Question

1. ?   5. The San Jose Mercury News reported that the current Administration is expected to suspend H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, among others, until the end of 2020. This program allows firms to hire up to 85,000 highly skilled foreign professionals each year (SJMN 6\24\20). Please discuss the potential costs and benefits of this policy. 6. What is a ‘right-to-work’ law, in theory?   7. What has happened to union membership in this country since 1960? Why? What are some of the forces behind this change?   8. In theory, what are some of the most important goals, and strategies, of unions?   9. In theory, what are some of the benefits, and costs, of unions? 10. Would you ever consider applying for, and working in, a job that is unionized? Why or why not? 11. What is a ‘monopsony’ in theory?

Answer 1

Question 5

The potential costs of this can be as follows -

• The companies will lose out on cheap labour from the labour abundant nations which will increase their costs of production
• This will also increase the final price of their commodities in the market and lead to inflation
• The companies will have to let go of many employees who they have already trained and that will lead to disruption of their operations
• The companies will have to re-hire locals and spend more on training them again, this could mean low work output and reduced quality output for some time.

The benefits can be as follows -

• This would open up the avenue for a lot of local American youth to get jobs
• The labour market will open up for a lot of people who were not able to compete with the immigrated labour force
• The skills and requirements from the American colleges will be more and hence the quality of education might improve further
• There will be mroe recuits into college as the market for skilled professionals opens up more