

Subcontractor Servitude - andrewl
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/opinion/subcontractor-servitude.html

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habosa
Every day I am newly amazed by the apparently limitless extent of modern
greed. People will do ANYTHING to make money, and it's truly incomprehensible
to me how far some will go.

These "recruiters" go to a foreign country, promise people a better life and
money for their families. They then put them in constructed slums, a service
for which they charge exorbitant rent to the inhabitants. They then create
random fees and regulations to reduce the worker's already tiny paycheck to
nearly-nothing. On top of all of that, they constantly threaten the workers
with legal action and deportation if they don't shut up and smile. All these
people wanted to do was clean toilets for minimum wage!

So these "recruiters" will treat a group of strangers like animals (actually,
worse than most American pets are treated) just to make some commission on the
very small wages they falsely promised to these workers. Their desire to make
a few dollars completely overrides any consideration of the people of whom
they are taking advantage or the families suffering overseas waiting for a
promised paycheck in the mail. In my mind this is morally worse than the wall
street brand of greed, because at least those investment bankers don't go out
of their way to treat individual people in a subhuman manner.

Excuse my language, but fuck all of that. Fuck those people and fuck whatever
system made this a profitable enterprise. I really don't know who these people
are or what to do about it, but I just wish I didn't have to live and work
with people who are so insufferably greedy. This is real evil.

~~~
r00fus
> Excuse my language, but fuck all of that. Fuck those people and fuck
> whatever system made this a profitable enterprise.

Sure. Who do you think made this system possible? Your answer lies in your own
rant above… those same investment bankers you think are less evil than these
subcontractors.

Think of it as tactical greed (i.e., on the ground, personally playing
Mephistopheles' part) vs. strategic greed (i.e., altering the rules of the
game such that conditions like this are profitable - in the meanwhile, gaining
untold profits for themselves).

~~~
habosa
Definitely wasn't trying to stick up for greedy bankers here, just saying
they're "dollars on paper" evil not "boots on the ground" evil.

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pbiggar
This reminds us of our privileged position in software. At the moment, it
would be difficult for an employer to do the same to a H1B software worker,
since you can basically walk into a new job in days. But when you haven't got
the protection of an incredibly strong job market, it appears you have no
protection at all.

~~~
yogo
Huh? Aren't you basically tied to an employer with H1B? I know you can move to
another company but my understanding was that the process is a bit involved.
Plus isn't part of the attraction of the H1B program being able to get skill
but pay them less than an American would try to negotiate?

It's better but overall it sounds like the same thing to me.

~~~
pbiggar
You aren't tied to an employer with a H1B. Your H1B is for one specific
employer, but you can transfer the H1B to another employer fairly easily,
given about 2 weeks notice.

I've negotiated fairly strongly for my past H1B jobs: again, the strong job
market allows this. If the market was weak, then there would be a danger that
an employer would have control over whether I could stay resident, and this
would provide them with strong leverage. I would be surprised if this was an
intended part of the H1B program though: I've certainly never seen anything
indicate that it is.

The sort of thing happening to the workers in the article is a form of
indentured servitude, which is widely regarded as slavery. I don't believe it
is ethical to hold this sort of power over an individual, and IMO, those
employers should face jail time. I find it hard to believe a this would be
designed into the H2B program.

~~~
tomjen3
Aren't any applications for Green Card reset when you move on to a new
employer?

~~~
pbiggar
It's not quite as simple as that, but there is a short window (~2 months I
think) where you can't change jobs or move country without resetting your
application. After that, you can move jobs but your new employer has to agree
to transfer the green card process too.

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gfunk911
the visas they have are for jobs u can't find americans for. i guess it would
be tough to find an american willing to live in horrifying slum and clean
toilets for $0/hr.....

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fiatmoney
It seems there was a "shortage" of American cleaners willing to work for what
employers were willing to pay (nothing, if possible), so they had to be
imported. Similarly, it seems there's a shortage of qualified programmers in
Silicon Valley. Good thing FWD.us and the like are working on solving that
problem!

