Why pay people when you can steal from foss projects and use both forms of ai (Actually indians and Artificially Inflated)
Amazon cuts 16k jobs
381–390 of 1001 posts
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
We should want open borders. Immigration is a significant net positive. But we can settle for controlled immigration with liberal limits. H1-B is stupid on its face. You're seriously telling me that this software engineering job absolutely cannot be filled by an American? That doesn't pass the laugh test.
> H1-B is stupid on its face. You're seriously telling me that this software engineering job absolutely cannot be filled by an American? That doesn't pass the laugh test. The job description is a senior full stack product developer fluent in all programming languages and frameworks. Salary is $70,000/year. Somehow they can never find Americans to fill those jobs. They'll go on Linkedin complaining that Americans are…
Our competitors in another country will have no problem building those products.
Then they'll be sold in America to American consumers.
Then our industry deflates, because we can't compete on cost or labor scale / innovation.
If we put up tariffs, we get a short respite. But now our goods don't sell as well overseas in the face of competition. Our industries still shrink. Eventually they become domestically uncompetitive.
So then what? You preserved some wages for 20 years at the cost of killing the future.
I think all of these conversations are especially pertinent because AI will provide activation energy to accelerate this migration. Now is not the time to encourage offshoring.
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's even less expensive! Problem solved. Mr. President, we have successfully axed all H1B positions, as you have wished.
I guess we just need the other shoe to drop: punish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues
How do you punish them? Have ICE raid their offices? There is already a significant tax benefit for hiring developers domestically.
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#384Insightful Comment from X - https://xcancel.com/PlumbNick/status/2016500347053773198?s=2... I was an L7, I led global AI enablement. I built systems executives depended on, moved wherever the company needed me and fixed problems that had been sitting untouched because no one else could untangle them. And I was still cut. Here’s the part we’re all supposed to politely ignore: in the U.S. right now, experience isn’t an…
Yeah, it looks to me like the best time to be a business owner, and the worst time to be employed.
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
H1B transfers are easy. You aren't beholden to an employer.
You have 60 days to find a new job or get deported. It's a pretty strong lever.
How is that related to a transfer? If you have a job on an H1b, you can get another job and switch to it any time with a transfer.
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very related IMO. Even before Trump US workforce was expensive, now limit the influx of new workforce and hiring abroad looks like a logical decision
Imagine that! It's almost like it's coordinated. Surely the US government would never do something like that on purpose.
I can't imagine Donald Trump would harm the US on purpose.
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
H1B transfers are easy. You aren't beholden to an employer.
I've had three different H1Bs. Yes, transfers are easy, but they're sure a hell more risky than staying at your current job and enduring whatever you have to. You're not beholden to your employer, but you have borderline coercive reasons to stay.
Great, yes, but you sure as hell don't have "absolute loyalty" to a company.
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not so sure on that. They raise inflation, home prices, etc. The locals see no real benefit except having to pay more for everything. While more taxes are collected, most of that goes to offsetting just some of the economic pain induced by the people living there. and it is in fact zero sum. every spot filled in university or company is a spot not taken by a local, as its obvious by the numbers, more local peopl…
Companies want to cut costs. They will. If you don't bring more fungible labor into the US, the jobs will be offshored. Look at what just happened to film labor in 2022-2023. The industry was burgeoning off the heels of the streaming wars and ZIRP. Then the stikes happened. Amazon and Netflix took trained crews in the Eastern Europe bloc and leveraged tax deals and existing infra in Ireland and the UK. Film productio…
> We need to move the cheaper labor here
Very smart & pragmatic.
however political sentiment is going the other way - which is an own goal
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's even less expensive! Problem solved. Mr. President, we have successfully axed all H1B positions, as you have wished.
I guess we just need the other shoe to drop: punish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues
> [p]unish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues
They ain't doing squat.
The Trump admin is encouraging technology transfer to India as part of Pax Silica [0] and GOP politicans in Ag heavy Purple States like Iowa [1] and Montana [2] are trying to mollify India after China pivoted from American to Brazilian soybeans [3] and India began tariffing pulses/lentils [4].
Additonally, Indian ONG majors like Reliance are negotiating with the Trump admin to purchase Venezuelan oil now that Maduro is in custody [5] and India SOEs have starting creating partnerships with ExxonMobil [6], Chevron [7], and Phillips66 [7] to "drill baby drill".
As such, what are you going to do lol - Agriculture and Ag adjacent industries employs 22 million Americans [8] and the Energy sector employs 7 million Americans [9] mostly in Red and Purple states. Software only employs around 2 million Americans [10] in either Blue states or Blue pockets of Red States.
[0] - https://x.com/USAmbIndia/status/2010718052992618815
[1] - https://governor.iowa.gov/press-release/2025-09-07/gov-reyno...
[2] - https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/01/20/daines-travels-to-i...
[3] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-favour-brazilian-s...
[4] - https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cramer-dai...
[5] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-reliance-talk...
[6] - https://www.livemint.com/companies/ongc-exxonmobil-collabora...
[7] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chevron-phillips-66-...
[8] - https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-d...
[9] - https://usafacts.org/articles/renewable-energy-jobs-grew-in-...
[10] - https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...
Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have also used GPTs since 2020. I am also a writer. Much of the writing equated with “generated by AI” is so precisely because it’s broadly trained on real writing. So the claim of “AI slop” without proof is little more than heresy. It would be helpful to have any evidence. It’s not about just the writing in one example, it’s about writing patterns—which are common—being equated with AI simply because they’re commo…
if you're a writer, and you're using GPT for so long and you can't see it as obvious, i dunno what to tell you at this point. i guess LLMs are trained particularly on this guy's writing.
If you can’t explain it, then you don’t actually understand it.