> And one way to help make that happen is to substantially increase the guest worker fees large corporations pay to fund scholarships, apprenticeships, and job training opportunities for American workers. This is something that I have advocated from my first days as a U.S. senator.
This is the proper solution. Ideally, the H1-B program would remove quotas and lotteries and switch to a pure auction program for the fees. E.g, a Dutch auction for the X thousand available slots where the fee can be deducted from federal income taxes. If companies really want the best talent in the world, they should be willing to pay for it.
digianarchist · 2h ago
That’s a great way to screw over every industry that isn’t tech.
Hospitals and labs can’t afford to match tech spending to obtain H1Bs.
If there’s going to be an auction then there needs to be an industry or job code cap too.
CincinnatiMan · 1h ago
Are there ways these other industries could increase interest from citizen workers, in the scenario that they can’t obtain H1Bs?
pseudo0 · 17m ago
They obtain interest from citizen workers by increasing wages. H1Bs artificially suppress wages and make the market inefficient by removing those price signals. This creates a self-perpetuating problem that can only be "resolved" by bringing in more H1Bs, as the H1B impact on wages disincentivizes citizens from entering the field and pursuing the requisite education and training.
jay_kyburz · 1h ago
You could come up with some other code for industries where you actually need people.
You can let capitalism do its thing, and you can put your finger on the scale for things that society needs but that are not as profitable.
digianarchist · 1h ago
There’s already a cap-exemption for non-profits.
Most countries identify industry shortages and tailor their immigration needs to bring in people to fulfill those roles.
mc32 · 2h ago
I’d say add a 25% payroll tax that is earmarked only to train and support American citizens in the industry the H1Bs are brought into.
ergocoder · 1h ago
I moved to US using H1B a decade ago and worked in FAANG earning 300K - 1.2M a year as an IC engineer. It never screams EXPLOITATION louder than this.
InkCanon · 1h ago
The situation now is radically different. In the late 2000s/early 2010s, most H1B applications got approved (something like 80%). For a time before that, the H1B cap wasn't usually maxed out and any application would succeed. If I'm being blunt this is because of one country. H1Bs are dominated by this country. This country makes up 75% of applications and without these, H1Bs would actually be undersubscribed.
The significant shift comes a lot from how this country has massive systems in place to perform wage arbitrage through IT consultancies. Compared to Chinese industrial outsourcing (which requires capex), wage arbitrage is pure profit in that there's almost no overhead. So these IT companies got phenomenally rich. These companies have a US branch, usually having a manager based in the US while the others are based in India. So it's no longer getting the best and brightest through H1B, but just a way to make money off the vast difference in economic conditions between a third and first world country. And there's a direct incentive to depress the economic conditions of workers, because that's money right there. Then this goes into overdrive when many US companies realize it's even cheaper to do it themselves and set up shop in this country.
What happened to the US industrial base/blue collar workers is happening right now to white collar workers, except it'll go much faster because there's no physical equipment to move.
ergocoder · 50m ago
I remember. The year that it started maxing out was from 2013.
We all know how to solve this problem e.g. ranked by compensations maybe with some restrictions and diversifying occupations a bit. We know which companies abuse it. The number of H1B with their salaries is public.
Yet this article from Bernie grand-stands random stuff.
1vuio0pswjnm7 · 1h ago
If you like this topic then you might also like the investigative report dicusseed here:
Bernie’s right on somethings here and wrong on others.
There’s already a “best and brightest” visa and it’s not H1B. It’s O1.
That said H1B is essentially the only reasonable way for people to immigrate to the United States through employment. Most employers are not going to stick out the convoluted process to obtain an EB2/3 immigrant visa for a worker they haven’t any experience with especially since they can enter the country and immediately work for someone else.
hayd · 2h ago
L1 is another option.
digianarchist · 2h ago
As is TN and E3 but L1 is only an option if you can work for the company abroad for a year which is only possible if the company has some presence in your country.
L1 is also harder to qualify for than H1B in terms of job requirements.
downrightmike · 4h ago
Outsourcing is 1,000% worse.
InkCanon · 4h ago
If you look at the numbers, tech layoffs are really offshoring. India is not only untouched by layoffs, they're actually hiring
Well if there's any truth to the idea that "offshoring" to AI is about to start, it'll be a short-lived victory.
fakedang · 1h ago
I've heard of layoffs happening in the Indian offices too. Just not to the high extents of the US and EU offices, but they are happening.
lispisok · 3h ago
Workers are being attacked from every direction capital can find.
linotype · 2h ago
It’s going to suck to be a worker in the future. That’s why my wife and I are investing heavily across a broad range of assets: we want to be able to work for less (inevitable) while maintaining our quality of life as it is through investment dividends.
jgalt212 · 2h ago
Helps explain why the progressive running on pocketbook economics and not the neo-liberal running on identity politics won the dem nomination for Mayor in NYC.
This is the proper solution. Ideally, the H1-B program would remove quotas and lotteries and switch to a pure auction program for the fees. E.g, a Dutch auction for the X thousand available slots where the fee can be deducted from federal income taxes. If companies really want the best talent in the world, they should be willing to pay for it.
Hospitals and labs can’t afford to match tech spending to obtain H1Bs.
If there’s going to be an auction then there needs to be an industry or job code cap too.
You can let capitalism do its thing, and you can put your finger on the scale for things that society needs but that are not as profitable.
Most countries identify industry shortages and tailor their immigration needs to bring in people to fulfill those roles.
The significant shift comes a lot from how this country has massive systems in place to perform wage arbitrage through IT consultancies. Compared to Chinese industrial outsourcing (which requires capex), wage arbitrage is pure profit in that there's almost no overhead. So these IT companies got phenomenally rich. These companies have a US branch, usually having a manager based in the US while the others are based in India. So it's no longer getting the best and brightest through H1B, but just a way to make money off the vast difference in economic conditions between a third and first world country. And there's a direct incentive to depress the economic conditions of workers, because that's money right there. Then this goes into overdrive when many US companies realize it's even cheaper to do it themselves and set up shop in this country.
What happened to the US industrial base/blue collar workers is happening right now to white collar workers, except it'll go much faster because there's no physical equipment to move.
We all know how to solve this problem e.g. ranked by compensations maybe with some restrictions and diversifying occupations a bit. We know which companies abuse it. The number of H1B with their salaries is public.
Yet this article from Bernie grand-stands random stuff.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44404726
There’s already a “best and brightest” visa and it’s not H1B. It’s O1.
That said H1B is essentially the only reasonable way for people to immigrate to the United States through employment. Most employers are not going to stick out the convoluted process to obtain an EB2/3 immigrant visa for a worker they haven’t any experience with especially since they can enter the country and immediately work for someone else.
L1 is also harder to qualify for than H1B in terms of job requirements.
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/microsoft-confi....