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December 04, 2007

Bleak Future for American Tech Workers

Those who have been following the issue of off-shoring American jobs will take interest in the latest editorial by Paul Craig Roberts, entitled, “The Lies at the End or the American Dream.” According to Roberts, a concerted effort is underway to skirt US law governing work visas so that corporations can save money by hiring workers from outside the country. As part of this effort, Congress is being misled into believing the need for outsiders is a result of a lack of skilled workers within the U.S. when in reality Americans who are fully skilled are being passed over because they would cost more than the companies want to pay them. (Sounds very similar to what is going on at the bottom of the employment chain, as well – we have to virtually invite illegal immigrants to pick our crops because Americans won’t do it, they say, when in reality we would if we were paid properly for the work.)

Anyway, Roberts discusses a marketing video put out by a law firm, Cohen & Grigsby, in which the firm lays out its techniques for circumventing the law.

The video demonstrated the law firm's techniques for getting around US law governing work visas in order to enable corporate clients to replace their American employees with foreigners who work for less. The law firm's marketing manager, Lawrence Lebowitz, is upfront with interested clients: "our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested US worker."

If an American somehow survives the weeding out process, "have the manager of that specific position step in and go through the whole process to find a legal basis to disqualify them for this position--in most cases there doesn't seem to be a problem."
No problem for the employer he means, only for the expensively educated American university graduate who is displaced by a foreigner imported on a work visa justified by a nonexistent shortage of trained and qualified Americans.

The Roberts piece, which might more aptly be entitled, "The Lies Leading to the End of the American Dream," is deeply disturbing and to my mind paints a picture of a corporate elite who literally view workers as pieces of machinery on which they are seeking to get the best deal instead of fellow-citizens of the same country. The lack of appreciation for the benefits they have reaped from our society is stunning.

As the parent of a bright boy who hopes to be an engineer someday, I am very troubled by the advice of those watching the evolving situation: “American students considering majors in science and engineering [should] first investigate the career prospects of recent graduates.”

Integrity is so lacking in America that the shortage myth serves the interests of universities, funding agencies, employers, and immigration attorneys at the expense of American students who naively pursue professions in which their prospects are dim. Initially it was blue-collar factory workers who were abandoned by US corporations and politicians. Now it is white-collar employees and Americans trained in science and technology. Princeton University economist Alan Blinder estimates that there are 30 to 40 million American high end service jobs that ultimately face offshoring.

As I predict, and as BLS payroll jobs data indicate, in 20 years the US will have a third world work force engaged in domestic nontradable services.

Not a particularly bright future, is it?

Posted by Becky at December 4, 2007 11:47 AM