Re: "Starter Villain" by John Scalzi

On 5/9/2025 1:42 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Paul S Person  <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

>
But I find it hard to believe that companies which, for example, hire
workers to collect trash/recycle/yard waste, are looking for H1B visa
holders. Most people, I suspect, can find a job without facing any
such problem.

 The H1B system is completely broken because people like Mr. Musk have
figured out how to game the system.
 The original premise was a really good one: allow the best of the best
into America to work for American companies.  The problem is that folks
in the IT world figured out how to make low-level software developers
look like the best of the best, and those companies managed to get most
of the limited number of slots.
 So, first of all you have a bunch of low-level software guys coming to work
in the US (who probably -are- displacing Americans from positions) and
their companies control their visas so they have no ability to leave their
jobs without leaving their companies.  This is, of course, a recipe for
employee mistreatment.
 But even worse from my perspective is that since all of those slots are
taken, it's impossible to get actual experts into the country on an H1B.
We'd like to hire a world-class coatings chemist from India.  A local
university would like to hire a guy with a Nobel prize.  But it's not
possible to get an H1B for these people because they are full up.
 Severe reform of the system is needed but unfortunately the fox is running
the henhouse.
--scott
 

As a former SW Engineer who was very much affected by this (my solution
was to work for defense contractors, who couldn't employ non-citizens),
I've thought quite a bit about this.
My solution, ironically, is tariffs. If there was a $50,000/year tariff
for each H1B brought in, companies would only bring in the actual 'best
of the best'.
pt