Hacker News Reader

Comment by PessimalDecimal | Hacker News Reader

Does "The US" siphon that money off? Or Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. siphon that money off? And where and to whom does it go from there?

The major benefit of reducing or eliminating the H1B visa program is that those companies can continue to do well, and Americans can do well along with them.

View on HN

The money this siphon brings in is benefiting not just tech workers and tech shareholders. When the money is spent it turns the wheels of our economy, which leads to prosperity for all Americans, not just the 8% or so that work in tech.

The tech industry vacuums up money from foreign countries and pumps it into the economy of our country. The beneficiaries include all Americans, including those who work in restaurants, retail, healthcare, insurance, education, housing, transportation, entertainment and so on.

Limiting tech industry to whoever companies can hire locally will hurt its global competitiveness. Such a move will not just hurt the few would-be tech immigrants that are prevented from immigrating, but American prosperity in general.

When is that prosperity coming to the US? It seems that it's been leaving the US for the past decades and life is harder and harder and the American Dream is hardest to attain in decades.

What you are referring to is the velocity of money. Compared to wage income the velocity of money from capital is quite low.

Restricting or eliminating the H1B visas will cause these companies to hire more in oversea offices. Consulting companies however are a whole other deal.

Why aren't they doing that now though?

Because the talent is already here or will be here (on h1b/o1). It's common complaint I hear from people doing offshore consultancies type of businesses that their best workers leave for US $$$ paycheck.

They are to an extent.

Thanks for adding this - I feel like people who can't understand why populism is at it's peak misunderstand this.

Walmart is a U.S. company that historically did well, but I don't see why anyone would care unless you buy their stock or live in Bentonville.

People don't care about macro indicators that lump the 1% and the 99% together.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com