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Trump to impose $100k fee for H-1B worker visas, White House says

(www.reuters.com)
1321 points mriguy | 3 comments | 19 Sep 25 19:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.618s | source
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roughly ◴[19 Sep 25 20:40 UTC] No.45306289[source]▶
I think there’s plenty of interesting debates to be had about immigration policy and its effects on the labor market, but one thing worth noting here is that the primary problem that damn near every other country on earth has isn’t immigration, it’s brain drain.

A core strategic strength of the US over the last century has been that everyone with any talent wants to come here to work, and by and large we’ve let them do so. You can argue how well that’s worked out for us - having worked with a great many extremely talented H1bs in an industry largely built by immigrants, I’d consider it pretty positive - but it damn sure hasn’t worked out well for the countries those talented folks came from.

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jpadkins ◴[19 Sep 25 20:49 UTC] No.45306392[source]▶
The top end of H1B has been great for America. In the last few decades, there has been growth of abuse of the program to get mid level talent at below market rates which really hurts the middle class in America. People need to understand that most reformists don't want to get rid of the truly exceptional immigration to the US. We need to limit the volume, especially the immigrants that are directly competing with a hollowed out middle class in the US. Let me know if you want further reading on this topic.
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roughly ◴[19 Sep 25 21:31 UTC] No.45306892[source]▶
The hollowing out of the middle class in the US isn't because of immigrants, it's because of a sustained campaign by capital to reduce the power of labor over the last 50-odd years and to concentrate wealth as best they can. Immigrant labor contributes to that because we've got inadequate labor protections and because we bought into the idea that lower consumer prices was a fine reason to ignore both labor and antitrust.
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1. peterfirefly ◴[20 Sep 25 10:47 UTC] No.45312175[source]▶
I've heard about the shrinking middle class in the US since around 1990. It somehow doesn't actually seem to be smaller now than it was 35 years ago. More and more ordinary from the bottom third of the population can afford things that used to be reserved for the upper third.

Are you sure it's really been/being hollowed out or are you just repeating something you've heard or read other people state so often that you think it's true?

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2. harimau777 ◴[20 Sep 25 11:22 UTC] No.45312345[source]▶
That's not been my experience. Technology has advanced such that there are things that used to be expensive that are not any more. However, I don't see more people who are able to live middle class lifestyles. Things like owning their own homes, not having roommates, being able to leave demeaning jobs, only having to work one job, raising a family on a single income, etc.

This doesn't map exactly to "middle class" but it also seems like there's now a lot less ability for people to afford to work in "artist" type careers. It used to be that you could wait tables, get a low cost studio in the city, and work as an artist in the evenings/weekends. Now you have to work multiple jobs and probably still can't afford to live in the city and make art.

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3. ◴[20 Sep 25 16:04 UTC] No.45314490[source]▶