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Southern California Edison (SCE) was known for good pay and benefits before it began laying off IT workers and replacing them with H-1B visa holders. Today, SCE is the latest Exhibit A in Congress of a company whose IT workers are displaced through the use of the H-1B visa.
"They are bringing in people with a couple of years' experience to replace us and then we have to train them," said one longtime IT worker. "It's demoralizing and in a way I kind of felt betrayed by the company. Not one of these jobs being filled by India was a job that an Edison employee wasn't already performing," he said.
SCE, Southern California's largest utility, has confirmed the layoffs and the hiring of Infosys, based in Bangalore, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Mumbai. They are two of the largest users of H-1B visas.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hoochiecoochieman on Sunday February 15 2015, @01:04PM
Well, since it's a race to the bottom, we could always throw away all those things that make us "less competitive" here in the developed world.
We could start shitting in rivers, drinking water full of heavy metals and bacteria, dying from pretty preventable and treatable diseases and living on the right lane of roads with a piece of cardboard as a mattress. Just imagine how much money we would save. Anyone could live like this on a dollar a day.
(Score: 1) by Fauxlosopher on Sunday February 15 2015, @01:27PM
That race to the bottom is still going on in the USA, in regards to its history of stonewalling development of safe, inexpensive, and abundant zero-emission power generation [soylentnews.org] in favor of radiation-laden smoke clouds belching forth from coal-burning plants. It wasn't that long ago when that which you speak of was being done in the open within the USA as well, ala the Love Canal and soot-covered industrial cities. It may well be going on enmasse to this day in the form of industrial waste used to fluoridate most munincipal water supplies.
However, in a world where special pals of government do not get to be exempted from law, you are only allowed to mess up your own property (be it your land, your body, etc.). If you pollute someone else's property, you are responsible for restitution and cleanup. This also means that governments can't favor their special interests by forcing private companies to obey laws that financially favor cronies involved in banking and finance, and thus effectively forcing businesses and their employees to deal with "benefits" that both may find of dubious value (such as 401k plans and crazy government-designed prepaid healthcare plans disguised as insurance).
People form societies and governments to improve their quality of life over that of a state of nature. Even in a state of nature, one human has no justified authority to destroy another's property, be it with a fist to the nose or a load of toxic waste on the lawn.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 15 2015, @04:30PM
Well, since it's a race to the bottom, we could always throw away all those things that make us "less competitive" here in the developed world.
It's worth noting that's what's happening in the US even if the choice isn't explicitly made.
We could start shitting in rivers, drinking water full of heavy metals and bacteria, dying from pretty preventable and treatable diseases and living on the right lane of roads with a piece of cardboard as a mattress.
What policies do you advocate that will keep this from happening in 50 years?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Sunday February 15 2015, @05:47PM
Reducing/eliminating H1Bs and similar artificial wage-reduction strategies, and implementing "human rights" tariffs on imported goods made by workers in conditions we would consider unacceptable here in the US might be a start. Yes, your TV, phone, shoes, etc,etc,etc would become much more expensive, but it would make domestic production viable, and keep that money circulating and producing wealth here rather than overseas.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 15 2015, @06:51PM
Reducing/eliminating H1Bs and similar artificial wage-reduction strategies, and implementing "human rights" tariffs on imported goods made by workers in conditions we would consider unacceptable here in the US might be a start. Yes, your TV, phone, shoes, etc,etc,etc would become much more expensive, but it would make domestic production viable, and keep that money circulating and producing wealth here rather than overseas.
Meanwhile the rest of the world passes you by. Isolationism only works if you can keep ahead of everyone else that you wall off from. For example, cutting the world off from Cuba would work because Cuba will never be able to outpace the rest of the world. Cutting the US off from the rest of the world wouldn't work because the rest of the world is already moving faster than the US can keep up and it's about 20-25 times bigger too. My view is that you'll need to get the EU, China, and India (that's the biggest present and future powers of humanity) on board in order for such a scheme to work. None of them are on your side.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday February 17 2015, @05:26AM
Who's advocating cutting us off from the rest of the world? The EU, having a generally higher level of worker protections wouldn't see any tariffs on their exports - in fact if they got on board you could reasonably expect them to put tariffs on imports from the US. You wouldn't even have to impose tariffs on a national level: Chinese Company A using child labor working 15 hour shifts for pennies a day could see a massive decency tax, while Chines Company B that paid fare wages to adults working reasonable hours would see a lower or nonexistent tax, with the net result that products from either company would cost roughly the same as those made in the US.
(Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Sunday February 15 2015, @07:16PM
There's nothing we can do, man. Only bend over and wait for the invisible hand of God Market to fist fuck us. Because, you know, economy is not made by people. It's the other way around.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 15 2015, @07:42PM
There's nothing we can do, man. Only bend over and wait for the invisible hand of God Market to fist fuck us. Because, you know, economy is not made by people. It's the other way around.
Again, do you have a better idea than being "fist fucked" by the "invisible hand"? My view is that market economies are the primary economic tool for making the wonderful societies we have.
I tire of the theatrics. Put up or shut up.
(Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Sunday February 15 2015, @11:09PM
You shut up, you disrespectful asshole.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 15 2015, @11:11PM