www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/Weinstein-GUI_NSF_SG_Complete_INET.pdf
How and Why Government, Universities, Universities, and Industry create domestic labor shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers
No wonder Vivec ran from a challenge by Eric R Weinstein, PhD.
The NSF created a false shortage prediction. It got the Immigration Act of 1990 passed. Appears to be a joint effort to keep domestic wages down. Whatever your view of Weinstein, and I have some more digging to do, this manipulation of wages and crying for foreign workers is the same thing we are facing now: people brought in who will do it for less and keep it that way. Why salaries have not kept up with other factors for a long time. I would encourage downloading and reading. Thanks to the anon who brought it here first.
Some quotes from the paper:
"So when you hear an employer saying he needs immigrants to fill a "labor shortage," remember what you are hearing: a cry for a labor subsidy to allow the employer to avoid the normal functioning of the labor market."
The NSF created a false shortage prediction. It got the Immigration Act of 1990 passed.
"Michael Teitelbaum, vice-chairman of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform and Officer of the Sloan Foundations concurred stating: "There is no shortage, there is a surplus. Claims that there was a dearth [of scientists and engineers] began a decade ago, when Erich Bloch, then-Director of the National Science Foundation, claimed that unless action was taken, there would be a cumulative shortfall of 675,000 scientists and engineers over the next two decades. Congress poured in additional money. The National Science Foundation received tens of millions of dollars for science and engineering education. And in 1990, Congress nearly tripled the number of permanent visas for highly skilled immigrants."
"Not surprisingly, the NSF supply-side 'scarcity' study was not viewed kindly by serious analysts. In fact, one of the great mysteries of this era was why the NSF, which had hired talented applied economists, would opt for a 'crank' methodology derided by skilled analysts. In the words of Howard Wolpe who lead the house investigation into the NSF irregularities: "The NSF study projected a shortfall of 675,000 scientists and engineers without considering the future demand for such individuals in the marketplace. It simply observed a decline in the number of 22-year-olds and projected that this demographic trend would result in a huge shortfall. This could be termed the supply-side theory of labor market analysis. But making labor market projections without considering the demand side of the equation doesn't pass the laugh test with experts in the field."
Howard Wolpe Authors David Berliner and Bruce Biddle, concurred in their book "The Manufactured Crisis": "In 1985 the National Science Foundation (NSF), no less, began an energetic campaign to sell the myth [of a shortage of scientists and engineers], basing its actions on a seriously flawed study that had been conducted by one of its own staff members. The study in question argued that supplies of scientists and engineers would shortly decline in America and that this meant we had to increase production of people with these skills. This thesis was dubious at best, but, worse, the study made no estimates of job-market demands for scientists and engineers. Thus, the researcher completely forgot to worry about whether these people were likely to find jobs." -David Berliner and Bruce Biddle, "The Manufactured Crisis", pg. 96"