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We live in a second with unprecedented revenue and wealth inequality. At a time when the richest folks in our nation have by no means had it so good, 60% of People 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 folks wrestle to afford the high cost of rent, groceries and different fundamental requirements of life?
It is time to take a tough have a look at among the financial insurance policies which have made the wealthy a lot richer whereas many People 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 informed us to not fear concerning the lack of blue-collar manufacturing jobs that will come because of unfettered free trade agreements like NAFTA and Everlasting Regular Commerce Relations with China (PNTR). They promised that these misplaced jobs can be greater than offset by the various good-paying, white-collar data expertise jobs that will be created in the USA. I by no means believed that and voted towards these agreements.
Sadly, I, and the various others who opposed these commerce offers, have been confirmed right. NAFTA and PNTR value us tens of millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs as giant companies shut down hundreds of factories in America and fled to China, Mexico, and different low-wage international locations in the hunt for low-cost labor.
And what about all the nice high-tech jobs that will be created? Nicely, that did not fairly occur both. On account of the H-1B visitor employee program, main companies at the moment are importing tons of of hundreds of low-paid visitor employees from overseas to fill the white-collar technology jobs which can be obtainable. In different phrases, “Heads billionaires win. Tails American employees lose.”
In current weeks, the H-1B program has sparked intense debate. Billionaires like Elon Musk declare it’s essential to our financial system, arguing that the USA faces a scarcity of extremely expert engineers and expertise professionals. They’re lifeless improper.
The first objective of H-1B and different visitor employee packages is to not make use of the “finest and the brightest,” however as an alternative to interchange American employees with lower-paid employees from overseas who usually reside as indentured servants. The cheaper it’s to rent visitor employees, the more cash the multi-billionaire homeowners of enormous companies make.
SEN BERNIE SANDERS: TWO AMERICAS, THE PEOPLE VS. THE BILLIONAIRES
Not solely is that this program disastrous for American employees, it may be very dangerous to visitor employees as properly, who are sometimes locked into lower-paying jobs and may have their visas taken away from them by their company bosses in the event that they complain about harmful, unfair or unlawful working circumstances.
Between 2022 and 2023, the highest firms utilizing the H-1B program laid off 85,000 American employees, whereas concurrently bringing in over 34,000 visitor employees from overseas. In the meantime, tens of millions of People with superior levels in STEM fields are unable to seek out work of their areas of experience.
If there’s really a significant scarcity of expert tech employees on this nation, why did Tesla lay-off over 7,500 American employees final 12 months – together with many software program builders and engineers at its manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas – whereas making use of to rent hundreds of H-1B visitor employees?
If these jobs are solely going to “the perfect and brightest,” why has Tesla employed H-1B visitor employees 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 %, as Musk claimed final month. Musk has failed to handle issues about Tesla’s use of H-1B visas for its staff.
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If this program is admittedly purported to be about importing employees with extremely superior levels in science and expertise, why are H-1B visitor employees 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 attorneys 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 planet.
And a technique to assist make that occur is to considerably improve the visitor employee charges giant companies pay to fund scholarships, apprenticeships, and job coaching alternatives for American employees. 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 employees, give them the liberty to simply change jobs and require companies to aggressively recruit American employees first earlier than they will rent employees from abroad. The widespread company abuse of the H-1B program should be ended.
Multi-billionaire oligarchs in Massive Tech shouldn’t be allowed to rent visitor employees to fill entry-level and mid-level Info Know-how jobs. These jobs must be going to American employees who’ve the Constitutional right to kind a union and collectively cut price for higher wages, advantages and dealing circumstances.
It must not 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, nonetheless, is just not to herald low-cost labor from overseas.
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The reply is to rent certified American employees first and to make sure that we have now an schooling system that produces the sort 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 medical doctors, nurses, dentists, lecturers, electricians, plumbers, and a number of different professions.
Backside line: We want an financial system that works for all, not simply the few. And a technique we do that’s to result in main reforms within the H-1B program and different fatally flawed visitor employee packages.
