That suit against SoLongSuckerman was prodigious in its audacity. At the time the company was only valued at a couple billion, but the suitors asked the judge to close down Facebook and transfer all assets to them based on some dorm scuttlebutt.
Read labor economist George Borjas, whose work shows that the most recent waves of unskilled immigrants have drastically driven down wages for working class citizens (plus, they disproportionately end up on welfare). The people being displaced and paying the cost of exploitation of unskilled immigrant labor are not the middle class, but the working class (often people of color). It's tough reading for progressives, but there's no point burying our heads in the sand.
Less than 10% of immigrants admitted legally have any skills whatsoever, and that number would be cut way lower if you included undocumented immigrants. A miniscule, insignificant number have anything remotely like the skills of Sanjay Mavinkurve.
There's some wisdom in populist "dey took r jobs" talk, though it's more like "rapacious-greed-driven exploitation of dem took r jobs." There are good reasons to accept the poor, tired, huddled masses, but we need to rhetorically acknowledge what's really going on.
@Solomon Grundy: Most unskilled legals are foreign temps, so thy don't "end up" on welfare. As soon as their job ends or they're fired they must leave the country. Many do not and become illegal residents.
"Less than 10% of immigrants admitted legally have any skills whatsoever, and that number would be cut way lower if you included undocumented immigrants."
I would have to disagree with that, unless you are not counting the H2-A workers. Nearly every person picking produce in the fields in American today (at least in major commercial farming operations) is a foreign temp or an undocumented laborer.
@gawkimo: By the way, i don't agrew with blaming migrants for wage suppression.
Migrants didn't decide to declare $10,401 a year above the poverty line for a single person. Migrants don't complain that paying higher wages would be bad for the economy. The predominately Republican pro-business community has for years whittled away at wages and benefits under completely disproven supply side economic arguments.
These are the same folks that lobby for MORE unskilled workers because they know that they do not pay wages that an American can afford to take, so they opt for the indentured economic slave form abroad.
These aren't "jobs Americans won't do" (in the words of Georage Bush) -- these are jobs Americans can't afford to take because they don't offer living wages.
The growing dependence on immigrants to fill these gaps is not the fault of immigrants -- it's the fault of our entire system that says that $10,401 is considered above the poverty line.
If you want to know how wages are being suppressed for these jobs: head over to FLCDataCenter.com and compare the offered prevailing wage to the average wages paid for these jobs (data available at the DOL website).
The entire system is designed to favor economic slaves over Americans and the only reason why you can (still) get construction job in America today is thanks to the work of LIBERAL HISPANICS in Congress (the Hispanic Caucus) which actively opposes increasing quotas for non-agricultural visas.
A million immigrants can illegally come through the southern border every year but one smart Indian can't get a work permit? This is a WTF moment if there ever was.
@Pinekatz: That's the pickle, isn't it? The immigration system is so convoluted with hoop-jumping, it punishes those who follow the rules, and discourages everyone else from legally applying.
H1-B is for people with college degrees (IT techies)
H2-A is for agricultural laborers (the guy who picks your lettuce)
H2-B is for non-agricultural laborers (the woman who removed the semen-stained sheets from your Marriott hotel suite. I say Marriott because this hotel chain in particular has spent 100s of thousands of $$ lobbying to increase H2-B visas quotas.)
So actually, a lot of those "illegals" aren't -- they're here legally just like that Indian IT guy -- doing, as Bush famously put it, "jobs Americans won't do."
(It has been a long standing Republican policy to increase visas quotas for lower-skilled workers because they complain less because they're "at will" and if they're fired they get deported, so they're not "uppity" like American workers and you can exploit them and not pay their overtime and you don't have to pay workmen's comp. So anyone who tries to tell you that Republicans are into protecting American jobs don't know what they're talking about. Republicans want to increase H2-B and H2-A visas quotas so they can hire eocnomic slaves instead of American citizens and pay them less. The stereotype of the hard working immigrants comes in part from the fact that they have fewer rights so they're more obedient to their masters who often hold their passports and who can deport them for any reasons at any time.)
BY the way, last September one camapign stop in Pennsylvania, Obama defended increasing H2-B visa quotas by saying America should have no problem with allowing people with technical skills into the country to work.
Fine, except for one small problem: Obama doesn't seem to know the difference between H1-B and H2-B visas.
So my point is that not every Mexican who is roofing a house or picking strawberries is here illegally.
@gawkimo: Oops sorry. Let me correct myself: there is no quota for H2-Agricultural visas, which is why the entire American agricultural economy would collapse without these immigrant workers (either that or you'd have to pay a lot more for your lettuce because you'd actually have to provide basic human rights to the American workers working in their stead).
But yeah, Republicans (and most Democrats for that matter) woudl really prefer to give all of these jobs over to lower-paid foreign temps who have fewer rights and entitlements.
@Pinekatz: I'm having my own WTF moment since you've just suggested a) that the "illegals" coming through the southern border are stupid and b) that this guy's wife, who we learn virtually nothing about in these articles, is "smart", presumably because she's Indian?
@RealTomatoKetchup: Like, basically every self-proclaimed immigration expert on cable, for one thing. Alls I's sayin' is that there's an underclass of LEGALS and not many people seem to recognize that.
@gawkimo: By the way for what it's worth, the problem has nothing to do with H1-B workers. They should be given Green Cards and encouraged to become naturalized Americans.
@ShinyMcShine: Shiny, I didn't say a thing about illegals being stupid. You did. Ms. Padukone attended college so I'm assuming she is "smart" enough to attend college. Remember, she's the one who can't get the work visa. And since you brought it up, I live in California and over the years I have gotten to know dozens of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Not a single one of them had a college degree. But I live just outside Silicon Valley and know a handful of Indians and they all seem to have graduate degrees, including the Indian who signs my paychecks. So, what was your point again?
@ShinyMcShine: Well, she can read smoke signals by sight.
What I cannot understand is why an international company needs to be situated in the US. The Canucks don't have fits and starts, and their banking system is humming along nicely, so why is this the center of the universe?
I know. In a word, snow. But there's video chat for the days you cannot leave the house.
@KidPresentable: Our first sergeant during one formation extolled the virtues of a certain type of cheap lock sold at the PX. "They'll surely keep an honest guy outta your locker!"
Most security features are for the ease of mind of the property owner and the annoyance of the innocent.
He is more like a kid on a tour through a chocolate factory than a serious leader. In fact, he doesn't speak to shareholders, he speaks to widget developers. At a super cereal "F8" summit.
He honestly thinks of himself as some sort of civil rights leader. Yet:
What is a Zuckerberg movement?
- A business
- That doesn't earn revenue
- Solely funded by venture capital funded
- Proprietary to the point where "openness" has no meaning outside the site.
- Facebook Connect, Widgets. None of these show any software portability, let alone open source.
- While touting privacy features, the idea of making an account period is giving privacy away. That's like saying, Why not put this vial of HIV in your body, We'll help you manage it!
Can't you see? There is NOTHING that can save this site. Yahoo has better and more revenue-earning features and they can't even stay up.
If you think Sheryl Sandberg, wife of a VC can save facebook, you're clearly tweaked out.
Where is the merit? Everyone in web 2.0 is a best buddy. The true businessmen that can help (read Winklevoss) are being screwed over.
It's the fallacy of Ivy League. While you have connections, you may not have the one's you really need. Or you may steal their code and make them sue you instead of help the business they made.
Everything this kid done is conducive for a 13 year old running a turnkey Vbulletin of Invision Power Board site.
I gotta be straight with you, if these sharp young lads ran Facebook, I'd join. They look like Harry Osborn from Spiderman. Hell, they'd probably turn in some decent profit and maybe get a big media buyout. Whatever the case, I would show bright optimism in their leadership. They are capitalists, truth seekers, and probably could deal seriously at the helm.
That means no zombie gobbledegook. A straight-forward, efficiently ran business. Afterall, the website is supposedly toned with authenticity. This is supposed to be the authority of all sociality.
Then of course, there's Zuckerberg. Who probably couldn't manage a fucking Arby's. Enjoy facebook while it lasts. This kid's going to run it into the sea. You may as well pick a CEO hell bent on sabotaging his own business, because you're going to get the same result. This is like a nightmare. Imagine the beautiful prom queen having to date some pretentious aspergian trekky with a big nose. It's surreal shit.
We never see the details. I wanta see the details. Like, originally the judge said, "I'll have to see something more than dorm chat," suggesting he hadn't at that point. So, what was in evidence? I was curious, but these settlements don't allow anybody to talk about the particulars.
Sidestory: I knew someone who had an uncle who served in the Army with the most decorated soldier of WWII, Audie Murphy, who made the law. Uncle said, we had to wash his mess kit for him. Said the niece, they do all the work and he gets the glory.
I learned from that how wide be the nexus sometimes between reality and presumption. Like, Audie Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor for the World's Cleanes Messkit?
While FB looks solid than Myspace, the fact is that down in history it will be FB the company that people will point as a case study of business failure.
Myspace founders were even more clueless, but if they knew something is that their idea wasn't as cool as they thought, and that any buy offer they got was to be considered as pure gold.
FB on the other hand used to mock most buy attempts saying they were worth much more than that.
FB's founders failure was to actually believe what they were telling to the media: that their business was a solid rock and that it would change the media and how people see the world.
I cannot beleive that there are still people who are dumb enough to think that the Microsoft deal in 2007 actually put a $15 Billion value on Facebook. And my god...you get PAID to write about tech? The VAST majority of the money that Microsoft paid was for the continuation of their advertising deal...NOT for ownership. At NO point in 2007 did anyone at either Microsoft or Facebook think that the site was worth $15 billion.
@SamataFlaccus: You could argue, though, that if that's what MSFT paid for the advertising, the company is worth even more than the valuation suggested.
Also, "You get PAID to write about X???!!!111one!" is a loser's criticism if I've ever heard one.
"The prospect of a death spiral is very real." Hogwash. If Facebook turned on one tiny-little brand-friendly ad, maybe a Gawker-esque site skinning?, problem solved.
So we're coming to terms with the fact that no amount of capital can make a dumb PHP script lucrative.
That's some breakthrough science right there. If only the millions of sheep that flocked to that (para)site knew better.
What about the widget economy and RockYou's $35Million? I mean, people honestly think that if they're not on facebook they will "miss out" on opportunity. Unfuckingbelievable.
If you consider the fakebook generation a positive thing, what did it bring you? Wasted time with nothing in return? Shitty gags? You stalking people? People stalking you? Pretending that's not the purpose of the site? You're all equally guilty.
Has anyone here honestly "Hooked up" via facebook? Are you kidding me? People are self-absorbed sperm... The most popular view of FB users is their own profile, and the rest of the % to a love interest they stalk. Therefore I declare these sperm muse be starved of their vital flow nutrients.
It's like the boost mobile with Aquateen Hungerforce. Like a cellphone is your gateway to opportunity. People, the real world doesn't work this way. It's not like facebook is populated with winners. It's literally a place for the smegma of our society. The wannabes. The self-conscience, drama-seeking, shallow sheeple... And like all smegma, it will come to be washed during our economic cleansing period.
04/12/09
04/12/09
There is no point of even mentioning the immigration debate when we have an immature hack taking credit, rising, just to crash it into the ground.
Zuckerberg didn't create facebook's success. Remember the bubble song? "Partly skill, mostly luck"
Flight school and MBA's exist for a reason. Zuckerberg barely could match an Indian at PHP and dropped out of college.
Media... It's amazing how if you add a prestigious school, followed by -dropout, it's as if they graduated valedictorian and are rampant successes.
He's just another idiot kid riding a bubble.
04/12/09
Less than 10% of immigrants admitted legally have any skills whatsoever, and that number would be cut way lower if you included undocumented immigrants. A miniscule, insignificant number have anything remotely like the skills of Sanjay Mavinkurve.
There's some wisdom in populist "dey took r jobs" talk, though it's more like "rapacious-greed-driven exploitation of dem took r jobs." There are good reasons to accept the poor, tired, huddled masses, but we need to rhetorically acknowledge what's really going on.
04/12/09
"Less than 10% of immigrants admitted legally have any skills whatsoever, and that number would be cut way lower if you included undocumented immigrants."
I would have to disagree with that, unless you are not counting the H2-A workers. Nearly every person picking produce in the fields in American today (at least in major commercial farming operations) is a foreign temp or an undocumented laborer.
04/12/09
Migrants didn't decide to declare $10,401 a year above the poverty line for a single person. Migrants don't complain that paying higher wages would be bad for the economy. The predominately Republican pro-business community has for years whittled away at wages and benefits under completely disproven supply side economic arguments.
These are the same folks that lobby for MORE unskilled workers because they know that they do not pay wages that an American can afford to take, so they opt for the indentured economic slave form abroad.
These aren't "jobs Americans won't do" (in the words of Georage Bush) -- these are jobs Americans can't afford to take because they don't offer living wages.
The growing dependence on immigrants to fill these gaps is not the fault of immigrants -- it's the fault of our entire system that says that $10,401 is considered above the poverty line.
If you want to know how wages are being suppressed for these jobs: head over to FLCDataCenter.com and compare the offered prevailing wage to the average wages paid for these jobs (data available at the DOL website).
The entire system is designed to favor economic slaves over Americans and the only reason why you can (still) get construction job in America today is thanks to the work of LIBERAL HISPANICS in Congress (the Hispanic Caucus) which actively opposes increasing quotas for non-agricultural visas.
04/12/09
We educate their children, as we should. Illegal immigration is not enhancing this country in any positive way.
04/12/09
04/12/09
04/12/09
H1-B is for people with college degrees (IT techies)
H2-A is for agricultural laborers (the guy who picks your lettuce)
H2-B is for non-agricultural laborers (the woman who removed the semen-stained sheets from your Marriott hotel suite. I say Marriott because this hotel chain in particular has spent 100s of thousands of $$ lobbying to increase H2-B visas quotas.)
So actually, a lot of those "illegals" aren't -- they're here legally just like that Indian IT guy -- doing, as Bush famously put it, "jobs Americans won't do."
(It has been a long standing Republican policy to increase visas quotas for lower-skilled workers because they complain less because they're "at will" and if they're fired they get deported, so they're not "uppity" like American workers and you can exploit them and not pay their overtime and you don't have to pay workmen's comp. So anyone who tries to tell you that Republicans are into protecting American jobs don't know what they're talking about. Republicans want to increase H2-B and H2-A visas quotas so they can hire eocnomic slaves instead of American citizens and pay them less. The stereotype of the hard working immigrants comes in part from the fact that they have fewer rights so they're more obedient to their masters who often hold their passports and who can deport them for any reasons at any time.)
BY the way, last September one camapign stop in Pennsylvania, Obama defended increasing H2-B visa quotas by saying America should have no problem with allowing people with technical skills into the country to work.
Fine, except for one small problem: Obama doesn't seem to know the difference between H1-B and H2-B visas.
So my point is that not every Mexican who is roofing a house or picking strawberries is here illegally.
04/12/09
But yeah, Republicans (and most Democrats for that matter) woudl really prefer to give all of these jobs over to lower-paid foreign temps who have fewer rights and entitlements.
04/12/09
04/12/09
04/12/09
04/12/09
04/12/09
04/12/09
What I cannot understand is why an international company needs to be situated in the US. The Canucks don't have fits and starts, and their banking system is humming along nicely, so why is this the center of the universe?
I know. In a word, snow. But there's video chat for the days you cannot leave the house.
04/12/09
Most security features are for the ease of mind of the property owner and the annoyance of the innocent.
04/12/09
04/12/09
04/12/09
Am I the only Jew, or person, in the Gawker house today?
::Peeks into Gawker medicine cabinet::
::Tries on Gawker stilettos and boa::
::Drinks copiously from Gawker wet bar; fills up nearly empty vodka bottle with water::
::Eats olives, left-over Chinese, spoonful of peanut butter, canned frosting from Gawker kitchen::
04/12/09
04/12/09
Now lets be real Jews and crack the Gakwer safe before the goys come back.. Yeidel Deidel..
02/17/09
02/15/09
Zuckerberg joined the McDonalds Network!
02/16/09
lmao
02/16/09
He is more like a kid on a tour through a chocolate factory than a serious leader. In fact, he doesn't speak to shareholders, he speaks to widget developers. At a super cereal "F8" summit.
He honestly thinks of himself as some sort of civil rights leader. Yet:
What is a Zuckerberg movement?
- A business
- That doesn't earn revenue
- Solely funded by venture capital funded
- Proprietary to the point where "openness" has no meaning outside the site.
- Facebook Connect, Widgets. None of these show any software portability, let alone open source.
- While touting privacy features, the idea of making an account period is giving privacy away. That's like saying, Why not put this vial of HIV in your body, We'll help you manage it!
Can't you see? There is NOTHING that can save this site. Yahoo has better and more revenue-earning features and they can't even stay up.
If you think Sheryl Sandberg, wife of a VC can save facebook, you're clearly tweaked out.
Where is the merit? Everyone in web 2.0 is a best buddy. The true businessmen that can help (read Winklevoss) are being screwed over.
It's the fallacy of Ivy League. While you have connections, you may not have the one's you really need. Or you may steal their code and make them sue you instead of help the business they made.
Everything this kid done is conducive for a 13 year old running a turnkey Vbulletin of Invision Power Board site.
02/17/09
02/15/09
That means no zombie gobbledegook. A straight-forward, efficiently ran business. Afterall, the website is supposedly toned with authenticity. This is supposed to be the authority of all sociality.
Then of course, there's Zuckerberg. Who probably couldn't manage a fucking Arby's. Enjoy facebook while it lasts. This kid's going to run it into the sea. You may as well pick a CEO hell bent on sabotaging his own business, because you're going to get the same result. This is like a nightmare. Imagine the beautiful prom queen having to date some pretentious aspergian trekky with a big nose. It's surreal shit.
This is no Microsoft.
02/15/09
02/16/09
02/15/09
Sidestory: I knew someone who had an uncle who served in the Army with the most decorated soldier of WWII, Audie Murphy, who made the law. Uncle said, we had to wash his mess kit for him. Said the niece, they do all the work and he gets the glory.
I learned from that how wide be the nexus sometimes between reality and presumption. Like, Audie Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor for the World's Cleanes Messkit?
A rainy Sunday ...
02/12/09
Myspace founders were even more clueless, but if they knew something is that their idea wasn't as cool as they thought, and that any buy offer they got was to be considered as pure gold.
FB on the other hand used to mock most buy attempts saying they were worth much more than that.
FB's founders failure was to actually believe what they were telling to the media: that their business was a solid rock and that it would change the media and how people see the world.
02/12/09
02/12/09
Also, "You get PAID to write about X???!!!111one!" is a loser's criticism if I've ever heard one.
02/12/09
02/12/09
That's some breakthrough science right there. If only the millions of sheep that flocked to that (para)site knew better.
What about the widget economy and RockYou's $35Million? I mean, people honestly think that if they're not on facebook they will "miss out" on opportunity. Unfuckingbelievable.
If you consider the fakebook generation a positive thing, what did it bring you? Wasted time with nothing in return? Shitty gags? You stalking people? People stalking you? Pretending that's not the purpose of the site? You're all equally guilty.
Has anyone here honestly "Hooked up" via facebook? Are you kidding me? People are self-absorbed sperm... The most popular view of FB users is their own profile, and the rest of the % to a love interest they stalk. Therefore I declare these sperm muse be starved of their vital flow nutrients.
It's like the boost mobile with Aquateen Hungerforce. Like a cellphone is your gateway to opportunity. People, the real world doesn't work this way. It's not like facebook is populated with winners. It's literally a place for the smegma of our society. The wannabes. The self-conscience, drama-seeking, shallow sheeple... And like all smegma, it will come to be washed during our economic cleansing period.
02/12/09