Sold Out

A Ballad for Tech Workers

For every engineer, programmer, scientist, and technical worker told their experience doesn’t matter—that they’re expensive, underserving and expendable. For those who trained the people who replaced them. For those who gave their best years only to be discarded for a better quarterly report.

There’ll always be a champagne toast, 
For those who cut the payroll most, 
They’ll never feel the shame or hurt, 
Of loyal workers treated like dirt. 

The office stands half-empty now, 
Where brilliant minds once made their vow, 
To build and innovate with care, 
Now cheaper labor fills each chair. 
They crossed the ocean, visa-bound, 
While local talent can’t be found — 
Not missing, but just cast aside, 
For profit margins, bottom line, and pride. 

There’ll always be a champagne toast, 
For those who cut the payroll most, 
They’ll never feel the shame or hurt, 
Of loyal workers treated like dirt. 

What will become of those who trained, 
Whose knowledge, loyalty remained? 
Replaced by algorithm’s cold embrace, 
Or foreign workers taking their place. 
The CFO won’t see the cost, 
Of institutional knowledge lost, 

There’ll always be a champagne toast, 
For those who cut the payroll most, 
They’ll never feel the shame or hurt, 
Of loyal workers treated like dirt. 

Of mentors gone and culture dead, 
Just numbers dancing in their head. 
They’ll speak of “global talent pools,” 
And “efficiency” as business rules, 
But never mention families torn, 
Or experienced workers left to mourn. 

There’ll always be a champagne toast, 
For those who cut the payroll most, 
They’ll never feel the shame or hurt, 
Of loyal workers treated like dirt. 

Born on third base and thought they hit a home run. 
Foreign CEOs Make shareholders cheer, 
While twenty-year veterans disappear. 
Empty cubicles, keyboards cold, 
Where stories of innovation were told, 
Will they remember what was here? 
The human cost year after year. 

There’ll always be a champagne toast, 
For those who cut the payroll most, 
They’ll never feel the shame or hurt, 
Of loyal workers treated like dirt.

The inspiration for these lyrics was taken from a 1984 slogan and song written by Kaye Sutcliffe called “Coal Not Dole.” The song is haunting and makes one think of the importance a job plays in one’s life. Over 40 years ago, my accounting teacher, Ruthie Roberts, exclaimed to me, “There are things that will kill a man and not faze a woman!” I did not know what she was talking about at the time. Only much later in life did I come to understand that a “job” is more than a “job” to a man. Beyond being the vehicle that becomes his means to provide, it is his social standing and his perceived value among other men. This is why we mourn job loss, as it is like a death.

The title “sold Out” is purposeful as it is the title of John Miano’s definitive book on the H-1B visa.

American workers must come to grips with the fact that companies have always found them expensive and undeserving, and after colluding with Congress to create the H-1B visa, were able to make them expendable. The corporatocracy’s mania for monopsony, efficiency, and pornographic profit margins has destroyed innovation and long-term productivity, not only impoverishing the country but also leaving us vulnerable to foreign powers like India and China. Only through collective action—standing side by side and working to pass legislation and influence policymakers—can we be secure in our jobs.

This is not socialism, as some demented libertarians might claim; it’s common sense.

E Pluribus Unum!