Byting the Hand That Feeds Us
Tucker, William
YUNG THE MAN THAT FEE'S lis , A By restricting the immigration of much-needed "information technology" workers, Dumbocrats in Washington are making the U.S. poorer and less competitive. • •...
...Many of these rejects tend to be older men who were trained on mainframe systems in the 1970's and 1980's...
...More and more, math courses are being designed for children who don't like math...
...But right now we need help...
...Lucent Technologies is short 14,000 computer specialists worldwide...
...They say that it's all a greedy capitalist ploy to exploit cheap labor...
...The Department of Labor—actually the Department of Labor Unions— backs them up, arguing that Americans "never really get the chance to apply for these jobs...
...The IEEE—which is functioning just like a trade union — contends its members are fully capable of doing the job but can't get hired because American companies are too "picky...
...Immigration is already a principal engine of the information economy...
...Learning curves flatten after age 40 and some of these men do not seem to be willing or able to keep abreast...
...The final argument is that if we just give more money to the Department of Education and its constituents, they'll give us all the trained personnel we need...
...CEO Doug Mellinger (featured on the cover of Inc...
...However, there is a whole generation of programmers in places like Trinidad and Macao that has been raised on COBOL...
...Texas Instruments, Microsoft, Motorola, Intel, and Hewlett Packard have opened facilities there...
...Labor will also spend $8 million to create a website bulletin board for job applicants in IT...
...A programmer in India can make $15,000 a year...
...What we really need is an overhaul of American education...
...Abolishing immigrant quotas would lead to a flood of cheap foreign labor...
...In 1986, American colleges and universities turned out 50,000 computer majors...
...Charles Wang was born in Shanghai...
...It's like running out of iron ore in the middle of the Industrial Revolution," says Harris Miler, president of the ITAA...
...Americans are interested in the more creative aspects of programming, but don't seem to enjoy the hard work or drudgery...
...One of the most alarming trends is the decline in computer graduates...
...In January, the Sacramento Bee reported that "the demand for people who can develop and use the tools of the modern age has vastly outstripped the existing supply...
...He has important allies, among them the U.S...
...People in Kuala Lumpur and Vladivostok can be just as smart as Americans...
...Let's take these arguments one at a time...
...In February, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study showed that American 12th grade students rank only ahead of Cyprus and South Africa among fourteen industrial countries in math skills...
...111111M TICKER - - - 24 May 1998 • The American Spectator A merica's encounter with the global economy is in the first quarter and we're already falling behind...
...The potentialities opened by the digital revolution are so vast and plentiful that, for the time being at least, human brains may be having a hard time keeping up...
...In an identical study of eighth-graders in 1996, only 5 percent of American students ranked in the international top ro percent...
...But Texas and California firms are experiencing their own shortages...
...Ron Klink, Democrat from Pennsylvania...
...Granted an exclusive franchise, the public schools have proved to be just as stagnant and inattentive as any other monopoly...
...Unfortunately, many of these people are trapped in cultures that stifle enterprise...
...Now there is a third possibility—useful enterprise...
...India has developed a powerful educational system and is turning out 55,000 computer graduates per year...
...Edward Kennedy...
...American students switched to the language of personal computers—FORTRAN and BASIC—in the 197o's...
...Maybe in another decade America will be computer literate enough to fill all the information jobs being created...
...This division has become particularly pronounced in addressing the Year z000 problem...
...Headhunters are scouring fishing villages in Brazil and the steppes of Kyrgyzstan, hoping to meet computer-literate youngsters —and finding them...
...Many people working on the Year z000 problem are elderly engineers called out of retirement...
...America as the land of opportunity, the land of the free and the home of the brave—haven't we heard this before somewhere...
...The Commerce Department—not to be outdone—will spend $17 million in "bringing technology resources, including training, to the poor...
...In December, the Washington Post ran a front-page story on the "widespread shortage of computer and networking technicians that threatens to curb the region's growth...
...The IEEE blames this drop on the glut of engineers that came with corporate downsizing in the 1980's, but that trend is long past...
...Remarkably his elder brother Robert F. Kennedy was the senator who spearheaded the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, generally credited with shifting the "northern European" emphasis and opening up America's doors to the rest of the world...
...Computer technology is a merciless discipline...
...If someone like Andy Grove comes to America and creates 64,000 jobs and $116 million in shareholder equity—almost all of it held by Americans—well that's advanced calculus, something people like Senator Kennedy don't even pretend to understand...
...So all right, maybe there is a shortage, argues the Institute of Engineers, but employers are still too choosy...
...Andy Grove, founder of Intel and Time's 1997 "Man of the Year," arrived from Hungary in the 1950's...
...Ireland has developed a powerful ring of software companies around Dublin...
...In a recent issue of Barron's, Michael Milken, his partner Larry Ellison, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen all argued that education should become the next major commodity on the Internet...
...Thirty years later, the younger brother is leading congressional opposition to opening America's doors to smart people from around the globe...
...Thousands of private computer schools are springing up around the country to offer what public education just doesn't teach...
...In February, ITAA persuaded Sen...
...If the number of immigrants equals the number of jobs (x-y=o), then there are no jobs for Americans and no votes for people like Sen...
...immigration restrictions...
...We won't have to deal with nasty foreigners...
...I felt this void of thought that I couldn't deal with...
...Bangalore now has the largest concentration WILLIAM TUCKER is The American Spectator's New York correspondent and a New York Press columnist...
...Moreover, we're starting to complain about the rules...
...A programmer in the United States demands $6o,000 a year...
...With enough federal aid, the American education establishment can train everyone —the unemployed, the poor, maybe even the homeless—to become programming specialists and systems analysts...
...Many do, of course, but the IEEE represents the rump faction that doesn't...
...It's a crisis that has been brewing for a long time...
...Matloff and others argue that the real reason IT employers want to abolish the immigrant quotas is a desire for "cheap labor...
...By 1995, the figure had declined to 36,000...
...A private company could probably build it for $500,000...
...We could end up with an oversupply of information workers," complains Rep...
...Both departments are preparing requests for larger allocations next year...
...Somehow, we need to retain these people in Virginia...
...Rogers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor...
...They say that all we have to do is give more money to the Department of Education—plus a few familiar stalwarts like the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of College Professors—and they can solve the problem for us (more self-esteem, no doubt...
...But then professors have tenure...
...In January, the Labor Department announced it would give $3 million to schools, businesses, and local governments to provide computer skills to laid-off workers...
...It's just like the Beltway," says John J. McDonnell, Jr., CEO of Transaction Network Services, a Reston, Virginia recruiting firm...
...It takes time and effort to learn computer skills...
...The argument that there is really no broad shortage of IT workers is transparently false...
...Unfortunately, the immigration of skilled professionals to the United States is limited by the H-113 Visa Program, adopted in 1990 to restrict the entrance of foreign doctors...
...f course, no Dumbocrat ever asks who creates these jobs...
...To a bright young person in Lithuania or the Philippines, computer skills are a ticket to a new life...
...And the talent is every bit as good...
...Right now the country is desperately short of information technology (IT) workers — programmers, computer engineers, and systems analysts...
...The favorite expert of this group is Norman Matloff, a professor of computer sciences at UC Davis who has posted position papers on the Internet...
...If you don't have the exact skills they need, they won't hire you...
...Keeping immigrants from contributing to the American economy is like shutting down computers to put file clerks back to work...
...I got paid a massive amount to sit in front of my computer eight hours a day, but I got physically ill doing it," said Max Edleson, a Stanford former computer major who is now studying philosophy...
...If you asked a college administrator what he thinks of a computer professor who is teaching skills that are ten years out of date, the answer will also come back, "Not much...
...The truth is that not even immigration is likely to solve the demand soon...
...At a certain point, you just can't find people at any price in San Jose...
...Second, the demand for programmers is likely to be so great that those surplus people will be quickly absorbed...
...Actually, the Dumbocrats' argument is more devious and complex...
...The Department of Labor's own projections predict the information economy will demand 95,000 new programmers, computer scientists, and systems analysts a year by 2005, while colleges and universities produced only 36,000 graduates in 1995...
...04 27 Given the current state of American education, it will be hard to find Americans to fill these positions for quite some time...
...Finding themselves short of qualified personnel, high-tech companies are much more likely to start outsourcing or moving companies offshore or "near shore...
...The major problem is under-employment of people who have skills," says Matloff...
...Now Wall Street executives are flying to Barbados to consult foreign programmers while America loses both jobs and taxpayers...
...So where do all these bright young people look for opportunity...
...Spencer Abraham (R-Mich...
...chairman of the Senate subcommittee on immigration, to hold hearings on the possibility of abolishing the program...
...But that's not the point...
...in January) said he needed "new country" where he could circumvent U.S...
...This is indeed a sensitive issue...
...If the Indian programmer Because America is not producing enough computer experts, corporate recruiters are searching the globe to fill these positions...
...The bill for tolerating "rainforest math" and "self-esteem" is coming due...
...Most of the current demand is for Internet applications written in Java and C...
...The computers that need to be reprogrammed are old mainframe systems operating in COBOL...
...Because America is not producing enough computer experts, corporate recruiters are searching the globe to fill these positions...
...This is already happening...
...By filling crucial jobs that make the economy run more smoothly, each immigrant creates more work for all Americans...
...Banks and insurance companies, now dependent on computer technology, are faring even worse...
...Forty percent of the computer majors at American universities are foreign nationals...
...One-third of our Nobel Prize winners were born outside the United States...
...In this upside-down, zero-sum world, there are only x number of computer jobs in America and y number of immigrants...
...The situation was disguised for a long time because many of these reports assumed the shortages were local...
...That's right, $8 million...
...That's one charitable explanation...
...In fact, this has already begun...
...The group heading up this 25 opposition are known as Democrats, but let's call them by a more appropriate name, Dumbocrats...
...Democrats argue that once the Year z000 problem is solved there will be labor surpluses, but that's not likely...
...A less benign interpretation is that we are witnessing the long-anticipated collapse of public education...
...The American Spectator • May 1998 of computer programmers in the world...
...There's one group that doesn't like this...
...To the United States, of course...
...Either teacher certification must be reformed so that skilled people can teach in the schools, or people must start moving outside the public education system...
...Thus a lot of older programmers with outdated skills can't get hired...
...The Information Revolution has descended upon us quickly...
...Students would rather be filmmakers and rock producers...
...They have all come back with the same conclusion—information companiesare desperately short of workers at all levels...
...The subject seemed passionless!' The American Spectator May 1998 As a result, a kind of international division of labor is taking place...
...In one sense, the technology is simply outrunning humanity...
...Julian Simon always argued that the human brain was the ultimate resource and he is proving right...
...American workers aren't given the chance to fill these jobs because employers are too demanding in their requirements...
...The University of Phoenix, a private, profit-making institution, has moved into a dozen cities with a curriculum aimed exclusively at retraining adults...
...It might "create jobs," but we would be worse off...
...For every immigrant (y) who fills a job (x), that leaves x-y jobs for Americans...
...Over the last year, a dozen major newspapers have sent reporters out to investigate...
...The government of Barbados was more than willing to help him...
...But wait a minute...
...Here are the major points: • There is no IT worker shortage—only "spot shortages" in specific high-tech fields...
...More federal grant money will probably only make things worse...
...Studies in Virginia and San Diego have shown that engineering schools are turning out only one-fourth of the computer specialists industry will need in the next ten years...
...0 They're just out there in the want ads someplace...
...They think immigrants will just "steal American jobs...
...Twelve percent of high-growth technological firms have been founded by foreign immigrants...
...The Information Technology Association of America (UM) estimates that 345,000 IT jobs— ro percent of the positions in the entire industry— remain unfilled...
...Companies like GE Medical Systems, a division of General Motors, are offering $5,000 bonuses to employees who recruit information workers...
...Department of Labor, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the Department of Education and its teachers' union affiliates...
...Our graduates] are getting big offers from companies in Texas and California," a Virginia Tech professor told the Washington Post in December...
...UP accepts only working adults ages z4 years and over, offering computer and business skills for job retraining...
...Now isn't that something...
...Even the brightest American students no longer stand out...
...S o this is what a world economy is like...
...In July 1997, the Buffalo News ran a story about the Computer Task Group, a headhunting firm that brings in foreign programmers through Canada...
...Head Dumbocrat is Sen...
...They say opening up opportunity to immigrants is un-American...
...Their services are suddenly very much in demand...
...What we are witnessing is the release of the world's human potential...
...Simply stated, it's becoming hard to interest American students in computer sciences no matter what the rewards...
...In a lengthy analysis in January, the New York Times found that even dedicated "geeks" who went to college to pursue computer studies are drifting away...
...Zoe Woodward, of Carnegie Mellon, also dropped the subject...
...A whole generation has been lost...
...Once again, the best and brightest from all over the world are arriving to make America strong, prosperous, and proud...
...Most Southeast Asian countries practice state capitalism, Russia is not yet out of the doldrums, and even Israel's economy is heavy with government control...
...26 May 1998 • The American Spectator comes to the United States, he is going to be paid $6o,000, just as advertised in the newspaper...
...The work is perceived as tedious and unglamorous...
...President Clinton, although opposed to abolishing, said he might agree to increasing visas 5o percent...
...Predictably, the education establishment is opposing it through the certification process...
...The PRT Group, a Manhattan firm importing programmers to work on the Year z000 program, moved its main operation to Barbados in 1996 when it ran up against H-113 limitations...
...Last year, for the first time ever, all 65,000 H-1B visas were claimed, mostly by computer experts...
...To an American undergraduate, it's a bore...
...In countries like China and India, the priesthood and the bureaucracy were once the only acceptable role for intelligent young people...
...Often these people know English only as a programming language...
...I love math, but I realized I'm just not a computer scientist," she said...
...Microsoft has eighty full-time recruiters and spends $568 million on training, yet still has 2,500 unfilled positions...
...The point is that every such new immigrant enters the country with ten new jobs strapped to his back...
...The only way to get a world economy into gear is to play to win...
...If I had a good enough supply of engineers in the United States, I would never have asked a manager of this company to fly to Bombay," says the irascible T.J...
...Only in the last few months has it emerged that the phenomenon is nationwide, if not global...
...The purpose, of course, is baksheesh...
...Bureaucracies in India and China are 4,000 years old...
...This year all 65,000 entrance visas are expected to disappear by May...
...The difficult truth is that, given the current state of American education, it will be hard to find Americans to fill these positions for quite some time...
...It still takes more than a year and a personal meeting with a cabinet official to start a business in India...
...Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts...
...First, the Year z000 problem will probably extend well past the turn of the century...
...Which would you choose...
...This is already happening...
...Even as American companies hunt desperately for people with computer skills, American students continue their slide to the bottom of the international math heap...
...If you ask a headhunter what they have for someone with ten years experience but who hasn't worked in a fashionable language like Java, the answer is `not much.'" True enough...
...In another December article, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported that the world is "300,000 COBOL programmers short" in converting two-digit dates to four digits—the Year 2000 problem, which is still being seriously underestimated...
...They're not about to roll over for some smart aleck who knows Java...
...Numerous studies have shown schoolteachers (i.e., "education majors") to be the least accomplished in math of any academic group...
Vol. 31 • May 1998 • No. 5
