If graduates are unable to repay their loans because their employment is artificially shortened by current employer hiring practices that make a mockery of the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, as Amended, criticism of that employer conduct should be allowed on this public website. Furthermore, links to two articles on the student debt crisis are also relevant. Instead, my post, which is available on Facebook, has been deleted.

One reason why U.S. college degrees have become an investment with a negative return is that a significant number of colleges and universities have a new business model. Behind the scenes, they now market U.S. degrees to foreigners as a means to immigrate to the US. While the topic is arcane, there are no current annual caps on F-1 (student) or J-1 (exchange visitor) visas. The student, particularly in technology fields, may obtain a OPT, giving them a 29 month period of employment where the employer sets the wages and working conditions with no annual numerical caps. This leads to the H-1B Visa (and several other work visa programs) which have high annual numerical caps and lax protections for U.S. workers. The US citizen might train their imported replacement before their job is cut. These changes amount to a behind-the-scenes foreign-hiring preference system. To learn about the political corruption that served as a foundation for this dangerous situation, please review my 2005 investigative article "Career Destruction Sites - What American colleges have become" http://tinyurl.com/nn28sp and my 2007 investigative article "The Greedy Gates Immigration Gambit" http://tinyurl.com/37l8ry. See these 2 related stories on the student debt problem. http://tinyurl.com/Trillion-Dollar-Student-Debt by Dennis Cauchon, USA Today 25 Oct 2011 and http://tinyurl.com/Seeking-Alpha-Studnt-Loan-Debt by Nicholas Pardini 05 July 2011.

Thanks for this summary. For LATimes readers that want a short synopsis, I recommend the Washington Post interview article with Rich Leiby from 07 July 2005. http://www.xenu-directory.net/topics/richardleiby.html Rich Leiby's 30 August 1981 Clearwater Sun article about Scientology documents some of the strange beliefs apparently peddled by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/clearwatersun/sun-leiby-083081.htm

I think it is valuable to examine the actual behavior and results of corporate conduct. Let's look at Microsoft Corporation. Bill Gates, III has made regular trips to Washington, DC to demand more H-1B visas. Corporate elites like Gates have become incredibly wealthy as a result. The term "Robber Baron" seems apt. Microsoft was the Number 1 importer from 2000-2009 of immigrant technology professionals (via the controversial H-1B Visa program,) many of whom were trained at U.S. colleges and universities via generous taxpayer subsidies. Microsoft is a perfect example of the axiom that with immigration, the benefits are largely privatized while the costs are socialized. Bill Gates, III was the world's wealthiest man from 1995 to 2007. How did he pay his workers? "Not much," is the answer. With a science Ph.D. and a decade of relevant industrial experience, I earned $11.06/hour as a Microsoft contractor between 1995 and 1996. Microsoft has sufficient political clout that the firm was able to recently lobby for in-state tuition rates for their H-1Bs in Washington state. This is a clear example of socializing the costs of importing H-1Bs to the taxpayers of Washington state. Microsoft would not be able to work this political magic without expending significant sums on politically - connected expenditures. Microsoft spent on the order of $100 million between 1995-2000 to help procure 3 "Microsoft - friendly" changes to the H-1B Visa legislation. These changes have boosted Microsoft's profitability by billions of dollars. Microsoft also hired the "best and brightest" lobbyist (and his team) to work on this and related issues. That lobbyist's name was Jack A. Abramoff. You may learn more by reading the short version, "The Greedy Gates Immigration Gambit" here: http://tinyurl.com/37l8ry The longer, more detailed version with lobbying disclosure documents is here. It was Exhibit 40 in the case USA v Abramoff. http://tinyurl.com/koyqg2 Clearly, these harmful policies need to be reversed before the U.S. is transformed into a "Hacienda Economy" like Mexico where about 3% of the population controls essentially all of the wealth of Mexico. In fact, the world's wealthiest man now hails from Mexico!

The data the I observe supports the contention that "globalization," "free trade," "supply side economics," and "trickle down economics" are public relations constructs developed by the economic elite (with the best P.R. people that money can buy) that are not reality-based. However, these constructs have been beneficial for the economic elite at the expense of the American middle class. Basically, these schemes have facilitated the disgorgement of value from the middle class, which flows to the banker class. See my 2005 article for a plot of Census Bureau tabulations of income inequality. http://tinyurl.com/nn28sp Income inequality has been on an upward trend since 1965.

As an experienced technical professional who was harmed by Microsoft lobbyist Jack Abramoff's advocacy for 3 recent employer-friendly changes to the controversial H1-B Visa law, I was able to get "on the record" in the case USA v Abramoff. I attended Jack Abramoff's sentencing hearing on 4 September 2008 at the DC District Courthouse. My 110 page "Victim Impact Statement" is document #40 in the Court docket in PDF format. It was filed with the Court on 3 September 2008. A searchable PDF copy is available at: http://tinyurl.com/koyqg2 It is also available including Judge Huvelle's handwritten approval comment via the DC District Court's PACER website for a modest fee. Too bad that the billions that Microsoft helped to steal from the wallets of American citizens are not included in the restitution mentioned in the article. Legal Times readers interested in a 10 page summary should read my article, "The Greedy Gates Immigration Gambit." http://tinyurl.com/37l8ry