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Comment by zombiwoof | Hacker News Reader

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Doubly so we should worry about the ability of our education system to produce technical talent. The workforce is the engine that makes everything else possible. So it should be very troubling that college attendance is down lately.

I agree. I didn't need a college degree to get into a technical role though. I only ended up getting one later in life to satisfy the need to have the paper and get past screenings. I learned very little from college and exited with no debt. I can't imagine trying to justify $80k+ worth of debt for the education I received.

Agree, but colleges aren't the only vehicle to produce a technical workforce. If the US wants to be competitive going forward, we are going to need alternate tracks for technically minded folks - think apprenticeships and certification programs in addition to our universities.

Why would any teen take the technical path when the government and corporations have spent decades making it abundantly clear that they really want cheap labor from elsewhere instead of domestic workers?

Sweet regulation comes to the rescue! Look up how much does it take to become a licensed electrician or a licensed plumber. Hands-on mechanical skills may not make you a millionaire, but frankly neither would coding skills. With a business sense and some luck, both kinds of skills can work wonders.

If you take the asians (mostly Chinese and Indian) out of the tech and research jobs, the US would fall like 60 places...

But they only mentioned Chinese devs. I've had a few Chinese devs, but my coworkers have consistently been about 1/3 Indian.

Alarm people to do what, exactly?

Do you think that people are like ants in a colony, just a mindless, agency-free extension of their birth country (I don't think you'd like the consequences of that being applied by the world to you...)?

Do they magically and permanently re-align their allegiance the day that they get a green card? Or is this the kind of mark of Cain that they'll never be able to cleanse?

Nice parents and younger sister you have there, shame if something were to happen to them. And don't think we can't reach you in your host country. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_police_overseas_servic...> Your comment is staggeringly ignorant of the realities of China today and of human nature.

Can you stop dogwhistling and beating around the bush, and tell us exactly what you think we should do to H1Bs and green card holders and foreign-born naturalized citizens who have third cousins overseas?

You've outlined your problem, great, what's your solution?

There's no shortage of this kind of suggestive wink-wink-nudge-nudge eyebrow-wiggling, but nobody ever seems to want to say out loud what they think should be done about it.

I'm not dogwhistling, I'm sinophilic and I wish for democracy in China. I don't know what should happen to H-1B's and green card holders, I think they provide great value and they are smart programs that the U.S. has, but your statement about allegiance and your parallel to an ant colony seemed oddly uninformed, and I gave you one specific example of coercion that is currently happening.

China has many modern-day heroes that are unsung, doctors like Li Wenliang, journalists like Li Zehua, businesspeople like Fang Bin, that came forward with crucial information when Covid-19 first occurred, or various politicians like Bo Xilai who revealed cracks and inefficiencies in the CCP's management.

>Do you think that people are like ants in a colony, just a mindless, agency-free extension of their birth country?

When discussing nation-state threat actors, this is 100% how they behave and act.

No, these kinds of comments are what should alarm Chinese workers in the US, because Americans are seemingly only one bad geopolitical event away from descending into "yellow peril" narratives. Sad to see that some people have learned nothing from the last century.

So much for "we are only against the Chinese government but we are for the people".

The number of board members and executives with open allegiance to Israel is far more concerning.

"far more concerning".

Israel, not a peer adversary to the US. China is. So no, it is not more concerning.

As long as we're comparing ways in which China and Israel differ, I wonder how many US state governments require all government employees and contractors to sign a loyalty oath to China? Less than the majority of states, you think? https://www.newsweek.com/pro-palestinian-protest-states-coll...

Speak for yourself. Israel is most certainly an adversary for everyone in the US who values democracy and free press.

The western world has shunned realpolitik in favor of virtue signaling, leaving it open to infiltration by pretty much any government on the planet. Not sure how this can be reversed. Probably will take something that causes the death of millions and then an inevitable overcorrection that kills millions more, which is pretty much the worst outcome and what realpolitik was created to avoid.

Is this implying that H1B visas are "virtue signaling"?

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