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Comment Re:How tech companies pretend to need H1Bs (Score 1) 230

Despite having worked with many H1B coworkers, I have seen NO indication that they are superior in ability, on average, compared to their US coworkers. Like all employees, their skill level tends to follow the normal curve. A few are outstanding, most are average, and a few are sub-par.

As for replacing an existing H1B position, in one notable case I was told by my VP: "We have to open this job because H1B rules require that we do so. But I want you to find something wrong with each candidate so we can make sure that no one else will qualify."

These are the kinds of shenanigans that companies routinely pull. They are highly skilled at complying with the letter of the law, while completely obliterating the spirit of the law.

I agree. Everybody falls in a bell curve but when in the instances an H1b comes out on top, the companies want the top candidate rather than rejecting the top candidate for a lower candidate that is not H1b. Not saying h1b is always better; but when they are better they are not rejected due to their h1b in favor of a local candidate.

On your second point, once you have someone who is already doing the job and doing well in it, there is very little reason to want to take on a new person. The law wants you to replace him/her but everybody would want to keep their co-worker. The law needs a reason to reject and people will find it.

Again, this is not in the spirit of the law though fine with the letter of the law.

I'm against H1b. It was initially created as a way for foreign workers to get into the US where local skill was not available. The green card was followed shortly afterwards and people would be in h1b for only a short time. The current way of students getting into h1b, Indians having decades long h1b etc is all bad and not in the spirit of how it was initially conceived. The path from working to green card and citizenship should be very very short.

Comment Re:Fix the real problem (Score 1) 230

Here's an idea.
How about each $100k paid for a H-1B visa is used to educate an American bright enough to fill that job but too poor to put themselves through higher education.
I'm all for taxes to solve problems so long as the money raised is actually spent fixing the problem.
It's not that the country doesn't have the talent. It's just too much talent is going to waste.

It is to pay for the tax cuts and interest payments on the giant national debt.

DoE will be dissolved soon.

Comment Re:Salaries might go up (Score 1) 230

Estimated as of Jan 2025 about 750,000 H1B visa holders in the US today, with about 550,000 dependents. Maybe if it was a one time 100k fee, at least half of those would stay. But since it's annual, I doubt more than to 10% would remain.

Maybe or maybe not.

First thing I do see happening, at least in the short term, is that major companies will open branches in India or another country and transfer the workers there. In this way, current projects will continue. Salaries will remain the same in the short term of 1-2 years.

In the long term, the geographical disconnection will require entire division to be shifted to India or hiring patterns to shift. This might cause AI to play an increasing role for projects. It will increase the salaries but only for a smaller and smaller set of workers. The average will go up but most will be concentrated on the few already working. It will be like the music majors; the top 1-2 get jobs or a handful of musicians can become successful and have huge careers while the rest do not have anything for them.

Or maybe, just like you said, the huge demand for developers and lack of workers can cause an increase in salaries.

Although I think the main beneficiaries will be small startups of 5-10 people who can put together a multi-million project up quickly esp with help of AI and then mega-corps will buy them out and throw the maintenance of the product to India.

The other huge x-factor is that if India stops the brain drain they could cause sharp increase in development in India. China is right there and they can ride off what the Chinese have achieved and build themselves as well.

Future is uncertain. This is a sudden wrench thrown in the system. It might break in unexpected ways or compensate and work in a different way.

Comment Re:How tech companies pretend to need H1Bs (Score 1) 230

Tech firms *pretend* to not be able to find workers in the US, opting to hire foreign workers instead, for a few reasons. One is that they generally cost less. Two is that it's really, really hard for an H1B worker to change jobs, because they have to be sponsored. This gives the company essentially captive employees.

To be allowed to hire a an H1B applicant, the employer has to "prove" that they can't find any acceptable workers in the US. They do so by crafting the job description and requirements to specifically describe the H1B applicant they are trying to hire, in such a way that nobody else will qualify. It doesn't matter if all the "requirements" are really, truly required for the job, they're just checking a box to make the visa work.

They also have to publicly advertise the openings and be "unable" to find anyone qualified. They check this box by simply refusing to accept any other applicants that interview, by finding some little thing wrong as an excuse to reject them.

How do I know? I've had to jump through these exact hoops at my current company, to enable them to hire H1B developers.

One of the issues with tech jobs is that it's not simply about if you're qualified and can do the job; there is also how good are you at the skill. The 10x engineer is real; a better engineer can be highly highly more effective than a mediocre one.

The incentive for the tech companies is to hire the best candidate rather than just the qualified candidate.

This is where the issues crops up. You interview 10 people let's say and then the top choice is foreigner or H1b. Companies right now will hire the top choice and not prioritize the local candidate even though they don't rank at the top.

There is a provision in h1b where if you're qualified for a position and you see an h1b occupying it, you can take that person's job. The employer is required to give it to you. The job descriptions and requirements are all stored and archived in the DOL website. But, I have not heard of a single incidence of this happening.

If you look at Google's postings, the job description is so vague that anybody with a degree in that field can qualify. Yet nobody challenges it.

So, at least in the tech sector, it is designed to get the best candidate and then comply with whatever regulations are in place. This is perhaps not in the spirit of the law of prioritizing American workers but companies will prioritize their own productivity and do all the obligations necessary that the law requires.

Comment Ebikers are poor. That's the problem. (Score 1) 146

People can substitute cars with ebikes so the poorer and frugal can use that for mobility. That is a big problem for the car industry, transportation industry and taxes collected.

If people don't drive cars, it is a major problem to the industries that are build around everyone driving cars.

Cars kill and injure people at unprecedented rates but that is just the price everyone is willing to pay.

This is why public transportation, cycling infrastructure was attacked and demonized all the time.

This is coming at a time when the car industry wants people to get into bigger and bigger cars.

Comment Porn is better than sex anyways (Score 1) 175

As America gets older, the physical demands of sex are quite high. It is more enjoyable to watch porn and experience the same effects.

With endless streaming porn content, we have also solved the problem of getting bored by the same video or the problem of obtaining a video and being disappointed by the quality.

Comment Re:When dictators lead in innovation (Score 1) 61

People have been touting China as the next world leader, displacing the US, since the 90s. Earlier possibly.

They thought it would happen economically and we all would start learning the communist ways.

What I think is more likely to happen is that China will see major societal turmoil in the next two decades, toppling the authoritarian government and then it will become the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Meanwhile the complacent west will go through a phase of relearning the value of what it used to have. It will do us a lot of good and it'll prime us to take world leader role at a later date... But it will be painful as valuable lessons usually are.

We'll never learn communist ways. The people who advocate for universal health care, UBI etc are delusional.

We're moving further away from it. Even our medicaid and food stamps recipients are now require to submit proof of work rather than just lack of income. We will go more capitalist and we will privatize more government land and drill baby drill.

Comment Re:The explanation is simple (Score 1) 54

The taxes are way, way too low, so lucky cretins like zuck have yuge bags of disposable cash.

"AI" ain't going to make everyone's life better, but it sure can suck all the water and use up all electricity trying to make more cash for zuck.

Meatbags use more water and electricity and gasoline (and produce a lot of nasty stuff).

Comment Re:Predictable (Score 3, Informative) 118

China was perfectly willing to "drink the poisoned wine" of being dependent on American technology. But we decided they couldn't have it any more. Predictably, they are now creating their own replacements.

Our problem is we have an incompetent ruling elite that has run "the most powerful country on the planet" into the ground. And that didn't start in 2025 or 2017. They have been patting themselves on the back through failure after failure. They cover their tracks by managing perceptions rather than learn from failure. They deny the consequences and blame everyone but themselves for the failure.

This is with wisdom of hindsight.

When Huawei was banned, the expected result was that it would slowly fade into irrelevance. When the whole suite of bans came to Chinese phones and technologies and they disappeared from US, the expectorated result was the same as what happened with USSR and that the commercial sector for advanced technologies would dry up and would turn to the west to supply them and it would be a win for Apple and Samsung.

Comment Re:Cheating on your wife is a bad idea (Score 5, Funny) 153

Especially when it is done in public on video. But I am just an aging Gen X'er with Catholic values!

Even worse is going to a Coldplay concert. Worse than cheating on your wife. Shows that you have much deficiency in your character that you somehow ended up in that situation.

Coldplay should know better than to put their audience on the jumbotron. Every single person there would be embarrassed to be known to have attended a Coldplay concert.

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