Adelson, Buffett, Gates speak in one voice.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Sheldon Adelson, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates came together to write an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, urging Congress to take action on comprehensive immigration reform and move past the gridlock that has effectively killed any hope the US has for passing the legislation this year.
The three men, Gates in particular, have been vocal in their support for an immigration overhaul. Frustrated by the complete impasse that has now tabled the issue for the foreseeable future, Gates, Buffett, and Adelson are calling on Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill to work together and get comprehensive immigration reform passed and implemented.
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“The three of us vary in our politics and would differ also in our preferences about the details of an immigration reform bill. But we could without doubt come together to draft a bill acceptable to each of us,” says the Op-Ed piece. “We hope that fact holds a lesson: You don’t have to agree on everything in order to cooperate on matters about which you are reasonably close to agreement. It’s time that this brand of thinking finds its way to Washington.”
All three men seem to be against the notion of allowing illegal immigrants to automatically be given a pathway to citizenship, saying that the government should make sure that “people breaking these rules, including any facilitators, are severely punished.” But there are several legal immigration provisions that the Op-Ed says should be changed significantly.
Chief among those are removing the cap on H-1B visas, which would allow more high-skilled workers to come to the US. Removing the caps would eliminate years’ worth of backlog, and would make America far more attractive a destination than it already is (the US will face stiff competition for the world’s best and brightest talents after Canada adopts its immigration overhaul next year).
Another area that Gates, Buffett, and Adelson want to see remedied is the EB-5 program, which allows foreign nationals to come to the US under expedited means if they are investing significant amounts of capital and are trying to start a business in this country.
“Reports of fraud have surfaced with this program, and we believe it should be reformed to prevent abuse but also expanded to become more effective,” says the Op-Ed piece. “People willing to invest in America and create jobs deserve the opportunity to do so.”
The main cause for gridlock needs to be eliminated, say the three entrepreneurs and tycoons of industry, and that means coming to the table and discussing the problem in a way that puts Americans first, and political bitterness and one-upmanship second.
“A Congress that does nothing about these problems is extending an irrational policy by default; that is, if lawmakers don’t act to change it, it stays the way it is, irrational. The current stalemate — in which greater pride is attached to thwarting the opposition than to advancing the nation’s interests — is depressing to most Americans and virtually all of its business managers,” the three say in their piece, adding that “the impasse certainly depresses the three of us.”
The full Op-Ed can be read on The New York Times website.
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go home F’ing job robbers, we’re sick and tired of your fake resumes and b/s – NOT WELCOME
People, Reporters, Politicians, Tech workers…everyone, just don’t realize that what we are all concerned about isn’t immigation.
We are all concerned about:
“Enfranchisement”
But enfranchisement is typically addressed by the Constitution, not by average bills running through Congress.
This enfranchisement is what people are fighting for whether it is the U.S.
Tech Worker not being allowed to compete for a job on U.S. soil, because of his/her Nationality.
Or an illegal worker from South America, unable to use his rights as a person in the United States to ensure their safety or to seek alternate employment.
This is why groups such as Fwd.us, and other billionaire clubs are on the wrong side of history in the current debate.
Get the debate right and you will be able to bring groups together.
Keep getting it wrong and you will continue the shameful polarization.
Apparently the American Bazaar can’t handle the truth.
They’re just pointing out that these people don’t do their homework. Only Google’s HR looking into their interviewers “qualified” criteria and found it sexist, racist and ageist.
H-1b is a Federal Government program. Like any government program, it bypasses the free-market and creates a Black Market, by indenturing workers until Green Card day and allowing employers to completely avoid market competition from the domestic workforce.
In the same way, the illegal alien market also creates a Black Market. Of disenfranchised workers.
H-1b workers are tethered to their employer for decades until a Green Card arrives. If the employee leaves, the Green Card process starts all over again.
Unlike the Canadian counterpart TFWP, the H-1b visa does not require that employers allow U.S. citizens to compete for a job. Indeed a job can be kept internal. This makes H-1b ideal for Outsourcing Companies because it eliminates any free market competition for jobs procrured via contract by an Outsourcing Company (even jobs from Federal Government).
And so making the H-1b the biggest single case of discrimination based upon National Origin in U.S. history.
Undocumented workers can’t unionize, can’t ask for higher wages. Is it any wonder that businesses love to hire them. If normal free market forces were at play in the low-wage markets, we would not even be concerned about the minimum wage in the United States. The Free market would have taken care of it.
Given these two Black Markets for workers, and the fact that these Billionaire investors stand to make more billions by tailoring any immigration reform to their needs, via a bought-off Congress. Is it any wonder that they are demanding some kind of action?
Look we all know how Bill Gates monopolized windows (An O.S. that hasn’t functionally improved in 20 years). He did it by using Microsoft’s near monopoly to force all computer manufacturers to install only Windows and IE on their system. Bill Gates knows that the Free Market doesn’t make billionaires.
The Outsourcing Companies, these 3 Black-Market Billionaires, all know that the way to continue to make more billions is to use the Government’s Monopoly on Power to create classes of workers that have lesser-to-no rights, and therefore can continue to be exploited for many decades to come.
And with the additional benefit of being an indentured workforce that cannot leave the job and cannot become a disruptive entrepreneureal competition, until Green Card day arrive, a date that conveniently forever slips.
Get on the right-side of history.
Advocate only full restoration of worker rights via a worker controlled Green Card process.
Advocate that you cannot be an anonymous illegal in the U.S. and employers must pay a tax on each foreign worker they hire. And 3x tax if they did hire illegals and didn’t report. The illegal worker, will be converted to legal status, on payment of the tax.
Any drug dealer will tell you quite honestly that they need the government to be enforcing the law, in order for them to make millions off the illegal Black-Drug market in the U.S., Mexico, and Latin America.
What these three Black-Market billionaires will not tell (indeed will hide in wall of lies) is that they need the worker Black-Market in the United States in order to continue making Billions off of the U.S. economy.
Eliminate H1B and green cards til employment recovers.
These crass, greedy, elitists just want their cheap pool boys, shoe shiners, nannies, housekeepers to lord over…