Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

blogs.wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 701 posts

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#111

Post by xapata »

stale2002 wrote: post #100
omarforgotpwd wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't "cost" anyone much. Immigrants pay for goods and services and provide labor, so they economy just ends up expanding. It's not like taking "too many" immigrants will make you poor because it cost too much. More likely the cost would be social and political rather than economic.

OK then, what would your opinion be of tripling the number if H1B, and drastically reducing all other immigration programs at the same time, so the total amount of immigrants stays the same?

I'm not a fan of central planning. The market is usually more efficient at deciding what jobs are useful.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#112

Post by moduspol »

TuringNYC wrote: post #41

The irony here: Some people see studies like this and think, wow, think of how much we'd lose if we didnt let in immigrants. Our economy would be smaller, we'd have fewer jobs, etc. Other people see studies like this and think, wow, only us locals should own, run, and be employed by these Billion-Dollar Startups. Bannon has explicitly noted this as a goal!

Some of us even see studies like this and think, wow, I wonder how many ways you can make headlines by framing arguments deceptively to support a pre-conceived world view!

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#113

Post by the_absurdist »

cromwellian wrote: post #18
Cuuugi wrote: post #10

Whenever I see "Immigration" in the title, i think anti-Trump and get sad. No one is trying to stop legal immigration. Tech companies are mad because they are cracking down on H1-B Visa abuse. This is not a bad thing.

Really? Than why so many leaked memos show that Bannon and Miller want to reduce family Visas for those already legally here? Why is Bannon and Miller's favorite novel a racist French book about Europe becoming less white? Why when Bannon was interviewed on radio he said he wanted to bring the numbers on legal immigration way down? You're fooling yourself if you think this is just about undocumented Mexicans, Muslims…

Oh the conspiracy!

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#114

Post by the_absurdist »

cromwellian wrote: post #18
Cuuugi wrote: post #10

Whenever I see "Immigration" in the title, i think anti-Trump and get sad. No one is trying to stop legal immigration. Tech companies are mad because they are cracking down on H1-B Visa abuse. This is not a bad thing.

Really? Than why so many leaked memos show that Bannon and Miller want to reduce family Visas for those already legally here? Why is Bannon and Miller's favorite novel a racist French book about Europe becoming less white? Why when Bannon was interviewed on radio he said he wanted to bring the numbers on legal immigration way down? You're fooling yourself if you think this is just about undocumented Mexicans, Muslims…

Oh the conspiracy!

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#115

Post by microcolonel »

mozumder wrote: post #96
am_i_down wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The distinction often is more akin to "promising" and "not promising". Universities, employers, creditors, those looking for a spouse, etc. Everyone does it to some degree. Why can't a country?

Because the populist parameters used to define usefulness of a person is incorrect. You think a person from Mexico is more useless than a person from Canada?

On the whole, a Canadian citizen will be more promising in the U.S. Canadians speak English which is close to Standard American English; the cultures are more similar, and the level of poverty is much lower, meaning they're less likely to become dependent on social programs. If usefulness is measured in ability to contribute to the productivity of the nation as a whole, then Canadians are a better bet (knowing nothing else about the individual).

All else being equal though, I don't see how you could make the claim that the U.S. is engaged in favouritism between equally-promising Canadian and Mexican potential immigrants. Mexicans and Canadians both (technically) need to get permits to work in the U.S.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#116

Post by roesel »

omarforgotpwd wrote: post #69
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from the idea of sorting people into useful and useless being inhumane, it also seems to be counterproductive. Universities do it.

There are many alternatives if you are denied from a university, such as applying to a different university or learning online instead. There is only one America

Well there are other countries, contrary to popular belief. With your logic, the answer would be to emigrate somewhere else. But I think that's not the point.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#117

Post by xapata »

halomru wrote: post #110
xapata wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this matters because individual productivity is a log-normal distribution, like VC returns. As a country it's a good investment to invite millions of immigrants trying to find the next major inventor. I suppose this also relies on national productivity being the product of, not the sum of individuals​ productivity.

>I suppose this also relies on national productivity being the product of, not the sum of individuals​ productivity. By that logic you can easily argue it's imperative to weed out those with productivity close to 0 (and below 1). Great people inspire greatness, awfully people can bring their whole environment down. That's why ghettos are such a bad idea. From your arguments alone I wouldn't be able to tell which side…

Indeed it does. Criminals, polluters, etc. are a drag on the economy. However, that characteristic is not well-correlated with immigrant. It might even be anti-correlated.

I'm not against harsh penalties for criminals. I am not a fan of pretending to care about rehabilitation or deterrence, which clearly are not the purpose of our prisons. Let's call it like it is -- punishment and ejection from society.

I'm not arguing for immigration for ethical reasons, but purely out of self-interest.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#118

Post by vthallam »

99_00 wrote: post #84
bayesian_horse wrote: post #32

One of the basic premises of anti-immigrant policies is that you can somehow influence the ratio of "useful" vs "not-useful" immigrants. Apart from the idea of sorting people into useful and useless being inhumane, it also seems to be counterproductive. It looks like every kind of screening of immigrants will deter the more desirable ones, as far as that determination is possible on their arrival at all.

Are you against criminal records checks for immigrants?

They already do that. You have to disclose any criminal records before applying for a US visa.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#119

Post by stusmall »

Cuuugi wrote: post #10

Whenever I see "Immigration" in the title, i think anti-Trump and get sad. No one is trying to stop legal immigration. Tech companies are mad because they are cracking down on H1-B Visa abuse. This is not a bad thing.

> No one is trying to stop legal immigration.

Serious question, what do you think the ban was?

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#120

Post by bankim »

rs1234 wrote: post #62

A bunch of folks on this forum love to bash the H1B visa. But that visa is not so new - this is how America has always filled her need for labor. Please take a few moments to read about "indentured servants" - immigrants from Britain and other parts of Europe who came to the US in 1800s. They were required to serve 5 to 7 years working in fields. After that they were given land and free to work for themselves. The H1…

> After that they are given the green card, which lets them work for any company.

Not for Indians, like me, who are waiting in line for 10+ years due to per country cap.

Post reply on HN