To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter 158

A reader brought to my attention today's panel discussion on the Power Lunch
program on CNBC, viewable at

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1054585552&play=1

The discussion concerned Sen. Grassley's request to Microsoft that the
firm give American workers retention priority over H-1Bs in layoff
decisions, as well as the recent enactment of the Grassley/Sanders
restrictions on hiring of H-1Bs by TARP recipients.

All six discussants took it for granted that employers hire H-1Bs
because they are of superior quality.  Even though one of the six seemed
to be supportive of Grassley, as the discussant's techie brother had
been laid off, even this one did not question the notion that the H-1Bs
"must" be better ("five times more productive," one said) than the
Americans.

It did not occur to a single one of these discussants, nor to host Bill
Griffeth, that price might be a factor, i.e. that employers hire the
H-1Bs simply because they are cheaper.  It boggles the mind that a major
business channel, CNBC, could show ignorance of such a fundamental
principle.  Griffeth in fact has run news items on H-1B as cheap labor
in the past, so he at least knows that there are people who assert that
H-1B is about cheap labor.  Odd that he didn't speak up.

My colleague, UCD economics professor, actually showed the same ignorance. 
He's a great guy, and will be quite successful I believe, but it's even
odder to see such an attitude from him than from a bunch of business
journalists.  See http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/PeriStudy.txt

Clearly, ideology can be blinding.

Norm