Comment by chrisbennet | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chrisbennet | Hacker News Reader

"Now, let's review some microeconomics. In a free market, it is almost axiomatic that the market always clears. That's a technical term that means that when somebody tries to sell something, if they are willing to accept the market price, they will be able to sell it, and when somebody wants to buy something, if they are willing to pay the market price, they will be able to buy it. It's just a matter of both sides accepting the market price." - Joel Spolsky " Whaddaya Mean, You Can't Find Programmers?"

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000050.html

Sure, if you can't find developers to work for you at any price than there probably is a shortage of developers in your area. If you could find developers if you paid twice as much as you are offering, then that is a clue that the market price is just higher than you can or are willing to pay.

And if you can double the number of developers by importing them from abroad while keeping the number of jobs constant, the clearing price will inevitably fall to reflect increased supply with constant demand.

There, was that so hard? Yet some people seem to have trouble believing it. It's almost as if people are regurgitating their political beliefs instead of looking at the situation honestly.

I don't think any of us really doubt that Facebook and Google could find (or train!) the talent they need in the U.S. at a price below, say, the $200,000 profit per employee Google brings in [1]. As a developer living and working in the U.S. I'd certainly love it if legislative conditions forced the above companies to hire people like me at a few hundred thousand a year more than my current salary.

The interesting question to me is whether or not there's a valid reason to suppress permanent immigration (not the revolving-door bodyshop kind) of talented developers who would effectively drive down demand for my services. Again, I'd love to see my salary double or triple overnight thanks to favorable legislation, but I don't know that I have a good economic or moral case for that preference.

[1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=net+income+per+employee...

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