I’ve worked in high technology consulting the past few years and I was shocked at the number of foreign workers at wireless and telecom companies here in San Diego. I’d put the number at over 50%. At a meeting two years ago at the local office of one of the worlds largest cell phone companies (a Finnish company) there were 35 attendees and all of them were from another country. Most were from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

Is it the case that there are no qualified Americans willing to take these jobs? Somehow I doubt that, although I don’t have the statistics. If that is the case then we should start offering full rides to anyone in this country who agrees to get an engineering degree and work in the field for at least 5 years. We could pay for this by doing what the entire world thinks we are doing already in the Persian Gulf. We could capture all of the oil fields in the oil rich and less populated southern part of Iraq, and even consider annexing Kuwait and the oil rich parts of Saudi Arabia.

Could it also be the case that companies are bringing these guys in because they’re cheaper?