AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ramped up his attacks on Elon Musk this week by publishing an op-ed with Fox News hammering the H-1B worker visa. Sanders also took to social media to lambast Musk and other tech billionaires as antithetical to what the goals of American society should be.
Sanders published an op-ed Wednesday titled, “H-1B visas hurt one type of worker and exploit another. This mess must be fixed.” In the article, he argued that American workers should be prioritized for high-paying jobs and wrote:
In recent weeks, the H-1B program has sparked intense debate. Billionaires like Elon Musk claim it is crucial to our economy, arguing that the United States faces a shortage of highly skilled engineers and technology professionals. They are dead wrong.
“ The primary purpose of H-1B and other guest worker programs is not to employ the “best and the brightest,” but instead to replace American workers with lower-paid workers from abroad who often live as indentured servants. The cheaper it is to hire guest workers,
“If there is truly a major shortage of skilled tech workers in this country, why did Tesla lay-off over 7,500 American workers last year — including many software developers and engineers at its factory in Austin, Texas — while applying to hire thousands of H-1B guest workers?” Sanders wrote on X as he shared the op-ed with his followers.
Sanders also shared a clip from his interview with Jon Stewart last month on X. “Together, Bezos, Musk & Zuckerberg own more wealth than the bottom half of America. Billionaires are buying elections. And there’s a greater concentration of ownership than at any time since the Gilded Age. Is that the society we want for our country?” Sanders wrote, captioning the clip.
In the short video he shared, the Vermont senator raged against the “value system” in the U.S. now that teaches young people that someone like Elon Musk is to be idolized and seen as an example
What we have got to do is, in a sense, change the value system of this right now. Know we’re getting into a really a deeper issue. You know, we talk about oligarchy, which is the reality.We have three people in America, own more wealth than the bottom half of America. You got more concentration of ownership today than we’ve ever had and you got billionaires buying election to add that up. That is, not maybe, that is oligarchy. All right. And then what you got is, okay, Jon, you’re raising a kid. What? What should this trial strive for? Well, obviously, to become like Elon Musk, the goal of life is to become a billionaire.That’s all it is. And, you know, Trump is a perfect example of that. You lie, you cheat, you steal. He was involved in 4000 lawsuits as a private businessman. He lied all the time. Well, that’s good because he made money. That’s all that we want. Turn on the goddamn television. You can’t watch your program without being flooded with ads, right? All right. We got to take a deep breath and ask ourselves, is that really the society?We want everybody going out becoming a billionaire? Or maybe how do we work together to create a good healthcare system? How do you come into teaching? We respect you. We love you
because you’re teaching kindergarten kids. That’s important. You’re respected. You’re well paid. I want to see that in America. Hey, I’m really proud to work at the Social Security Administration.We’re getting the benefits out on time. People are really excited and happy about it. Proud of what I’m doing. I want to see that pride. And I don’t want to see young people just going out saying I got to make more and more money that’s what life is about.
Watch the clip above.