From kragen@dnaco.net Thu Sep 24 22:51:21 1998 Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 22:51:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Kragen X-Sender: kragen@pike To: systalk@ml.org Subject: Re: [ST] Wanna work in US ? (if your coming from another place..) In-Reply-To: <98092502474904.01705@lilypad> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Keywords: X-UID: 2143 Status: O X-Status: On Fri, 25 Sep 1998, Pollywog wrote: > On Thu, 25 Sep 2003, Etienne Demers-Martel wrote: > >White House backs more foreign visas > > This would be a good thing? Wouldn't it be better to train > people who already live here? It's a good thing for the firms here in the US that don't have to pay as much for technical workers. It's probably a good thing for the people who come to work here -- after all, they are making more money there than in Bangalore, or even than in France. It's probably not a good thing for the technical workers in the US, because they won't get paid as much; it's probably not a good thing for democracy in the US, because it's increasing the fraction of the population that's not allowed to vote; it's probably not a good thing for the countries that people are coming here from, because they'll lose their technical people. For the world as a whole, freer labor markets will make local regulation of labor (for example, requiring benefits, like France's required five-week vacation -- they still have that?) much more difficult. I think this may be a bad thing. It's probably not a good thing for the folks here that *almost* have enough skills to get the jobs that are opening up, because they'll remain in their current positions while people who already have the skills companies need will fill the positions. All in all, though, it will make the job market more meritocratic -- you'll get a job based more on what you can do and how little you're willing to do it for, and less based on where you happen to live. I think that this is a good thing, in the long run. Getting there is gonna hurt. (And it's not just this one law that's moving us in that direction. It's many things.) Kragen -- Kragen Sitaker The sages do not believe that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself. -- Wang Yang-Ming