Comment by sjzisjjsj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sjzisjjsj | Hacker News Reader

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> One of America's greatest assets is its brand as a place worth immigrating too

Not really, no. That’s mostly propaganda that got pushed hard in the 60s - right around the time the wealth gap really started growing and hasn’t stopped ever since.

The only reasonable argument for any immigration is if it equally enriches all us citizens. Given the ever increasing wealth gap this is obviously not the case.

The alternative is: no immigration, focus on increasing native births by ensuring it’s easy to have a large family. Ensure our elites have a sense of “noblesse oblige” and are self sacrificing instead of chasing profit. Some minor level of immigration is fine (for the Werner von Braun types), but staffing companies that build iPhones and gambling websites is not a good use of our resources.

All of my immigrant friends mention they’ll return to their home country if things get bad here. This is my home country, and I want my country filled with people who are here because they see it as their home, not a business transaction. I have nowhere else to go.

Why do you expect someone who hasn't yet become a citizen to say otherwise? My sister assimilated, got used to the idea that she would settle in the US and live like an American, then her green card application got rejected (something about repeated errors by either her employer or attorney). 2 years later, she's still gradually recovering from the mental health impact and rebuilding her life elsewhere.

You can't both have a system that can kick people out on a whim with zero recourse AND expect those people to be fully devoted to being American before they actually become citizens. They have to avoid committing fully before them, and especially nowadays with the unnecessary cruelties of the current administration (the entire "fly back within 24 hours or pay a fee that we don't yet have a process for" thing)

In their defense, if "things get bad", they probably lose their job and will be forced to leave. It's hard to put down permanent roots if you can be kicked out in 90 days.

> The only reasonable argument for any immigration is if it equally enriches all us citizens.

Name any economic policy that will equally enrich all citizens. That seems like a ridiculous bar to meet.

Immigration obviously dates back far, far before the 1960s. What in the world leads you to believe that it’s responsible for the current (admittedly massive) inequalities we face?

> What in the world leads you to believe that it’s responsible for the current (admittedly massive) inequalities we face?

It’s a symptom of the problem not the primary cause. Our real issue is elites that view us as cattle. Rulers that care about their people take a much more measured approach to immigration.

And yes, obviously pedantic equality is not achievable. I want more roads, trains, healthcare etc and less IPOs.

>50% of our unicorns are first generation immigrant founded, the majority of those are Indian. The H1B might be one of the greatest job creation programs in the US.

Every immigrant wave that came to the US (voluntarily) came here to make money, with the sole possible exception of the Puritans.

Mind-blowing this take gets a heavy downvote. There's not a single even "spicy" take in there.

Maybe the "native births" bit is a trigger - but how was that actually ever wrong? Perhaps from consumer culture I guess - why go through the hassle of raising babies for 20 years until they become ripe consumer-taxpayers when you can just import them ready-made for free, or some such thinking.

Really illustrates how leftist the tech class is.

I think the opposite. If you think this illustrates leftism, you are probably much further to the right than you think.

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