Threat to Skilled U.S Workers

Rhetorical Analysis: “New Threat to Skilled U.S. Workers” Froma Harrop is a frequent writer for the Providence Journal, who is also known for her progressive views on current issues. Her essay titled “New Threat to Skilled U.S. Workers” was published in the Seattle Times in 2007 in which she is persuading American skilled workers to put a stop to the H-1B program, or else they might be left jobless. Due to the fact that she is liberal in her views, it is clear why she is enforcing a strong opinion against this issue. Harrop is aiming to convince American skilled workers to act quickly against the H-1B program, due to the issue that they may in fact be left without jobs or with minimal wages. She explains the process of this agenda by stating that millions of American skilled workers, such as bookkeepers and computer programmers, would fundamentally, train foreigners for three years and finally hand their jobs over to their trainees, who will perform them at lower wages; a process she likes to call “knowledge extraction” (395). She agrees that it would be beneficial towards the American economy, however she is in disagreement that U.S. skilled workers should suffer without a career and she is in strong belief that they should “look out for their interests,” in the sense that they should dismiss the program as soon as possible. In all, Harrop’s argument lacks sufficiency in pathos. Her argument is a plethora of facts, without emotion and detail that would allow her audience to feel sympathy for these U.S. workers. For example, while revealing that wages would be lowered and that Americans would be left jobless, she could have added more emotional appeal by perhaps describing the long-term effects this could possibly have on society. For example, it would have been effective for her to go into depth of the idea that children would put less effort into their studies, because in the end, they would not be earning as much income as desired and their jobs