Re: Bill Gates doesn't want Americans working for him

[Christopher Browne]

Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw when "Yibbels" <yibbels@yahoo.com> would 
write:
> Despite the fact that Microsoft receives $1 billion per year in
> undeserved tax breaks, apparently big Republican donor Bill Gates
> doesn't feel there's any reason he should employ actual Americans
> workers.  As the following news story explains, Bill Gates wants to
> do away with all limits on H1B visas, which are the primary visa
> used in the high tech industry. This would leads to a jump in the
> unemployment rate, destroy careers, and would lead to a rush to
> import cheap workers which would certainly put national security at
> greater risk.

If they are brought to the United States, then US law applies to their
actions.

If, instead, Microsoft were to move development to centres in India,
China, and Russia, then this would presumably have even more dramatic
negative effects on the US economy, since not only would this have all
the effects of importing H1B workers that you suggest, it would add to
them the considerations that:

 - Workers in these foreign places don't spend money on US
   services; they don't pay rent in the US, they don't buy American
   cheese; they don't buy American Big Macs; they don't buy American
   cars.

   As a result, instead of merely destroying the careers of all "high
   tech" workers, this would lead to wholesale destruction of the
   careers of workers in all sectors including auto assembly, handing
   out cheese samples at Sam's Club, as well as those specializing in
   assembling Big Macs(tm).

 - Workers in these foreign places are working in foreign
   jurisdictions to which US law does not apply.  This would 
   presumably enhance the "national security risk."

Alternatively, since the use of Microsoft software has historically
led to security risks all by itself, things that detract from the
security of their software might be hoped to have the salutory effect
of maybe causing people to notice the problems rather than continuing
to ignore them...

When the cost of computer hardware and Internet access drops to the
point where people in the Third World can start to afford it, this
eliminates the implicit "protectionism" that resulted from the fact
that it used to be that only the "rich" in the West could afford to
have access to computers.

The clear "fix" would be to increase the capital cost of owning a
computer development environment.
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