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Comment by aianus | Hacker News Reader

> When all the xenophobia and fear stops the trickle of immigrants into the US, they will understand what drove innovation was not some magical freedom that 90% of democracies have, it was talented people from all over the globe.

How is China going to attract talented people from all over the globe?

Even with 1.5B people, they'll be competing with 6B who can't (and don't want to) join them and would prefer to join a Western country that will eventually give them naturalized citizenship and treat them somewhat as equals.

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Outrageous compensation packages. Last figure I read, they've already poached 20% of Taiwan's semi engineers over the years. That's before recent initiatives to compensate foreign workers 3x-5x salary. They're flying in Korean specialists on daytrips to accommodate their desires to still live in Korea, building churches on campuses etc. Basically what western companies did in the 90s to entice foreign specialists to work in China, a lot of cash and allure of royal treatment i.e. specifically because they won't be equals. Work in a nice tier1 city for 5-10 years and retire or naturalize / work in the west. Semi engineers are project paperclip tier assets in the coming years, they're get work and fast-track citizenship considerations regardless of their past affiliations and most likely, because of it.

If the US didn't pay 3-4x the salary for software engineers compared to Canada, I wouldn't be here either. If China paid me more, I'd move in a heartbeat.

This comment encapsulates in a very crisp way why people are skeptical of immigration free-for-alls. Many feel the same way you do, that it's just a method of economic extraction and they don't have any skin in the game for the long term health and viability of the host Country.

Why should global citizens be tied to an outdated Westphalian concept of a nation state?

Note that during the time they're in a certain country, these experts are most likely paying taxes at the top tax bracket.

Because there is no such thing as a "global citizen", first of all. And just taking a look around, the death of the nation state must've been greatly exaggerated in some circles.

>these experts are most likely paying taxes at the top tax bracket.

Who cares. This is a thinly veiled attempt to say that any person's worth in a given society is approximately equal to how much they pay in taxes - which is insane, for a great many reasons.

I'm not saying they will. I'm only saying the US has become far less attractive to immigrants over recent years. It might not even have any impact on the US, who knows.

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