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We live in a moment of unprecedented income and wealth inequality. At a time when the richest people in our country have never had this luxury, 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and the inflation-adjusted income of the average American worker has been stagnant for 50 years. Why is this?
How is it that the three richest men in America have more wealth than the bottom half of our society while so many of our people struggle to afford that wealth? High cost of rentGroceries and other basic life necessities?
It's time to take a hard look at some of the economic policies that have made the rich richer while many Americans continue to fall further and further behind.
Bernie Sanders attacks H-1B visa program to replace American jobs with 'indentured servants'
Thirty years ago, America's corporate leaders, the political establishment in both major parties, and the editorial boards of influential newspapers told us not to worry about the loss of manufacturing jobs that would come as a result of unrestricted labor. Free trade agreements Such as NAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China (PNTR). They promised that those lost jobs would be compensated by many well-paying IT jobs that would be created in the United States. I never believed that and voted against those agreements.
Unfortunately, I and many others who opposed those trade deals were proven right. NAFTA and the PNTR have cost us millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs, as major corporations have closed thousands of factories in America and fled to China, Mexico and other low-wage countries in search of cheap labor.
What about all the great jobs that will be created in high technology? Well, that didn't quite happen either. As a result of the H-1B guest worker program, major companies are now importing hundreds of thousands of low-wage guest workers from abroad to fill this position. White collar technology jobs Available. In other words, “Billionaire heads win. American workers' tails lose.”
In recent weeks, the H-1B program has sparked intense controversy. Billionaires love Elon Musk They claim it is critical to our economy, arguing that the United States faces a shortage of highly skilled engineers and technology professionals. They are completely wrong.
The primary purpose of the H-1B and other guest worker programs is not to recruit the “best and brightest,” but instead to replace American workers with low-wage workers from abroad who often live as indentured servants. The cheaper it is to hire guest workers, the more money billionaires make from large corporations.
Senator Bernie Sanders: The Americas, the people for the people. Billionaires
Not only is this program disastrous for American workers, it can be very harmful to guest workers as well, who are often trapped in low-paying jobs and can have their visas taken away by their company bosses if they complain about dangerous and unfair work. Or illegal working conditions.
Between 2022 and 2023, major companies using the H-1B program laid off 85,000 American workers, while simultaneously bringing in more than 34,000 guest workers from abroad. Meanwhile, millions of Americans with advanced degrees in STEM fields are unable to find work in their fields of expertise.
If there is indeed a significant shortage of skilled tech workers in this country, why did Tesla lay off more than 7,500 American workers last year — including many software developers and engineers at its factory in 2019? Austin, Texas – While applying to hire thousands of H-1B guest workers?
If these jobs were only going to the “best and brightest,” why would Tesla hire H-1B guest workers? Participating accountants For only $58,000 Participating mechanical engineers For less than $70,000 a year, and Associate Material Planners For less than $80,000 a year? These do not appear to be highly specialized jobs reserved for the top 0.1%, as Musk claimed last month. Musk failed to address concerns about Tesla's use of H-1B visas for its employees.
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If this program is really supposed to be about importing workers with highly advanced degrees in science and technology, why are H-1B guest workers being hired as laborers? Lawyers, Dog trainers, Massage therapists, Chefsand English language teachers? Do we really not find English teachers in America? Do we really believe that we are facing a severe shortage of lawyers in our country?
Let's be clear. As much as there may be labor shortages in our country in some very specialized fields that need to be filled with outside employees through the H-1B program, we need to make sure this program is used as a short-term solution.
In the long run, if the United States is to succeed Highly competitive global economyWe must have the best educated workforce in the world.
One way to help achieve this is to dramatically increase guest worker fees that major companies pay to fund scholarships, apprenticeships, and job training opportunities for American workers. This is something I have advocated for since my first days as a US Senator.
Furthermore, we must also significantly raise the minimum wage for guest workers, give them the freedom to change jobs easily and forcefully require companies to hire American workers first before they can hire workers from abroad. Corporate abuse of the H-1B program must end on a massive scale.
Billionaire oligarchs at big tech companies should not be allowed to hire guest workers for entry-level and mid-level IT positions. These jobs should go to the American workers who have them Constitutional right To form a union and bargain collectively in order to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Hiring a guest worker from abroad should never be cheaper for a company than it is for a US worker.
Mr. Musk, Mr. Ramaswamy, and others have argued that we need a highly skilled, well-educated workforce. They are right. But the solution does not lie in bringing in cheap labor from abroad.
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The answer is to hire qualified American workers first and ensure that we have an education system that produces the kind of workforce our country needs for the jobs of the future. And this is not just engineering. We desperately need more doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers, electricians, plumbers and a host of other professions.
The bottom line: We need an economy that works for everyone, not just the few. One way we can do this is by major reforms to the H-1B program and other fatally flawed guest worker programs.
