Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Intel lays of 12,000 people after lobbying for more foreign workers


Intel is a great company. Unbelievable innovator. Cutting edge. And, full disclosure, I own stock in this company and it's really still very much a value stock.

However, this is an example of the duplicitous nature of corporate America. On the one hand they're lobbying the government for more foreign workers. Yet, on the other hand, they are laying off tens of thousands of domestic workers.

Tech giant Intel is laying off some 12,000 workers, although it’s one of the country’s 15 largest users of H-1Bs, which are temporary visas that allow companies to hire foreign workers for American tech jobs. The big-time layoffs come even as the company has called for hikes in the number of foreign workers it is able to hire using H-1B visas.

We could easily fill the demand for technology workers domestically if, rather than loading our students up on debt and making it difficult and expensive to get the proper education, we did like other countries--India, China, Russia, etc--and provide free, high quality education.

I would guess that most of the CEOs who run companies like Intel vote Republican and back policies like government spending cuts, "fiscal responsibility," wage suppression, offshoring, etc.

So, this is what we get. Hypocrisy.

3 comments:

Ignacio said...

12000 more voters for Trump.

Kep it up, corporate America, I guess?

Matt Franko said...

Careful Mike the MMT left top-enders are going to be soon accusing you of xenophobia here...

John said...

What's hypocritical about it? It's business. You think Intel should care about the American working class? Intel's concern is for Intel, and Intel will be held legally accountable if it doesn't maximise profits. That's it. It's the nature of the system. It's not useful to call this behaviour selfish. It's the predictable behaviour of a system designed by corporate America and the lawmakers they've corrupted and the economics departments they've indoctrinated.

Is it selfish for a wolf to hunt down and tear apart another living creature? And where is the hypocrisy when you find out a charlatan preacher has been caught in a motel room with cocaine and prostitutes? The hypocrisy was in your own mind, not the obvious charlatan preacher who, for someone preaching the Gospels, has somehow acquired mansions all over the world, travels in private jets, helicopters and chauffeur-driven limousines, and tells you to send all the money you have to him.