Selling Off US Jobs to the Lowest Bidder

Dear Sirs and Madams

Not that I believe for an instant that it will be you reading this missive as I am certain it will never reach you. Nevertheless, I do believe that you, who are paid by me and others like me are sadly misguided regarding the state of employment today, especially in IT and high-tech industry segments of the market. I believe that you have allowed yourselves to be led down a path by greed, which will ultimately create a third world nation of what was once the greatest nation in the world.

I work in the IT field. I am not ignorant of the issues and am not fooled by the pandering of the politicians and political speak of today. Believe me there are tens of thousands of H1B Visa holders, primarily from India, living and working in the US today who perform work that has nothing to do with their superior expertise or education. They hold jobs that countless unemployed or under-employed Americans could be performing but are not. They hold them because it is cheaper to import their labor. Do not be fooled by the wealthy and greedy CEO's who come to you with their hands out asking for greater leeway in their practices, they are deceptive in their statements and their purpose for being before you.

Our industry today has been taken over by the Indian based consulting firms, who by the way are the receipients of the greatest number of H1B visas each year, yes they want to hire me too so that I can be the American face to their American clients. However, for each American hired there are 10 H1B holders filling positions, everthing from technical consultant, to receptionist. Do I need to name these firms for you? I am able to do so if you need this assistance. Thankfully, I have been around the industry for long enough that I understand the game and how they will treat me once I am their employee; I choose not to lend them my American face.

Don't talk to me about the special needs of the US economy for unique skills that are not readily available right here within our own workforce. That simply isn't the real truth. The real truth is that organizations are using the H1B program to bring "cheap" labor from countries such as the Philippines, India, China, and now Eastern Europe as well. They are paying them 1/3 of the amount they pay US workers for the same non-specialized and specialized work and thus depressing entire markets. If the US worker with the same skills wants to remain competitive they must lower their demands and expectations to stay employed. Add to this that in many cases the H1B worker does not participate in benefit programs common to the US worker the company coffers are further engorged with savings and your friend the CEO gets larger and larger bonuses for the profits he takes at the expense of the US economy and from the pockets of the US worker.

These companies trade H1B workers for a premium, by the way. The worker is nearly indentured upon their initial arrival, however, once they get here they figure it out fairly quickly and they start to build their skills and sell themselves to the next highest bidder. Soon they make their way through the market raising their value and extending their stay. Again, it is not because they have unique skills rather it is because the US employer has failed to invest in the US employee and now what is left is a plethora of extended stay H1B'rs who have repeatedly been invested in at the expense of the American employee. Now they have all the training, all the education, all the "specialized" skills, the latest technologies and are indeed in a better position more competitive and can charge even higher rates than the left behind US worker.

This is your fault and the fault of the greedy CEO who convinced you that the off-shore H1B worker was a necessary component of the US economy because we, the US worker was then and is now incompetent, out-of-touch, out-of-date, and useless.

The American worker of today is being left behind and ignored in favor of what is most expedient and cheapest. I am not saying that good business and profitable bottom lines are inappropriate; we should always be seeking both. However, profit should not be taken at the cost of the overall health of the economy. The current model of behavior within the business community and by extension the government shows a lack of foresight that the next several generations will pay for. Short-term profit at the expense of long-term expansion, economic stability, an educated population, and a productive and competitive community will sink our once great country into land of moochers and beggars at the table of global economic prosperity and industry.

I love this country but I am ashamed today that we have sunk this low. We have allowed ourselves to be led down a path that ignores the greatness of our people and the ability of our people to rise to any challenge. We have instead allowed the few to say to us that we are no longer great, no longer capable, and no longer able or educated enough to support our great land.

I am ashamed that we have allowed small minds to convince us that we no longer have the hearts, minds, or intellect to move the engine of our needs into the future. You, our elected officials, have allowed the greed of the few to convince you that we the American people are too stupid, too ignorant, and too under-educated to support the needs of this country. You, our elected officials, have allowed 2% of the wealthy CEO's of this country to sit before you and say to you that the unemployed are unemployed because they have no value or merit and are no longer employable due to their lack of skills that instead we need greater expansion of the H1B program rather than an expansion of retraining and retrenching of our own American workers. You have allowed these greedy CEO's, these riders on the backs of the American worker to convince you that the American worker has no value you have bought what they are selling and have in turn said to America and its people you are second rate and second class.

I am ashamed of you today. Ashamed that you would allow yourselves to be fooled by this idiocy. Ashamed that you do not show the same faith in the American people that they have shown in you by electing you. Ashamed that our once great nation is being left behind in technology, science, math, industry, production. Ashamed that you believe that pandering to that small percentage of the wealthy is the job you have elected for yourself as the rest of your constituency battle to keep their homes, educate their children, and feed their families. Ashamed that you don't see behind the words of profit taking and personal gain to what is good for the one is not necessarily good for the nation. Ashamed that you continue down this path of ultimate destruction for our nation and the individuals that have fought and died for it all for the sake of your ego and the wealth of the few. Ashamed that you have failed in your duty to this country. Ashamed that we the people have failed in our duty to recognize your great failure for what it truly is and not demanded an accounting from you.

I am also saddened because it seems that by the time we all wake up it will be too late to turn the tide of our demise. We the people no longer matter except as sound bites in stump speeches. We are nothing but a vote during an election year after that we sink back to obscurity with no value to you unless we put money in your pocket in one way or another. We are tick marks in statistical reports and polls without true voices. We pay our taxes or go to jail. We pay our mortgage or lose our homes, many of us are doing this now. Most of us make less money than we did 10 years ago, but if we want to stay employed we accept this to stay competitive in a market flooded with cheaper H1B Visa holders.

Many of us can't afford the gas to get to work any more even with gas prices somewhat reduced. Many of us have lost our retirement funds in this latest fiscal fiascal or simply trying to stay afloat while we enjoy extended and repeated unemployment. Our homes, our greatest asset, have been devalued in a market that is dropping daily. Many of us will be unemployed and unemployable at 50-years old due to rampant ageism. Many of us don't have health care. Many of our children will never be able to afford College educations. The list goes on with no end in sight as the chasm between the haves and the have not's widens almost daily.

The American Dream is a thing of the past and our elected officials are so out of touch with the reality of the American people they don't get the truth of our lives. No longer is an income of $50,000 per year middle class, in most states this will barely cover normal expenses. No longer will $100,000 provide a luxury lifestyle in most states of the union, in fact at this income level most families still struggle if they are in the Western, Eastern, or some of the Mid-West states.

I ask you, each of you. Have you ever sat down and talked to the people you represent? Do you have people on your staff who actually know what the real world is like? I don't think you do. Boy, are you missing out on a great deal of knowledge by never talking to us.

Well that was my rant. I apologize for the length of my tirade but given that I know that none of you will never actually read it or respond to it, well I just felt the need to express myself. I wish someone would hear me, hear us before it is too late and we are indeed a second rate and second class citizen of the world.