From: Chris Rasch (crasch@openknowledge.org)
Date: Sun Mar 25 2001 - 12:19:54 MST
Randy Smith wrote:
> And just as any owner in a business should be able to enjoy the
> benefits of that business, and not have to share them, so should you
> (excepting taxes). If you and several other people own a profitable
> business, in a good location, I, as a non-owner, do not have the right
> to set up my own business without your permission.
> They put out messages that are intended to make people behave in a way
> that is good for the pocketbooks of those people with relatively MORE
> money. One of the desired behaviors is to not speak against
> immigration. They have effectively demonized those who want to speak
> out about that pink elephant sitting in the corner. AS a consequence,
> you, Spudboy, now are afraid to speak against immigration even though
> your rational mind tells you that immigration may be bad for your
> wallet....
Right on, Randy! And it's not just foreigners you all should be worried
about.
For too long, employer's in high-wage states like California have
imported cheap IT labor,
from nearby low-wage states like Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, and
New Mexico. These cheap non-California laborers are willing to work
longer for less money, thereby driving down wages for all Californian
programmers.
Older programmers are hardest hit--these out-of-state
programmers have often already learned the most up to date, useful
programming
skills, either in their in state universities, or on their own. As a
result, greedy employers often refuse to pay to retrain older
programmers, or pay them higher salaries.
Some of these out-of-state
nationals are so happy to be off the dairy farm, that they're willing
to work under sweat shop conditions in "cubicle farms." No cappucino
machines, no free sodas--it's completely unacceptable.
We should set up mini-INS's in each state, and
require all out-of-state nationals who want to work in high-wage states
like California to
apply for new visa, which I propose to call a C1-B. Then we must set
quotas for each state. We
might allow say, 1000 Idaho programmers each year to enter California to
work. Of course, they can only work for companies that sponsor them,
and when their employment ends, we must truck them back to Idaho (or
whereever).
The citizens of California are all effectively shareholder's in the
state of California. California citizens have got to protect
California programmer's jobs, keep their salaries high, and protect
their standard of living. It's insane to allow open borders between
California and these low-wage states.
Those who speak out against open intra-state borders have too often been
demonized as economic rubes. We're not trying to establish cartels for
ourselves to protect our high salaries at the expense of everyone
else--we're simply responsible shareholders who demand that our
competitors get our permission before they can set up shop.
It's time to stop being afraid to say that the pink elephant of open
borders may be bad for your wallet.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:06:40 MST