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U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

wsj.com

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Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#271

Post by OurBoysGirls1st »

defen wrote: post #236
joshe wrote: post #94

I've worked with a few H1-B holders in Silicon Valley and they're awesome. A great improvement would be to allow H1B holders to change jobs easily (maybe after a year). It's too easy for them to get stuck in not great situations. It would be great for everyone if they could move to better fitting jobs, especially for startups who have trouble running H1-B programs. If you are, like me, a software engineer, you should…

> To prime your intuition a bit, consider how woman and minorities more than doubled the work force from the 1960s to 1990s with no loss in jobs or lowering of wages. That is not at all obvious. How would you respond to Elizabeth Warren's "The Two-Income Trap"?

Thanks for bringing up this point. Anyone who has grown up in the US knows well how far down wages have gone.

My father was an accountant. He could afford a house and raised a family of 5 on his salary at age 40, earning ~60k/yr. I'm an experienced developer. I make $200k/yr. I'm raising a family of 4 on my salary and i'm 40. I cant afford a house. Heck, I cant even afford more than a 2br apt.

To me, it is completely meaningless that i earn 3x+ than my dad, the wages have not kept up with inflation. My 200k/yr doesnt buy me as much as 60k did a generation ago.

How is this "no loss in jobs or lowering of wages". If anything this demonstrates that Increasing supply lowers wages.

Who knew, economics was right all along!

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#272

Post by joshe »

TylerE wrote: post #257
joshe wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's super interesting, I didn't know that about hourly wages. I tend to think of income gaining from 1950 to 1990 and flattening from the mid 1990s to now. Though it does look like total compensation (adding in benefits) did actually increase recently, they don't have anything for back to 1960. So maybe the story is that wages stayed flat, but benefits accounted for most of the income increase. Not an economist so…

The population grew from 179M to 281M so the workforce didn’t really double. More like a 50% increase

The workforce grew, look at the link and table 5. Basically woman and minorities joined the workforce. Worker to population ratio went up and the total number of workers went up faster than the growth in population.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#273

Post by raz32dust »

fxfan wrote: post #184
femiagbabiaka wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a huge difference between stating my personal opinion and making factual claims. My opinion is that more diversity is good and makes the world better. Also: > I’m not against any color but... lol.

Personal opinion- I think homogeneous societies cooperate much better and I personally believe that so-called forced diversity of racial backgrounds is an effort to lower the camaraderie in a team and keep the loyalty to the firm and not the team members and thus bringing down wages by competition. I am all for diversity of ideas and background. Something which would make a companies more productive at the same wage.…

Homogeneity is good only if you are moving towards the optimal goal. Diversity is good to bring in new ideas which helps adjust the goal and keep the society robust against failure. Like autocracy vs democracy. If you have a benevolent godly dictator, that's perfect. But we accept that no such ideal exists, so democracy is the compromise. Diversity in the workplace exerts the same goal. It lowers efficiency, but efficiency is pointless, even counter-productive if it is towards the wrong goal.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#274

Post by tossaccount123 »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #227
tossaccount123 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>To prime your intuition a bit, consider how woman and minorities more than doubled the work force from the 1960s to 1990s with no loss in jobs or lowering of wages. You do realize there hasn't been a raise in real wages since the 70s when you account for inflation right? Coincidentally during that same time period the income gap exploded because the wealthy had plentiful cheap labor and were able to pocket the produ…

No, wealth inequality increased because we stopped taxing rich people.

The US didn't have an income tax at all until the 20th century, at least at the federal level

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#276

Post by simplecomplex »

This is a sad day for the USA, as we move further from the principles that made us great.

This is discrimination, and nothing to celebrate. People without degrees deserve equal treatment. People who want to work lower-paid jobs deserve equal treatment.

America should stand for liberty, personal responsibility, and equality of opportunity. Not racism and elitism.

Our immigration laws continue to be a stain on this great nation.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#277

Post by gesman »

Buge wrote: post #256
tossaccount123 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was hyperbole to show the effect of supply and demand More and more I notice how similar software engineers are beginning to sound like the "Made in America" factory workers who said China could never do their job. Never take the present comfy situation for granted

If we want stuff to be made in America instead of China, we should increase the number of skilled immigrants allowed in.

Import tax on crap would solve it.

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#278

Post by arcticbull »

mc32 wrote: post #225
arcticbull wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that make the policy lax? Compared to what, zero admissions?

We allow millions in legally every year. Birth tourism often involves immigration fraud. It’s seldom prosecuted = lax enforcement. So, no, we still would allow millions of legal immigrants in. We’d just crack down on unregulated immigrants.

1 million per year, not millions, in a country of 325 million (0.3%), for comparison Canada lets in 0.33 million per year in a country of 36 million (almost 1%).

Re: U.S. Changes Visa Process for High-Skilled Workers

#279

Post by Qworg »

mc32 wrote: post #101
skybrian wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegetable and dairy farmers would go out of business, if prices can't be raised due to competition from imports. You'd need tariffs as well, and people would need to put up with significant price increases at the grocery store. There are not many Americans who want their kids to grow up to be farmhands or migrant workers. If you can speak English, you're better off in retail. For immigrants, there is a valuable benef…

Lots of countries contend with this: Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Britain, etc. People adapt. Perhaps we grow to appreciate our food and throw out less waste.

Even at wages closing in on 3x minimum wage, we cannot get enough farm labor[1] - obviously low skilled American labor still doesn't want the job. What's the solution?

[1] https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farms-immigration/

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