Hacker News Reader

Comment by pfarnsworth | Hacker News Reader

USCIS started cracking down on Silicon Valley companies with > 15% H1Bs last week.

Looks like H1Bs are currently fucked. There're no more premium processing, meaning transfers will take > 6 months, so you could possibly find a new job but if your transfer gets rejected for whatever reason, you will need to leave the country. And in this climate who knows what will happen in 6 months?

So H1Bs no longer have any mobility, no new H1Bs can get hired, and Green Card processing probably will be even harder. I wonder what that's going to do to the job market in SV, will jobs become easier for non-H1Bs, or will it cut down on the number of jobs altogether?

I guess Trump is really getting his revenge on SV now.

View on HN

That's rough for the immigrants, but a company with >15% H1B visa holders is abusing the system and displacing American workers. The purpose of the program is to bring in the best of the best, not ship them in & use them for cheap labor.

So, if they find the best of the best, you're saying you want to force companies to hire enough American dead weight to keep their numbers looking nice?

I'm saying the use of foreign labor, both within the US and outside, is a large reason why wages are stagnant for the lower and middle class. Exploitation of the H1B visa program is one way this has been happening.

The demand for cheap labor hasn't changed though, so even if H1B visas were gone tomorrow, it would just mean companies would move or hire abroad, not higher wages for Americans.

It's like shoes. Why not manufacture shoes in America and pay the workers good, living wages? Because no one would buy the shoes, because the cost would be so much higher than those of competitors that can make the shoes for much less abroad.

It's the same with software. Many East and Southeast Asian countries have large populations of hard working, highly educated people willing to work for less. That's the force causing wage stagnation. It doesn't really matter that much if we let them come to the US or not (though letting them come helps keep big companies in the US).

At some point we need to put lower and middle class growth ahead of upper class growth. Wealth inequality is growing insanely fast, and only very few are benefiting the growing economy. What does it matter if big companies are in the US if the majority of people don't benefit from its growth?

Sure, I agree with the goal (wealth distribution), but not the means, because forcing companies to pay above market wages just makes the companies non-competitive. Any jobs it gives to Americans will be lost long term when the company goes under.

The means I support would be raising taxes on rich people, then using that money for a UBI or (given that is a kind of pipe dream) subsidizing programs that benefit lower classes and the elimination of taxes of taxes that effect the lower classes most.

As to why it's good to have our companies be competitive? Lots of reasons. For one, our retirement funds, endowments and such depend on it. Further, a US based company outsourcing labor still creates more US jobs than a company wholly overseas. And those things contribute to the general health of the economy, which is important to the ever growing service sector of the US economy.

I agree that wealth distribution via taxes and UBI would be ideal, but I don't think it would ever get through our incredibly troubled political system.

>forcing companies to pay above market wages just makes the companies non-competitive.

I interpret this differently. Before outsourcing and union busting of the 70s and 80s, laborers made a very decent living doing basic work, and the companies made a profit. When those companies outsourced, their profits went through the roof because they exploited the lower cost of living and lack of environmental and labor laws. By bringing those jobs back into the US, the companies wouldn't be paying above market wages. They would be forced to give their fair share of the corporate earnings to the employee. Things are too skewed against the lower class right now.

> So H1Bs no longer have any mobility, no new H1Bs can get hired, and Green Card processing probably will be even harder. I wonder what that's going to do to the job market in SV, will jobs become easier for non-H1Bs, or will it cut down on the number of jobs altogether?

I'm not in the Bay Area, but this is extremely relevant in my situation. How is the hiring landscape outside of Amazon/Google/Microsoft/Facebook for potential H1Bs?

edit: ...or is this just panic that I'm reading way into on HN?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com