[Info-vax] The changing world

[chris]

On 07/04/22 18:24, seasoned_geek wrote:
> On Friday, July 1, 2022 at 10:34:08 PM UTC-5, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 7/1/2022 6:29 PM, chris wrote:
>>> On 07/01/22 23:08, Chris Townley wrote:
>>>> On 01/07/2022 22:13, Single Stage to Orbit wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, 2022-07-01 at 18:25 +0100, chris wrote:
>>>>>> On 07/01/22 15:37, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>>>>>> chris<chris-... at tridac.net>  wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 07/01/22 11:15, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Dave Froble<da... at tsoft-inc.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Right.Those who want to bend over for the EU are welcome.
>>> Here, the buck stops with our parliament, for better or
>>> for worse and no excuses...\
>>>
>>> Chris
>> Getting off topic ...
>>
>> I didn't pay much attention, as it would not affect me. But from the little I
>> read about, it seemed that the EU was intent on forcing their concepts on
>> everyone. It seems that many in GB would not accept some things, and therefore
>> left.
>>
>> But what puzzles me is that others, Poland, Hungary, maybe others, stay, but
>> ignore the EU when they choose to do so, and they seem to get away with it.
>>
>> So I wonder, why did GB have to toe the line so closely?
>
> Not being a resident on the isle of rain or the isle of fog I can only speak about what I observed from over the the USA.
>
> With an EU passport cheap labor could move to any EU country and decimate the standard of living. Developers from former Soviet Union were used to earning and living on nothing. They go to UK, work for 1/3 of what UK citizen makes, suddenly UK citizens unemployed or working for 1/3 of what they used to make just to have a job. Tough to do if you have a mortgage based on your previous income.
>
> Insert most every industry for above.
>
> UK was a "have" country and it was inundated with workers from "have not" countries.
>
> We had the same problem here in the US. Facebook, Google, insert-tech-giant-name-here all went to Washington demanding H-1B caps be raised because there simply weren't enough programmers and IT professionals in America. Even while shit like this was going on.
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html
>
> An H-1B worker could be paid as little as $60K. Many were actually paid less both in money and in the fact they had a $60K salary based on a 40 hour work week but were forced to work 60-90 hour weeks or get sent home.
>
> Then we got this bill
> https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-durbin-introduce-bipartisan-h-1b-l-1-visa-reform-legislation
>
> Of course that came __after__ the DOL finally grew a pair.
> https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/dols-sudden-mandatory-pay-increase-rocks-h-1b-worker-employers
>
> They also closed that loophole employers were using to claim "every position was a level one and thus only needed a $60K salary." Today that Level 1 salary is $90K and it is a narrow entry level position, been a while since I read the rules change, but<  2 years experience is what I remember. Level 2 wages are now required to be around $200K.
>
> Guess what? Tech giants aren't flocking to D.C. to get the visa cap raised. Suddenly there is no IT labor shortage. When they could get away demanding 10+ years of experience and still only pay $60K there was a massive shortage. Now that they have to pay them more than many U.S. citizens make . . . nah, we don't need more.
>

Interesting summary from the US. Here in the UK, business got used to
cheap labour from the eu, which as you imply, depressed the wages of
the lowest paid due to oversupply. Now that we are no longer a member,
and to address that, polices have been formulated to require economic
migrants to have a minimum standard of education, scarce skills,
minimum economic self sufficiency on entry, because we really only
need those with skills and who will contribute, not be drain on an
already overstretched welfare system.

Still have the problem of boatloads of mainly economic migrants,
encouraged and even helped into the flimsy boats by France on their
coast. Run by people smuggling gangs, as a means to  circumvent the
official process for asylum seekers, where the UK has always been
generous anyway. We are seen as a soft touch here, hence the scale
of the problem, but my attitude is that if you try to gain entry via
illegal means, then you really have no rights at all under the law and
should be deported. Sorry if that sounds right wing, but societies only
work under the rule of law, not one rule for some, another rule for
others...

Chris