Fisking another "Americans can't do it" screed

These sorts of op-eds annoy me to no end. They spring from a decidedly counter-Americanism premise: "we have to have help to do the things Americans cannot do for themselves."

Rubbish. Let's take a look at what they're really saying:

USATODAY.com - Stingy immigration policy stifles U.S. innovation

By Lezlee Westine and Scott McNealy

What do the founders of Intel, Sun Microsystems and Google — Andy Grove, Andy Bechtolsheim, Vinod Khosla and Sergey Brin — have in common with Albert Einstein and Wernher von Braun? All are part of America's tradition of welcoming talented immigrants who have made significant contributions to our industry.

So, let's take the example of a few and expand it to the point that we don't need any of our most intelligent Americans to do these jobs. There's a setup here, unstated by Westine, Chairman of Sun Microsystems, that we'd rather America not bother to train its brightest to fill jobs if there are cheaper imports available.

Einstein changed the way we look at science and energy; von Braun was the father of the U.S. space program; and Grove, Bechtolsheim, Khosla and Brin are among the many giants who have changed the high-tech industry.

The innovative companies they built created thousands of jobs and have a combined market cap of $250 billion. But our longstanding tradition of being an open door for innovation is at risk.

Don't you dare go and think about a single American born innovator while you read this. Just don't. It might rob me of my cheap labor.

Today's broken immigration system closes the door on foreign-born innovators. With arbitrary visa limits and clogged processing, opportunity is knocking at our door and we're fumbling with the keys.

Today's broken American educational system, clogged at its arteries by the less intelligent third worlders we've imported, has locked opportunity in America's hall closet. I say, let's forget about answering the door until after we've let the kids out of confinement.

It wasn't always this way. Several of our nation's Nobel laureates are foreign-born. The past half-century of scientific research success that has made our universities the beacon of innovation would not have occurred but for the contributions of foreign-born students. And the efforts of Grove, Bechtolsheim, Khosla and Brin alone have generated thousands of U.S. jobs and hundreds of millions in U.S. tax revenue.

Again, why aren't you even bothering to mention a single great American innovator? Yes, immigrants have - at times - been great assets to America, but the real greatness has not been seen until later generations. You only want a short-term fix. Addicts irritate me, regardless of the drug.

So why the conflict between our laws and our policy?

First, the world is catching on to the job-creating benefits of a strong math and science education. China and India are graduating hundreds of thousands of engineers each year. In addition, they and other nations have established generous tax incentives to lure research and development into their countries. These factors have made the competition for talent global.

Why aren't you demanding that America do a better job of creating its own scientists? Why aren't you pointing out that our educational system as been multiculted down to the point of near irrelevance? Why don't you, at the very least, demand that America work on two fronts; 1) returning to a selective, merit based immigration system and 2) rededicating itself to excellence in education by turning away from its recent commitment to leftist, political indoctrination?

Second, our past success breeds the potential for the next "big thing" in fields such as biotechnology, nanotechnology and biophysics. By 2012, it's projected that the demand for technical jobs in science and engineering will increase by more than 25%, and 39% in math and computer science. Factor in the tech rebound, and the need will be even greater.

Of course, you won't even come close to suggesting that America reinvigorate the "can do" attitude that made it great and laid the foundation upon which you built your wealth but now are so happy to intellectually defecate.

What happened the last time we saw demand for these professionals soar? Congress created a visa program for immigrants who had unique technical knowledge, a bachelor's degree and a job offer in the USA.

And what happened after that was wage deflation for these jobs, which made them less attractive areas for American college students to persue as major areas of study. And now you have the gall to complain about a shortage of home-grown talent?

Under the current system, the federal government provides 65,000 H-1B visas each year, beginning Oct. 1. Yet the visas made available last October were spoken for almost two months before that, which means our open door for innovation is temporarily closed for 14 months.

Good. And it should be closed for a lot longer. It should be closed for as long as it takes for wages to rise and attract Americans once again to take the world lead.

For foreign-born students graduating from a U.S. college in June, the H-1B limitations make it difficult for them to find jobs here. We're even closing the door on those with H-1Bs visas who seek permanent U.S. residency because of extended delays in a system designed largely in 1990, when our workforce and economic needs were different.

Your dependence on others to do American things is disgusting.

For the U.S. high-tech community, these laws present a difficult choice: Innovate or perish. If we can't find professionals to do the job here in the USA, many will simply move the job to the qualified workers overseas.

No, it's "educate our own to innovate or perish," you conniving anti-American bitch nice person.

A new study by the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-profit organization, has concluded that the laws are forcing good-paying, job-creating positions offshore. We know that the long-term solution is investing in educational programs in math, science and engineering. But we won't see the fruits of those investments for at least a decade.

Ohh. A study by a non-profit. Let's take a look at who these folks are. Why they're mostly globalists, corporatists and, laughably, former of U.S. Immigration and Nationalization Services leaders. With folks like this running our border schemes, is it any wonder why we've gotten ourselves into this beginning of a slide into the cesspool that is today's third world? And Lezleeeee wants us to find what they have "studied" to be authoritative? Give me a break. How much money does Sun give to this group?

I think I'd rather pay attention to a non-profit that actually has America's, and my family's, best interests in mind, not your stock options Lezlee.

In the short term, we should align our immigration laws with our economic needs. What Congress does now will determine whether our nation stays competitive in the global economy. Without innovation, we have nothing.

Lezlee wants us to short-term short-sight our long-term future. She knows she won't be CEO at Sun forever. If we'll only listen to her sage advice, she'll have a nicer golden parachute at the end of her multiculti rainbow.


Technorati tags: death of the west, immigration, multiculturalism, H1B, insourcing, offshoring