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by codegeek
2212 days ago
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"has probably had more to do with the growing inequality between the 0.1% and the rest of us than anything else." I disagree. The growing wage inequality between the rich and poor has many other factors. Tech companies are just one small part of it. Before 2004, most of these big techs did not even exist. But wage gap has been increasing for almost last 45 years or so in the US if you look at the data. Take Walmart for example. They employ plenty of Americans but look at the shit wages they pay. They can still get away with it because our politicians have tipped the scale heavily in favor of large corporations. Visa or not, large corporations can get away with almost anything because they are "too big to fail". "ignoring a company's responsibility to pay back the society" I agree with you on moral grounds but that is not how capitalism works. A private corporation's highest priority is to serve its shareholders and executives, period. It does not care about paying back to society. Should they care ? Yes I think so. But by definition of capitalism, they are not obligated to. Unless we change the thinking and mindset, it won't happen. Offshoring/tech visas are again a small portion of it and gets blamed way more than it should. |
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I didn't mean just one specific visa, e.g. H1B or any other. I mean that globalization has allowed large companies to play all sorts of games like moving their manufacturing and service centers to the lowest wages countries, their headquarters to tax shelters like Ireland or the Caymans, and lobbied laws to ensure a never-ending supply of foreign workers and recently immigrated citizens to push wages for the jobs that can't be moved.
Meanwhile, employees can't just move to some country to take advantage of lower COL, or declare their 'official' residence in a tax shelter. We can't even import drugs from Canada or pay the same price for digital goods like Steam games offered to low wage nations.
> I agree with you on moral grounds but that is not how capitalism works.
There is no strict rule that says capitalist economies can't enforce equal playing fields for capital and labor. If the US or any other high wage country weren't beholden to the wealthy, they could easily pass laws that forced companies to pay tariffs for any goods and services developed in countries without similar labor laws, environmental protections, and even tax rates.