losttech

In 1989 the National Science Foundation warned that the H-1B visa program to bring in low wage workers to replace US programmers and engineers would distort the market, leading US students to abandon science and technology. In 1995 students were told IT was goo job. By 2004 the San Jose Mercury News reported that 50% of U.S. tech workers have been displaced from the profession by workers getting a green card in lieu of average wages. No inventor works alone, many in a community contribute parts to every invention. Increasingly US students are being denied access to the IT community as the USA loses leadership in technology.

Who Lost Tech?

1989 H-1B legislation says that firms with less than 15% of their total workforce are H-1B visa holders, are not H-1B dependent,and need not offer engineering jobs to US citizens. Note that that in more than 95% of software firms, engineers do not make up 15% of workers (most are in sales, or general office support). Workers employed by contractors are not counted so 100% of engineering labor can be H-1B visa holders, and the firm be, by rule, be H-1B independent.

In 2000 a member of Congress showed how legislation is bought. "This [H-1B expansion legislation] is not a popular bill with the public. It's popular with the CEOs...This is a very important issue for the high-tech executives who give the money"--Rep. Tom Davis, was then Chair of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. His constituents were 7:1 against H-1B.

2008 "...a Ph.D. in computer science is probably a financial loser in both the short and long terms, says [Cisco Systems Vice President for Research] Douglas Comer" -- Science Careers.

Should your son or daughter study engineering? "The half life of an engineer, hardware or software, is only a few years" -- former Intel CEO/Chairman Craig Barrett

2008 candidate Barack Obama raises $7.8 million in one night from CEOs of tech firms wanting more H-1B visas to cut labor cost, they claimed a shortage of workers.

"It is extraordinarily unlikely for a severe shortage to happen in a way that doesn't result in very large wage increases" -- Kirk Doran, University of Notre Dame economist, commenting on the minuscule rate at which software developer wages are rising.

2009 Greenspan says legal and illegal immigration cut middle class wages, a “good” thing.

February 2013, "We thus see that no best and brightest trend was found for the former foreign students in either computer science or electrical engineering," Matloff writes in his report. "On the contrary, in the CS case the former foreign students appear to be somewhat less talented on average, as indicated by their lower wages, than the Americans."

2013 “We [in tech] control massive distribution channels, both as companies and individuals...We have individuals with a lot of money. If deployed properly this can have huge influence in the current campaign finance environment" -- Joe Green, leader of Mark Zuckerberg's new immigration lobbying group that wants more immigrant labor, while Fannie Mae and Homeland Security have engineering that is close to 100% H-1B and H-1B graduates, hiring almost no one born n the USA.

April 2013 Congress writes new immigration bill with help of an immigration law firm that advised employers on how to NOT hire US citizens, a bill that provides more green cards so Facebook and avoid becoming H-1B dependent and thus be forced to offer jobs to US citizens.

Congress lost tech, and in the search for campaign funds, put the USA at risk.