Why the Muskrat is wrong about opening America to skilled workers from abroad I refused to bow to industry pressure 30 years ago, and my reasons are as legitimate now as they were then. Robert Reich Dec 28, 2024 Allowing many more skilled workers into the United States reduces any incentives on American business to invest in the American workforce. Why do so when they can get talent from abroad? Allowing many more skilled workers into the U.S. also reduces the bargaining power of skilled workers already in America — and thereby reduces any incentive operating on other Americans to gain the skills for such jobs. And opening America to skilled workers also reduces the incentive on foreign nations to educate and nurture their own skilled workforces. Why should they, when their own skilled workers can easily migrate to America? The major beneficiaries in the U.S. of opening the nation to skilled workers from abroad are CEOs and venture capitalists like Musk and Sachs, whose profits and wealth would be even higher if they could siphon off cheaper skilled workers from abroad.
This is my first letter to Republican Rep Rob Bresnahan, newly sworn in representative in Congress for the 8th District of Pennsylvania.
I’m opposed to the H1b visa system and the obvious exploitation of the program and the workers in the program, and the workers displaced by the apparently allowed illegitimate use of this guest worker program. Many of us have heard decades of accounts from people we know who had to train their H1b replacements — who were not more skilled than the people they were replacing, they were just willing to work for less just to stay in the U.S. with a sort of Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads that’s leveraged by managers for their bottom lines as well as their whims. We all know what this is about and the many ways it’s corrupt. In recent weeks many people have criticized the H1B visas including such usually politically opposed people such as former Trump administration White House Chief Strategist Republican Steve Bannon and former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Democrat Robert Reich. As such this would seem like an easy bipartisan win for Americans. H1B visa reform would be widely popular for its own sake, and should be the prioritized immigration issue.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.