Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I'm a big fan of the free market.
This is what prompts people to save toys from my childhood in the original packaging, wrapped in acid-free, museum-quality acrylic until I "Buy it Now" for less than the retail cost from 1982.
There is an unfortunate darker side. In this YouTube video, there is an address to a group of hiring managers about how to get around the legislation that protects American I.T. workers.
In my favorite part, the attorney speaking talks about the federal requirement to hire qualified U.S. citizens first by saying, "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker and that, in a sense, sounds funny, but it's what we are trying to do here."
Now, I suppose there are several ways this could be taken. Except that there aren't.
This is an organized attempt to hire (through manipulation of the law) cheaper workers from overseas at the clear cost of jobs for American citizens.
And it depresses me a great deal. People work very hard over a number of years to gain the qualifications they have, and now someone is trying to undercut them to save a few dollars.

On a side note, this is the second time I've written this post. The first time Blogger ate it through an authentication error. Maybe I should find an off-shore subcontractor to write something funny about that.

1 comment:

tess said...

Stuff like this pisses me off, especially since I've been the victim of this kind of practice...

My department hasn't hired an american as an employee in a good year or two -- and this is a govt funded organization! -- despite the fact that there are plenty of us not requiring work visa's that are more than qualified to do the job. But when we submit our resume's, what's the response? Oh I'm sorry, you don't have the experience we're looking for.

Bleh. Idjits.