Surviving Capitalism (Not) : American Workers ‘Roadkill’ for Lobbyists, Immigration Lawyers

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, February 8, 2015

American Workers ‘Roadkill’ for Lobbyists, Immigration Lawyers

Click here to access article by Wolf Richter from Wolf Street.

Referring to the H-1B Program which is often portrayed to the gullible public as protecting American workers from losing their job to foreign workers, Richter writes about a provision of the act which actually makes this legal:

This provision makes it perfectly legal to replace an American at will by an H-1B worker if that worker is paid more than $60,000 or has a master’s degree. You hire a worker with a notorious “Master’s in Computer Applications” from an Indian diploma mill, and you can replace an American. Or, you pay more than $60,000 (the average programmer wage in LA is over $90,000) and you can do the same.

And thus, American workers remain roadkill for lobbyists and immigration lawyers.

Meanwhile, corporations such as Southern California Edison are taking advantage by replacing American workers.