Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Betrays American Workers and Rewards Irish Workers for Tax Haven

Irish flag



Summary: Microsoft discriminates against Americans who work in the United States, their home country

Microsoft's abolishment of American employees goes back to the company's affairs with Abramoff, who is now in prison. It never really ended. Steve Ballmer blackmailed Obama earlier this month in order to justify reduction in expenses, which comes at the expense of the American worker. Microsoft already moves it workforce abroad to "cheaper" pools of workforce. Now it gets even worse, even domestically.

Bill gives in-state tuition to foreign professionals, families in Washington on visa



[...]

The measure passed amid a roiling budget crisis and hundreds of millions of dollars in cutbacks to higher education. It was nicknamed the "Microsoft subsidy bill" by some lawmakers who say the software giant and its workers surely could afford to pay the higher tuition rates.


The Seattle Times has welcomed no less than 506 comments. People are outraged. To quote just the latest comment, "As a laid off Microsoft employee displaced by guest workers, I am outraged that the State of Washington legislature could pass special interest legislation that only benefits Microsoft and their guest workers’ families."

The pro-Microsoft blog at the Seattle P-I mentioned this article too and the responses are similar.

Will in Seattle writes: "So if my brother, an American citizen by birth, moves here from Cali he has to wait three years for him and his daughters to get in-state tuition - but an H1-B visa holder from India gets in-state tuition in one year?

"Sorry, that is just plain WRONG."

A reply says: "Will, the whole H-1B program is wrong. This is just the latest wrinkle."

“Some time ago we showed that Microsoft was actually hiring in Ireland.”Anonymous commenter adds: "I say down with Microsoft. They are the real evil empire. They produce poor software, have bloated management and since they can't compete with real companies, they have to hope for hand outs from taxpayers to pay for college tuition for people who will be replacing our citizens with cheaper labor. I thought the Banks were bad but Microsoft takes the cake. They already take advantage of tax loopholes to hide tax revenue overseas and they expect people in the state of Washington to kiss their butts. I don't see Google, Boeing, or Paccar benefiting anywhere what Microsoft is getting."

Some time ago we showed that Microsoft was actually hiring in Ireland (amid worldwide layoffs). Microsoft enjoys a special relationship with Ireland because that's where its massive tax evasion takes place (or gets centralised). Microsoft says that "Ireland is ICT laggard" in the following new article, on which our reader remarks: "When you are in a ICT tax evasion paradise, you want it to become an ICT public investment paradise too."

To quote a few fragments from this article:

Despite the large technology industry assembled here, Rellis says it is regrettable that Ireland is lagging behind on a range of fronts, from broadband to the use of ICT in education. “We have looked at Ireland and every other country in Europe in terms of technology and Ireland is a laggard. Now, I could be upset about that and say this is an awful criticism of the country but the power of being a laggard is that you can leapfrog over all the other countries if you have a digital strategy.”

[...]

Microsoft, in particular, has been active through its Bizspark programme, which equips tech start-ups with the latest technologies and licen-ses its IP to them. An example of the latter is Dublin comp-any Inistech, which, through the Microsoft IP Ventures Programme and Enterprise Ireland, has relaunched Microsoft’s Software Licensing and Protection (SLP) Services.


For the reality behind BizSpark, see:



We also remarked on the Licensing and Protection move about a week ago [1, 2]. Software patents could be part of it and speaking of which, Irishman Charlie McCreevy, a promoter of software patents in Europe [1, 2, 3] is likely to be replaced by another pro-Microsoft guy, according to the FFII. We wrote about it a fortnight ago.

"Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone."

--Richard Stallman

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
 
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually
Participation in Cancel Culture Detrimental to One's Career
A cautionary tale
Passion Wins
we've increased the number of birds we feed to 100+
How Solderpunk and Sean Conner Started Gemini Protocol (and, Collectively, Geminispace) Back in 2019
Based on the "official" history
Arduino is Now a Patent Bully (Qualcomm)
Qualcomm has just bought Arduino
Many Years of Microsoft Cancellations and Faked (Acquired) Revenue "Growth"
XBox is basically the "next Skype"
The Comment TheLayoff.com Has Just Censored for Criticising a Ridiculous Puff Piece of IBM Management
If comments get censored for their "style" rather than their substance, then society will be worse off
The Power of Writing Down Facts
The more we write and publish, the more people will know what happened
Microsoft's Non-Denying Denial About XBox's Death is Already Being Shattered to Pieces
Like Microsoft's 'open' 'hey hi', heralding meaningless non-committing agreements with AMD is little more than vapourware
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT Joins the Slopfarms Club
Slopfarms gonna slop
Links 07/10/2025: Privacy at Risk, GAFAM Remains Off the Hook
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/10/2025: Modern Retro Console Idea and Batch vs Bash
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2025: International Criminal Court (ICC) Convicts Ali Kushayb; Moroccan Imprisoned for 'Offensive' Shirt
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2025: EU' Chat Control is Back, US Cracks Down on Democracy
Links for the day
Techrights Pursues Justice and Truth Because, Without Those, Society Descends Into Chaos
most people reject dogma and pseudoscience
Upcoming Talks by Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Göteborg, and Rome
Join with him and share the software
Something Bad is Happening in the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
The latest OSI blog post is from a Microsoft operative and a few weeks ago the Executive Director left
TLS 1.3 Dominates Geminispace (99% of Known Capsules)
it's nowadays safe to assume almost every capsule can handle TLS 1.3
Why soylentnews.org Has Been Having Technical Difficulties Lately
The network has been going up and down quite a lot this past week
A Statement Against Violence
The facts are on our side
They've Run Out of Things to Rebrand or Label as "AI"
The next few years will be interesting because if Microsoft lays off tens of thousands of workers each year, there won't be much left except mountains of debt and dying brands
The Register MS is Still Being Paid to Participate in the "AI" Ponzi Scheme Which Will Crash the Economy
The Register MS is hoping to get lucky by tricking people into a scam
Richard Stallman Confirms His Talk in Göteborg This Coming Friday
"The hosts say that the list will not be given to the state"
Most of the "Linux" Results This Morning in Google News Are LLM Slop From the Same Slopfarm, Plagiarising Phoronix
The main question is, does Google even care at this point?
Gemini Links 07/10/2025: Civil War and "Goodbye Web"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 06, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 06, 2025