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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

You would still have to have a job lined up to get a work visa. So there would need to be 500M new jobs.

If our economy grew by 500M new jobs, that would be unequivocally good. Those 500M people would be paying taxes, buying goods and services, paying for housing, etc.

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Do you have to leave if you get fired?

Or do you get a gig, show up, quit, and then live on the dole?

The general idea is that once you are here you can stay. But since you're not a citizen, you can't "live on the dole" since you wouldn't qualify for any benefits.

So you'd either have to live off of your savings or get another job or go back to your home country.

> So you'd either have to live off of your savings or get another job or go back to your home country.

Or crime.

Sure, but if you get caught then you get deported and banned. So it's a pretty high risk.

Ok that was missing from your original statement as a condition. Some work visas dont need a prior employment offer as precondition.

I still think that it would drag salaries down significantly. I know employment and salaries are not a zero sum game, but the offer/supply ratio is a parameter.

Isn't that easy to game? You set up a bunch of shell companies that offer jobs. Problem solved.

You can do that today. Set up shell companies and apply for H1B visas. But at the end of the day those people still need an actual job or they won't have any money to live.

Would that be good for the people doing the current jobs in the crosshairs of these new immigrants?

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