Great H-1B Visa Idea
In a Slashdot article, Which Google Should Congress Believe?, Google is whining about the limits of H-1B visas. I'm a big fan of Google -- which is why I'm particularly disappointed by this. The other company I've heard make a big stink about this has been Microsoft. But I'm not usually surprised when Microsoft does "evil things".
Without rambling too much, my issue with H-1B visas is that they artificially bring down wages. Don't get me wrong.. I'm definitely a fan of [legal] immigration, especially of highly skilled workers. But that's not the argument here. The argument is that the United States does not have enough skilled workers.
I would argue that we very well do have enough skilled workers for Google, but they would have to pay them enough. Although programmers get paid a fairly decent wage, they don't usually come close to what doctors and lawyers can be paid. As an example of the problem, a friend of mine, who is a highly proficient programmer, has instead decided to become a lawyer because it pays more. That's just one H-1B visa that wouldn't be needed!
To reference the doctor profession again, if we allowed H-1B visas for doctors (which I've heard the US doesn't allow) you would see too that doctors' wages would go down. And lest you think this would reduce medical costs, I believe doctors' insurance is the biggest problem there, and so that wouldn't be affected.
The problem, therefore, is that companies want more H-1B visas simply so they can save on some costs. And it's true that the US should want more H-1B visas so we can try to better consolidate the world's brain power here. But this issue should be about immigration, and just immigration; it should not be about trying to supplant this country's existing skilled workers.
But getting back to my point. Within the Slashdot article I mentioned above, I read a great idea that would very much help solve this H-1B visa problem...
I love economic solutions! Economics can really be quite elegant.
So I'm in agreement. I think the US should auction off H-1B visas. That would help balance out the salary market.
- Michael Krebs
Without rambling too much, my issue with H-1B visas is that they artificially bring down wages. Don't get me wrong.. I'm definitely a fan of [legal] immigration, especially of highly skilled workers. But that's not the argument here. The argument is that the United States does not have enough skilled workers.
I would argue that we very well do have enough skilled workers for Google, but they would have to pay them enough. Although programmers get paid a fairly decent wage, they don't usually come close to what doctors and lawyers can be paid. As an example of the problem, a friend of mine, who is a highly proficient programmer, has instead decided to become a lawyer because it pays more. That's just one H-1B visa that wouldn't be needed!
To reference the doctor profession again, if we allowed H-1B visas for doctors (which I've heard the US doesn't allow) you would see too that doctors' wages would go down. And lest you think this would reduce medical costs, I believe doctors' insurance is the biggest problem there, and so that wouldn't be affected.
The problem, therefore, is that companies want more H-1B visas simply so they can save on some costs. And it's true that the US should want more H-1B visas so we can try to better consolidate the world's brain power here. But this issue should be about immigration, and just immigration; it should not be about trying to supplant this country's existing skilled workers.
But getting back to my point. Within the Slashdot article I mentioned above, I read a great idea that would very much help solve this H-1B visa problem...
Re:The two are not mutually exclusive (Score:5, Interesting)
by Retric (704075) on Friday July 20, @01:09PM (#19929083)
Yea, the article is junk but so is the H1B quota system. It seems like the simple solution is for the government to auction off H1B's.
If Google really wants someone they can offer 50k but they can probably get local talent for cheaper. My guess is H1B's would balance out to around 25K a pop and most Americans would be fine competing on that type of playing field.
I love economic solutions! Economics can really be quite elegant.
So I'm in agreement. I think the US should auction off H-1B visas. That would help balance out the salary market.
- Michael Krebs
Labels: politics
posted by Michael at 3:47 AM
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