Anything New York

It is true that there are problems with guess worker programs such as the H-1B program. But what we need to do is to improve them, not to eliminate them. Foreign workers should be allowed to work in the US. To prevent them from becoming slave labors and depress wages, we need to allow them to freely change jobs and set up their own businesses. You never know what can come out of them, just like you did not know what Blacks could achieve in this country. Discrimination is what prevents people from being able to reach their full potentials, and thus prevents the society they live it from being able to reach its full potentials. A society with the least prejudice will prosper the most. Those who are against foreign workers, ask yourself if you love comfort and are afraid of competitions.

Some of those who are against guess worker programs such as the H1-B program are let go from their jobs because they have become overqualified. They should try to build their own businesses instead. Even if there are no guess workers to replace them, they are still going to be considered overqualified and will be let go. No business people want to pay for things that they do not need. In fact, no one wants to pay for things that they do not need even for their personal consumption.

The problems with guess worker programs are not created by foreign workers. They are partly created by American employers out of their desire to set the programs up to their advantage, partly a result of immigration restrictions such as the H1-B cap. For example, foreign workers would love to be able to change jobs and find the best deals they can find. But the H1-B cap prevent them from freely changing jobs. And there is no visa for them to set up their own businesses. They have to already have a business overseas to get an L-1 visa. American employers and the US immigration restrictions are creating all these problems and foreign workers have to take all the blames. It is not fair. Foreign workers are as much victims as American workers are.

By the way, there seems to be a very strong sentiment among American tech workers against foreign tech workers, especially Indian tech workers. The Indian programmers that I have known were quite experienced programmers. Because of them I lost some of my jobs. But I never hate them. I don’t understand why some American tech workers hate them so much. Are they just trying to find someone to blame for their problems the same way the Germans blamed the Jews? If America continues mistreating guess workers, all she will get are just some lousy guess workers, because good ones won’t want to put up with all the mistreatment and humiliations.

Michael Jackson greatly improved US image in the world. The world love America because of Americans like him, who contribute so much to civilization.

We Are The World – by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie

Most people like Michael Jackson. And I am glad this is true. It tells me that there is some innocent in most of us. Michael Jackson represents the innocent nature in human beings, something that is taken away from most of us as we grow up. A lot of us like him so much because he gives us some of that innocent back when we watch his music videos or listen to his music.

Michael Jackson also represents the common bond in the human race. That is we are all human beings who can share the love for music and entertainment and forget about all the conflicts in our real life.

Maybe for some people, Michael Jackson was guilty of some sick crimes and so should be condemned. But for most of us, he was wrongly accused because he lived a life that was not understood by those who believed that he was guilty. He was made a victim by the uninnocent and paid a huge price for it. This is what happens to most of us as we grow up.

May Michael Jackson Rest In Peace.

Is there a world wide race to the bottom on human rights to drive people out? Governments everywhere have been mistreating people to drive them out. The US government is no exception. Read this “Homeland Security Is Ordered to Respond to Petition on Immigration Jails” and you will get a sense that the US government is purposely ignoring the rights of immigrant detainees in order to force them to drop their appeals and accept deportation.

Similarly, the US government has also been trying its best to make legal immigration almost impossible to most people. As a result a huge under class of people has been created from immigrants who are in legal limbo or are labeled as illegal.

Why does it have to be like this? Who will benefit from it?

By the way, from the article mentioned above, I can also see why it is a good thing that the US judiciary system is independent from the executive branch. This check and balance is the reason why human rights are more protected in the US than in a country where there is no such check and balance, which is often time a third world country. And protection of human rights is one of the factors that draw people to developed countries like the US.

• I just stumbled upon my own profile on Talking Points Memo that I had three years ago. I find my own comments to be so interesting that I am posting them here (with some small grammar corrections) to keep a record of them.

• Posted at April 3, 2006 7:46 AM in response to Krugman Gets It

• “Support controlling the underpoliced U.S.-Mexican border, by means of partial fencing and a greatly expanded Border Patrol.”

  I think it is possible to build a wall along the Mexican border. It is only about two thousand miles long. Look at The Great Wall in China. If the Chinese were able to build a wall of four thousand miles long several hundred years ago without any modern technology, why wouldn’t Americans be able to build a wall of half the length now with all the modern technologies?

  A wall like The Great Wall in China will not only protect Americans, it can also become a tourist attraction and provide jobs for Mexicans. They can work on the building of the wall. They can also work on making it more attractive to tourists by doing things like building Little Mexicos along the border. They can even build tunnels underneath the wall like those tunnels built by the Palestinians in Gaza. The tunnels can be a tourist attraction as well.

  Posted at March 29, 2006 7:19 AM in response to Progressives Should…

• “Support  temporary work visas leading to citizenship for most non-criminal illegal immigrants now in the U.S., whether they have jobs or not.”

  I think that is a great idea. Laws should not be made in employers interests only. It should be made in workers’ interests as well. The fact that these workers are not yet US citizens does not mean that they do not deserve as many human rights as US citizens do. If American workers do not support non-American workers’ rights, their rights will be in jeopardy as well. Workers need to be united. Worker unions have been created for this same reason.

  Posted at March 29, 2006 7:06 AM in response to Progressives Should…

• Isn’t that exactly why you need to legalize them so they can fight for their rights just like you?

  By keeping them illegal, you are just helping the emloyers to continue exploiting them.

  Posted at March 26, 2006 11:43 AM in response to Borderline Insanity: The Democrats Commit Suicide Over Immigration

• I see two main reasons for people to oppose the legalization of illegal immigrants.

  1. They blame illegal immigrants for breaking laws and fail to see the US government’s responsibility for creating this whole illegal immigration phenomena.

  I think that the US government is to blame for these reasons:

  A. There are many jobs in the service sector that can only be filled by people who are already in the US. For example, a restaurant owner can not afford to fly a cook from another country to the US and fly him back if he does not turn out to be a good fit.

  B. The US government does not offer visas for people to come to the US to look for jobs. Right now foreigners can come to the US to work only if they already have got a job offer before they come. But for jobs that I just mentioned, foreigners can not get job offers before they come. As a result, there are jobs in the US that can not be filled. And there are foreigners who want to come to look for jobs but can not get the visas to come.

  2. They blame illegal immigrants for bringing down the wages. But illegal immigrants want to get paid as much as Americans. The reason why they can not get as much compensation is that they do not have the legal mean to do so. Americans should help them out. Blaming them will not solve any problem.

  Posted at March 25, 2006 3:13 PM in response to Borderline Insanity: The Democrats Commit Suicide Over Immigration

• “Normally if a business has difficulty attracting workers it offers a better deal.”

  What if the business will not be profitable and will have to close if they offer better compensation to workers?

  You may be tempted to say, well let them close. But let me ask you this.

  What would you like to do when do not have time to cook? Here are four options:

  1. Order a frozen prepared meal for $5.
  2. Order a meal for $10 from a restaurant that does not hire illegal immigrants.
  3. Order a meal for $5 from a restaurant that hires illegal immigrants.
  4. Skip the meal.

  A. How many times in a month do you wish you do not have to cook?
  B. How many times in a month can you afford to choose option 2 and pay $10 for a meal?
  C. How many times in a month can you choose option 4 and skip a meal?
  D. How many times in a month would you like to choose option 1 and eat frozen food?
  E. How many times in a month do you need to choose option 3?

  Obviously, for many people, the total number of times they can choose options 1, 2, and 4 is less than the total number of times they wish they do not have to cook. That is why those restaurants that hire illegal immigrants can survive.

  Posted at March 25, 2006 2:05 PM in response to Borderline Insanity: The Democrats Commit Suicide Over Immigration

• Who is keeping a two-tier labor market?

  Realistically, is there a way to send illegal immigrants back to their home country without using force?

  What is it going to be like to have police searching every home to find illegal immigrants and round them up? Are you prepare to learn from Nazi?

  If they are going to stay here, why do you want to keep them illegal?

•  

Immigration is probably the biggest money making business in the world. People are willing to spend their life savings for a chance to live in a country of their dream. Because of this, you can find the most wicked scam artists and the most heartless extortionists in this business.

Because of the immigration restrictions in this country, this business is thriving more than ever. The more the government cracks down on illegal immigration, the more money there is to make in this business.

Many people made the mistake of trying to maintain a legal status and fell prey to all kinds of immigration scams.

What is worse, after they have become victims of immigration scams, they have to pay immigration lawyers as much as or twice as much as they had paid immigration scam artists to clear their names.

It is much better if people just stay illegal and fight for changes in immigration laws so they can become legal, rather than to pay all these immigration scam artists and immigration lawyers to become legal.

This has happened to me three times. Once for website evaluation. Once for business plan writing. Once for patent filing. In all cases, all I got was a copy of another website evaluation, or business plan, or patent, with the names and some content being changed to mine.

These professionals or firms, one of whom claimed to be a lawyer, did not know how to do the work or did not want to spend the time to work on the project. So they just copied from another project and made some small changes.

Of course such service does not produce anything that has any value. At best, it is a waist of time and money. At worst, it can hurt your chances of getting something that you could get by doing it yourself or hiring qualified and responsible professionals. For example, in the case of patent filing, you may get your patent denied because of a lousy patent application. So be very careful in choosing who you hire.

Looking for work depends so much on connections and luck that people are often willing to pay for employment scams. And those who want to scam often try this trick even on people who are not looking for work.

I once hired a business consultant to help me with my business. Instead of helping me with my business, he tried to get me interested in a high paying job which I was not looking for at the time. But I was willing to give it a try, not knowing that he was using that to get me to continue paying him for business consulting that he could not offer.

Job hunting is hard. But it is not likely that you will get help from people who promise you jobs for a fee. So don’t fall for this kind of scams.

Scams and extortion are very common. And the more money is involved, the more likely it will be a scam or an extortion. You can go bankrupt after being scammed or extorted a few times. So try your best to avoid being scammed or extorted. Here are a few things you can and should do to protect yourself.

1. Do it yourself.

Try your best to do it yourself. It may not sound like something to be recommended in a society where people specialize in different areas and count on their specialties to make a living. However, there are a few reasons why it is better to do it yourself. Firstly, you know what you want to get done better than anyone else. Secondly, you are most driven to your cause. Thirdly, you don’t have to pay for it. When other people are asked to do something for you, even if they get paid for it, they are not motivated. They get annoyed for being asked to do something. They try to get away with as much as possible. The only thing they are interested in is money. They will do everything they can to get as much money from you as possible. This sounds unethical and should not be the norm. But it is a human nature. Human beings are simply not perfect and a lot of time, unethical.

A lot of time we hire other people because we do not want to learn something that we may never need to know again. Imagine, if you are not willing to learn something for yourself, how much would other people want to learn to do it for you. Most professionals have to learn on the job even if they have got degrees in their fields or many years of experience in their fields. If there is anything that does not require human labor, it could have been done by a machine or a program.

A lot of time we hire other people because we are not sure if we are able to do it correctly or if we will achieve our goals. Keep in mind, it will be just as hard for the people we hire to do it correctly. And if it is hard for us to achieve our goals, it is just as hard for them. I have made this mistake so many times. I thought people with experience would be able to deliver what I want to be delivered. But it always turned out to be not the case. I always found out later on that I could have done a better job than them if I had tried to do it myself. And it would not have cost me so much money.

A lot of professionals are more skilled in getting money from us than doing their jobs.

2. Do a lot of research and comparison before making a decision on who to hire.

If you can not do it yourself, before hiring someone, do some research on that person. And before that, try to find as many potential candidates as possible and compare them. You will learn a lot about the trade when you compare them. The good ones will tell you what to look for and what to avoid. Jumping on anyone you think are competent enough without doing any research is dangerous. There are so many people who are waiting to prey on us. If we do not have enough of experience, it is very easy to get misled by those who prey on us and give them the money without knowing how to get the money back if they do not deliver what they promise. In fact, the most common mistake people make is to pay for promises, not results.

Talking about results, I must stress the next precaution is very important.

3. Be mindful of the red flags.

Sometimes, people do deliver results. But how they get the results delivered is even more important. You may be found responsible for what they did in your name to get the results you want. Make sure that you can get them to take responsibilities for what they do in your name. If it looks like there is a chance that you may not be able to find them after you get what you paid for, don’t take the risk.

In terms of red flags, trust your instinct. Most of us have good instinct. We just don’t follow our instinct. We like to take risks. Most risks are indeed risks. But we are so desperate for what we want that we are blind to the risks we take. Remember, whenever there is money involved, 50% risk is 100% risk. If there is only a 50% chance that you can get what you pay for, you are more likely to not get it.

With all of these said, there is no one who can avoid all the scams and extortion. So make sure that we learn all the different ways to get our money back and fight hard to get our money back, even if we have to lobby for changes in the laws. Collectively, we can try to reduce the amount of scams and extortion in our society.

Here are a list of places where we can submit disputes or file complaints:

1. Dispute the charges on our credit cards is the first step that we can take to get our money back if we pay with credit cards. Don’t count on it though. Especially when large amount of money is involved. Credit cards services want to make money. So they are not inclined to help us. If there is any possibility that there can be a dispute, use other means of payment that have good reputations in protecting consumers.

2. When dealing with national banks and their credit card services, file complaints to the Office of the Controller of the Currency. When dealing with local banks and their credit card services, file complaints to the State Banking Department of the state the banks belong to. This can be helpful somewhat. But this is not the best place to get our grievances addressed because they are actually there for the banks, not for us.

3. We may also want to try out the Federal Trade Commission because there is a place to file complaints against businesses on their website. I have not got any result from this place yet. But it does not hurt to try.

4. The Offices of the Attorney General of all states also offer to help. I have seen people getting their money back by complaining to the Offices of the Attorney General. They seem to be rather helpful.

5. The Better Business Bureau. This one has not been helpful to me. But it may be helpful to some.

The news of the New York State Attorney General cracking down on debt collection agencies who collect debt that consumers do not owe reminds me of the harassment I got from a collection agency hired by Columbia University.

It was years after I briefly attended Columbia University when I got the phone harassment from that collection agency. At first, they would not tell me what I owed Columbia University. But I thought there was nothing that I had to pay Columbia University other than tuition. So I faxed them the receipt from Columbia University for the tuition that I had paid and told them that I would not have been able to take classes if I had not paid my tuition. After some time, they told me that I owed Columbia University health insurance. It was a big surprise for me because I was never offered any health insurance by Columbia University. I asked them why I had to pay for health insurance that I had never got. They said I was supposed to pay for health insurance as an international student. Nobody had told me that before. If that was the rule, they should have told me before I paid for the tuition, not years later.

And can you guess how much they wanted from me for one month of health insurance? Over $600. And that was not it. They charged another $300 plus for being over due and had to be collected. So they wanted almost $1000 from me for something that they had never offered.

As a student from China, going to Columbia University is like going to Harvard for an American. Can you imagine what we have got from Columbia University for all the admiration we had for it?

By the way, there are two other things that I did not like about Columbia University: racism in their curriculum and their teachers, and thieves on their campus.