting worker. The key is to get their costs off the books.</p>
<p>Not really. Surely age does not equal skill level but older employees are in more senior positions and are typically drawing higher salaries. They are also harder to retrain. So from a cost perspective, they are often the first to be removed. This is unfortunate but that is how things are : people who have committed their whole lives to the company (and who are still working hard) are being removed due to cost cutting measures.</p>
<p>^I’m so glad I’m not the only one who does this! Sometimes I start looking for something, I get hooked in, I forget the date on it and respond to the old post.</p>
<p>Americans feel it is perfectly OK for to take their own skills overseas to seek employment. Everything from English teaching to fat ex-pat package type jobs. Think of all the English graduate teachers in China who are being pushed aside by more qualified workers.</p>