Thread: Gates Implores More Sugar From Congress

From the VDARE Blog: Gates Implores More Sugar From Congress
By Randall Burns

Marcus Courtney writes at Washtech.org

Washington D.C. - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told U.S. Senators today that the country is facing an "acute crisis" in its shortage of engineering professionals and those professionals with the right skills will be guaranteed a good paying job.

Gates declared, "The demand worldwide will guarantee them all jobs. Anyone in the United States, not only will they have a high paying job; they will create many around them. We are increasing our employment."

Gates' rare appearance before the Senate Health Education Labor and Pension Committee today urged passage of a bill titled "Strengthening American Competitiveness for the 21st Century." The committee only heard testimony from the Microsoft Chairman.

On a number of occasions during the hearing Gates cited the salary figure of $100,000 as what his company is paying engineering professionals.

Now, you can just look at the records of Microsoft's visa applications and it is pretty easy to see that Microsoft isn't paying $100,000 per year for most of its foreign employees. To put this into perspective, registered nurses in the Seattle area earn around $40/hour.

The only senator that showed any backbone with respect to interactions with
the mogul Gates was Socialist Bernie Sanders. Anne Broache writes at ZDNet:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came the closest to a clash with the Microsoft chairman. The senator expressed concern about the extent to which the information technology sector has engaged in outsourcing over the past few years, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics figures reporting that the U.S. tech sector lost 644,000 jobs between January 2001 and 2006.

"I think you would probably agree that many major corporations, including your own, if they can hire qualified labor, engineers, scientists in India or China for a fraction of the wages being paid in the U.S., they are going to go there," Sanders said.

Gates got adulation from folks like Teddy Kennedy and Orrin Hatch suitably reflecting the level of campaign contributions coming from Microsoft.

Now, the scam here of course, Gates makes his money in large part by diluting the value of other American's citizenship rights. The current value of each H-1b visa is around $100,000--and Gates pays a fraction of that for each one he uses. Adjusting the prices of these visas would be a step in the right direction, but strong measures are needed to address the existence of the predatory wealthy in the United States. Measures should include enactment of direct taxes on large estates like those of Mr. Gates.

If you want to email or print out, format by clicking on this permanent URL:
http://blog.vdare.com/?p=2308

http://www.vdare.com/

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came the closest to a clash with the Microsoft chairman.

I saw this senator talking on the Senate floor yesterday. He really is a patriot and had alot of good ideas for straightening up the financial problems of this country.

He knows what greedy corporate America is up to and I'm glad he called Gates on it.

Gates, Buffett Top Billionaires Ranking

Mar 8, 10:14 PM (ET)

By JACKIE FARWELL

(AP) Warren Buffett is shown after a news conference in this June 26, 2006, file photo in New York....
Full Image



Hoover's Fortune 500 List - Get a Free Downloadable Fortune 500 List From Hoover's, a D&B Company
www.hoovers.com



NEW YORK (AP) - What could a Chinese dumpling maker and Mexican telecom mogul possibly have in common? They're among a record number of wealthy people who held the title of billionaire over the past year. The tally of billionaires around the globe reached a high of 946, their combined wealth growing 35 percent to $3.5 trillion, according to Forbes magazine's 2007 rankings of the world's richest people.

The rich cashed in on strong equity markets, real estate and commodity prices worldwide, according to Forbes billionaires co-editor Luisa Kroll.

"It's just been kind of an extraordinary year for markets worldwide," she said.

Leading the list are two men who manage to keep getting richer as they give more and more money away. Microsoft founder Bill Gates ranked No. 1 for the 13th straight year, beating out friend and fellow philanthropist Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA)


(AP) Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates speaks in this Feb. 26, 2007 file photo in Seattle. Forbes...
Full Image


Gates's fortune rose $6 billion to $56 billion last year, while Buffett garnered in an additional $10 billion to boost his net worth to $52 billion.

Only five Americans ranked in the top 20, though they account for 44 percent of the overall list.

Breathing down Buffett's neck was Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim Helu, who added $19 billion to his existing fortune, the largest one-year gain over the past decade. With $49 billion to his name, Helu was just $3 billion shy of the No. 2 spot.

Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) chairman Howard Schultz and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner joined the ranks of the world's richest for the first time, behind new faces Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, Canadian co-chiefs of Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd.

Self-made mogul Li Wei, founder of Synear Food Holding, made the list for the first time along with a dozen other Chinese newcomers. Her company, one of the country's largest producers of frozen food, including sweet and meat dumplings, is an official supplier to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

All bets were off for online gambling moguls Ruth Parasol, Russell DeLeon and Calvin Ayre, who dropped from the list after recent crackdowns limiting offshore gambling Web sites.

Bumped from the top 20 were the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) heirs, who saw their company's stock languish, and Michael Dell, founder of computer maker Dell Inc. (DELL) Losing billionaire status entirely was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the once-powerful Japanese industrialist who first topped the tally in 1987.

Japan surrendered its title as Asia's leading billionaire locale to India, which boasts 36 megarich on the list. Russia contributed 53 billionaires and now challenges Germany as home to the most billionaires outside the United States.

Among three Indians in the wealthiest top 20 are Mukesh and Anil Ambani, feuding brothers who got even richer after dividing their fortunes in 2005. Mukesh Ambani ranked 14th with a $20.1 billion fortune, while brother Anil came in four places lower at No. 18 with his $18.2 billion.

The methodology of the rankings remains similar to previous years, Kroll said. The magazine confirmed the worth of an individual's holdings in public companies by using the Feb. 9 closing stock price, and estimated the value of private companies by evaluating comparable public firms in the industry and by consulting with experts in the field.


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070309/D8NOD2R00.html




I think Bill Gates is as greedy as they come. How do you suppose his net wealth went form 6 billion to 56 billion in ONE YEAR!
[/quote]

The current value of each H-1b visa is around $100,000

Hmm...let's see... $100k value and he hires engineers for around $20k.

Bill you are one greedy bastard and you already have more money than you can possibly spend in a life time.

When is enough, enough?