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1245 points mriguy | 7 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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bhouston ◴[] No.45308820[source]
This is actually smart. Many H1B visas are used to undermine fair labor wages for already local talent. We should ensure that H1B visas are for actual unique talent and not just to undercut local wages.

H1B is ripe with abuse - this article by Bloomberg says that half of all H1-B visas are used by Indian staffing firms that pay significantly lower than the US laborers they are replacing:

- https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-h1b-visa-middlemen-c...

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huevosabio ◴[] No.45309096[source]
Strong disagree. This is a dumb move in that the US wins wins when people move to the US, especially young, skilled people.

There are big issues with the h1b, particularly how strongly tied to the employer the employee is and how few of these we give away. But this basically closes the door for hiring foreign talent to anyone but BigCo.

It is a sad shotgun shell on the right foot on a long streak of the US feet shooting it's way out of relevance.

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fastball ◴[] No.45309128[source]
Student visas still exist. O1 visas still exist. Other routes I can't remember off the top of my head exist. The door is not closed. Indeed, even H1B visas still exist, assuming that young talented person is worth $100k more than a US citizen.

> the US wins wins when people move to the US, especially young, skilled people.

I personally lean towards this being true, but it is a claim that needs to be demonstrated comprehensively for your argument to hold water. It is not trivially true.

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1. estebarb ◴[] No.45309553[source]
There are studies regarding that: almost half of S&P 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children https://www.brookings.edu/articles/almost-half-of-fortune-50...
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2. ◴[] No.45309659[source]
3. nwienert ◴[] No.45309713[source]
This doesn’t really tell us much, and isn’t really relevant to H1B either. If we had 0 immigration, all S&P 500 companies would be founded by non-immigrants.
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4. outworlder ◴[] No.45309921[source]
Not really. Companies would still be founded, but there's no way to tell if they would ever grow to the point that would be listed in the S&P 500.
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5. nwienert ◴[] No.45310223{3}[source]
Not sure if you don’t know how they define the S&P, or straw-manning.
6. estebarb ◴[] No.45313070[source]
That is half true. It also would be a USA without Apple, Nvidia, Google, Tesla, Intel, Qualcomm, Yahoo, Paypal, eBay, Pfizer, P&G, Goldman Sachs...
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7. ◴[] No.45314221{3}[source]