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Comment by h1bthrow | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think having to work hard is abusive. Investment bankers famously work 70, 80 hour weeks voluntarily. Why can’t software engineers work a bit more than 40 hours a week if they wanted to? The ‘low pay’ that people claim is well above market average in most of the world, and above the median US income. People are mostly happy to have the opportunity to work here.

I think that complaints of abuse are thinly veiled xenophobia. You pretend to be helping us, but you just want to protect your own overly inflated salaries from market forces.

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Wow :) You should save this comment and revisit it when you are 35ish. This attitude is exactly what companies want. It's Apple charging $1000 for a phone, and makes (say) $300 profit but you willingly hand over $1500 to them. Would you do that?

I've worked very hard to get to where I am, so working hard isn't difficult for me. I chose to work here because it provides the best life for me, not because anyone forced me to. Would you rather take this choice away from me?

No one is talking about taking that choice away from you.

What you think is "best for you" changes for a lot of people over time. Meanwhile, using my iphone analogy again, you are merely raising the cost of a phone for those who "just want a phone". ie, you are raising the expectations for employers who will expect more people to work for 40+ hours, while getting paid for 40.

If you are from a country with a long waiting time for a US green card, you should really look at a moving to another developed country, or marrying a local.

But investment bankers are not threatened by expulsion from the country where they've placed their roots and want to live. Which increases the already disproportionate power employers have over their employees, and make H1Bs more prone to abusive workplaces.

I don't feel threatened by expulsion by my employer. Instead, I feel threatened by xenophobic people and policies like the sitting president and recent US immigration policies. If you want to help people like me, why not fight for easier immigration policies and make it easier for people like me to stay here?

The reason I don't like the H1B program is because it makes it so hard for people like you to stay here. It's designed, by law, to kick you out after 3 to 6 years.

Well actually, I get to start the application for green card after 2 years of employment. Unfortunately, I have to wait many years for my green card date to arrive due to the strict restrictions on green card availabilities. The H-1B is actually designed to encourage workers to apply for a green card for permanent residency, but it seems the whole process is designed to be as long and torturous as possible.

I agree. I think there should be a single, general-purpose "I'm a skilled worker and I'd like to work in US long-term" visa; the process should move quickly enough for new college graduates to get it, and once someone has the visa they should be able to stay in the US for as long as they'd like without extra steps or restrictions.

What are you arguing against? Where are you seeing anyone defend xenophobic immigration policies in the posts you are replying to?

I support the hiring of H1-B Visa employees to fill jobs that can't be filled by US citizens.

However, I'm not in favor of the common practice where employers make no attempt to hire a US citizen and instead hire an H1-B employee who is willing to work for peanuts.

That doesn't mean I'm a xenophobe.

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