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Comment by downvoteme1 | Hacker News Reader

Don’t be surprised if this position then goes to an H1B contractor though. If enough anericans who have this knowledge do not apply because they - Hate the tech - Can’t provide their feedback to improve the system - Don’t like the salary offered even if’s greater than their current unemployment income, then is it for an offshore company to come in and fill that gap.

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I don't think the point is that Americans should consider themselves too good for the COBOL jobs. The point is that the organization has stated that it will refuse to hire many people who would be willing and able to do the jobs.

People love to attribute bad faith into a government just trying to get their shit together in the middle of an emergency. Where and when have they refused?

And that's why most American programmers hate H1B. It's not about filling jobs that we don't have the skill for, it's about filling jobs that companies don't want to spend money on. Offer a half mil a year, and watch how many qualified Americans come out of the woodwork.

This isn’t specific to programming. The whole point of hiring foreign is they do more work for less money and don’t complain (lest they lose their visa).

USA has the skill & unemployment to fill farming, construction, housekeeping, etc. jobs no problem. But why would companies pay 2X to hire an American that’s liable to quit at any point when they can get a foreign for X that’s legally bound to the work?

And that's why H1B is a sham. They should just auction off those visa slots to the highest bidders.

(The auction would also give politicians a nice incentive to find ways to increase the revenue received.)

Which popular H1B source countries teach COBOL? I feel like the advent of cheap offshore programming came well after the decline of COBOL. Though my sense of history can very well be off.

They can just lie about experience can they not?

I'm sure that Tata/Infosys/Cognizant will be happy to supply you with dozens of CVs claiming COBOL experience and then give crash courses to any candidates selected.

A lot of Indian degree courses teach COBOL for exactly this reason.

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