Texas Economy Takes a Giant Leap, While California’s Declines Quickest & H1-B Visas; Modern Name for Legalized Slavery:

Texas Economy Takes a Giant Leap, While California’s Declines Quickest & H1-B Visas; Modern Name for Legalized Slavery:

By Marc Chamot & Source: SFWeekly

H1-B Visa Program Creates Caste System for Silicon Valley “After years in the economic wilderness following the 2001 dot-com crash, designers, artists, webmasters, and all sorts of multimedia, networking, and software experts are finding jobs in San Francisco again. 

Thank the boom in social media, mobile apps, and digital advertising. But thousands of those jobs will be unavailable to San Franciscans. The posts are slated for foreigners participating in the H1-B nonimmigrant visa program, meant for companies needing highly skilled workers who can't be found here.

Last year, San Francisco companies filed 1,827 such applications. This year they filed 2,243, according to the website MyVisaJobs, which aggregates federal data. This is part of a nationwide trend in which firms have rushed to fill jobs with H1-Bs, named for the portion of the immigration code that gives special three-year visas for skilled workers.

Bay Area CEOs say imported experts are key to Silicon Valley success. In the program, foreign workers are employed by the sponsoring company for up to six years. During that time, the H1-B holders may start the long process of applying for permanent-resident green cards.

Critics say the program is a mild form of indentured servitude. They insist that what employers really seek are compliant workers who won't complain about unfair treatment for fear of being deported.

The fact is both groups are right: The H1-B program depresses wages for certain U.S. workers. It's rife with fraud and abuse. H1-B workers are vulnerable to discrimination, isolation, and exploitation, but the program is a necessary evil because skilled and enterprising new immigrants are exactly what the Bay Area economy needs.

The dirty truth is that H1-B is a twisted way to achieve that goal. It exists in its current form solely to cater to the emotional needs of America's dysfunctional immigration debate.

A 2008 Department of Homeland Security audit determined that one in five H1-B visas were obtained through fraud or as a result of technical violations. A 2003 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform study declared that U.S. CEOs' claim of a tech labor shortage was bogus. H1-Bs were merely a cheap labor pool, and many companies exploited the program as a way to replace older and thus less desirable U.S. employees. Another study showed that H1-B workers weren't even particularly highly skilled; they were merely compliant and cheap.

"This is all about whether Microsoft can hire an engineer for $30,000 per year instead of $80,000 per year," says David Bacon, author of the book Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. "H1-B status is just a way of getting a cheap worker."

The program distorts the labor market in other pernicious ways. It's cumbersome for H1-B workers to change employers without being deported. So we have a Silicon Valley caste system where H1-Bs have a reputation for working hard and keeping their mouths shut. Some support families back home. 

Many go into debt to pay immigration brokers in hopes of one day getting green cards and reuniting their families here. Some employers know they won't sacrifice all that by declining to work unpaid weekends. Even elite H1-Bs are at a disadvantage: The most talented ones can't easily move to better jobs, because their visas are linked to particular employers. That is a boon for companies not wanting to reward performance.

Eventually, these miserly standards trickle down to the rest of us.

There happens to be a cure-all: Give green cards to any skilled foreigners who ask for them. They could then demand fair treatment without fear of deportation. Employers would be compelled to provide market-rate wages and equal-rights treatment to immigrants. This freedom of speech, movement, and bargaining power would raise standards for everyone. Everyone would win, except for exploitative bosses.”

Texas' Economy Takes a Giant Leap “Texas became the USA's second-largest economy during the past decade — displacing New York and perhaps heading one day toward challenging California — in one of the biggest economic shifts in the past half-century. 

The economic winners of the last decade are states that focus on raw materials, government and senior citizens. The big losers are places that make things — industrial states and even California.

USA TODAY examined each state's gross domestic product to determine how the country's economic output has shifted within its borders. The data, recently released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, reflect population growth and income increases — in short, the economic weight of each state.

Texas notched one of the biggest increases in size in a half-century, surpassing $1 trillion in annual economic output. The state gained nearly a full percentage point in its share of the U.S. economy during the decade, reaching 8.3% in 2010. This growth in economic clout has been matched only twice in the past 50 years — by California in the 1980s and Texas itself during the 1970s oil boom.

"We're growing faster than everyone else, and this trend should last a good while," says economic forecaster Raymond Berryhill of Waco, Texas. His state enjoyed "good fortune and good planning" from having natural resources, immigration and successful technology businesses while avoiding the real estate bubble, he says.

Florida's share of the national economy grew more than any state except Texas as seniors took their wealth south. But it was the long-booming state's smallest growth of any decade since the government began keeping track in the 1960s.

California: The state's share of the national economy peaked in 1990 but shrank faster than all but three states from 2000 to 2010. It's hard for a large economy — at $1.9 trillion, the nation's largest — to keep growing fast, especially when hit by a housing downturn, says Stephen Levy of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy.”

Disabled Americans are paying a big price in the recession; backlogs grow for Social Security benefits appeals. Over 728,000 are waiting for appeal hearings for Social Security disability checks. A 5% increase from the past year. The increase is largely because of the bad economy, and recession, it’s because disabled people are having trouble finding jobs.

However, some data’s showing claims have jumped to 740,998 as of May 27th. If growth remains unchecked, it would take much longer to get approved for benefits and it will burden taxpayers further in a weak economy.