We can undermine Putin by stealing his technical talent | Hacker News Reader

We can undermine Putin by stealing his technical talent

nationalreview.com

7 pointsMarkMc8 comments

The US should have focused on being a desirable destination for top STEM workers instead of taking a nationalist turn in 2016 and allowing gun culture to scare foreigners away.

Brain-drain of other, more oppressive countries is what made America great (insofar as there was ever anything great about it) and special.

it still is

You're right, but it's not binary. We aren't as desirable as we used to be. There are now countries with better health care, better social programs, and less violence. There are increasing numbers of countries with excellent tech companies to work for.

The US is still probably among the friendliest countries to foreigners, but our last president projected an unwelcoming image (and created some incredibly cruel policies) that may give potential immigrants the wrong idea.

Gun culture? Really? I doubt many foreigners care about the devastating dangers of the 2nd amendment when they're deciding to come research or work here.

They don't care about the 2nd Amendment, they care about the enormous quantity of gun deaths per capita compared to other developed nations

Per capita? What a pointless statistic. There are states that have functionally erased 2A, that have far higher gun violence than pro-2A states. If they choose to go to New York or California, then wonderful. They can deal with getting mugged if they walk down the wrong street.

Otherwise, they can go to Utah. "Silicon Slopes" if you will. Thriving software dev work, minimal gun violence, very pro-2A.

What portion of the Russian STEM workforce does this guy think would take this deal? How much would you need to make a noticeable dent? As it is, about 9-10K Russians per year get green cards in the US. Presumably that would need to expand by a couple orders of magnitude to make a difference.

I think the whole "Putin wouldn't allow this" aspect is being dismissed too readily.

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