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We live in a second with unprecedented revenue and wealth inequality. At a time when the richest individuals in our nation have by no means had it so good, 60% of Individuals reside paycheck to paycheck and inflation-adjusted revenue for the common American employee has been stagnant for 50 years. Why is that?
How did it occur that the three richest males in America personal extra wealth than the underside half of our society whereas so a lot of our individuals battle to afford the high cost of rent, groceries and different fundamental requirements of life?
It is time to take a tough take a look at a few of the financial insurance policies which have made the wealthy a lot richer whereas many Individuals proceed to fall additional and additional behind.
BERNIE SANDERS HITS OUT AT H-1B VISA PROGRAM FOR REPLACING AMERICAN JOBS WITH ‘INDENTURED SERVANTS’
Thirty years in the past, the leaders of company America, the political institution in each main events and the editorial boards of influential newspapers instructed us to not fear in regards to the lack of blue-collar manufacturing jobs that might come on account of unfettered free trade agreements like NAFTA and Everlasting Regular Commerce Relations with China (PNTR). They promised that these misplaced jobs could be greater than offset by the numerous good-paying, white-collar data know-how jobs that might be created in the USA. I by no means believed that and voted in opposition to these agreements.
Sadly, I, and the numerous others who opposed these commerce offers, have been confirmed right. NAFTA and PNTR price us hundreds of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs as massive companies shut down 1000’s of factories in America and fled to China, Mexico, and different low-wage nations searching for low cost labor.
And what about all the nice high-tech jobs that might be created? Properly, that did not fairly occur both. Because of the H-1B visitor employee program, main companies at the moment are importing tons of of 1000’s of low-paid visitor staff from overseas to fill the white-collar technology jobs which can be out there. In different phrases, “Heads billionaires win. Tails American staff lose.”
In current weeks, the H-1B program has sparked intense debate. Billionaires like Elon Musk declare it’s essential to our economic system, arguing that the USA faces a scarcity of extremely expert engineers and know-how professionals. They’re lifeless fallacious.
The first function of H-1B and different visitor employee applications is to not make use of the “finest and the brightest,” however as an alternative to interchange American staff with lower-paid staff from overseas who typically stay as indentured servants. The cheaper it’s to rent visitor staff, the more cash the multi-billionaire house owners of enormous companies make.
SEN BERNIE SANDERS: TWO AMERICAS, THE PEOPLE VS. THE BILLIONAIRES
Not solely is that this program disastrous for American staff, it may be very dangerous to visitor staff as nicely, who are sometimes locked into lower-paying jobs and might have their visas taken away from them by their company bosses in the event that they complain about harmful, unfair or unlawful working situations.
Between 2022 and 2023, the highest corporations utilizing the H-1B program laid off 85,000 American staff, whereas concurrently bringing in over 34,000 visitor staff from overseas. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Individuals with superior levels in STEM fields are unable to search out work of their areas of experience.
If there may be really a serious scarcity of expert tech staff on this nation, why did Tesla lay-off over 7,500 American staff final 12 months – together with many software program builders and engineers at its manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas – whereas making use of to rent 1000’s of H-1B visitor staff?
If these jobs are solely going to “the very best and brightest,” why has Tesla employed H-1B visitor staff as associate accountants for as little as $58,000, associate mechanical engineers for as little as $70,000 a 12 months, and associate material planners for as little as $80,000 a 12 months? These don’t sound like extremely specialised jobs which can be for the highest 0.1 p.c, as Musk claimed final month. Musk has failed to deal with issues about Tesla’s use of H-1B visas for its staff.
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If this program is de facto presupposed to be about importing staff with extremely superior levels in science and know-how, why are H-1B visitor staff being employed as lawyers, dog trainers, massage therapists, cooks, and English teachers? Can we actually not discover English lecturers in America? Do we actually imagine that we face a dire scarcity of legal professionals in our nation?
Let’s be clear. To the extent that there might be labor shortages in our nation in some extremely specialised areas that must be stuffed by staff from overseas by the H-1B program, we have to guarantee that this program is used as a short-term repair.
Lengthy-term, if the USA goes to achieve a highly competitive global economy, we should have the best-educated workforce on the earth.
And a method to assist make that occur is to considerably improve the visitor employee charges massive companies pay to fund scholarships, apprenticeships, and job coaching alternatives for American staff. That is one thing that I’ve advocated from my first days as a U.S. senator.
Additional, we should additionally considerably elevate the minimal wage for visitor staff, give them the liberty to simply swap jobs and require companies to aggressively recruit American staff first earlier than they will rent staff from abroad. The widespread company abuse of the H-1B program should be ended.
Multi-billionaire oligarchs in Huge Tech shouldn’t be allowed to rent visitor staff to fill entry-level and mid-level Data Know-how jobs. These jobs needs to be going to American staff who’ve the Constitutional right to kind a union and collectively cut price for higher wages, advantages and dealing situations.
It mustn’t ever be cheaper for a company to rent a visitor employee from abroad than an American employee.
Mr. Musk, Mr. Ramaswamy, and others have argued that we want a extremely expert and well-educated workforce. They’re proper. However the reply, nevertheless, will not be to usher in low cost labor from overseas.
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The reply is to rent certified American staff first and to make sure that we now have an schooling system that produces the type of workforce that our nation wants for the roles of the longer term. And that’s not simply engineering. We’re in determined want of extra docs, nurses, dentists, lecturers, electricians, plumbers, and a bunch of different professions.
Backside line: We’d like an economic system that works for all, not simply the few. And a method we do that’s to result in main reforms within the H-1B program and different fatally flawed visitor employee applications.
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