Summary
Senator Bernie Sanders criticized Elon Musk over his support for the H-1B visa program, calling it a tool for corporations to replace good-paying American jobs with lower-wage foreign labor.
Sanders cited data showing U.S. companies laid off 85,000 American workers between 2022 and 2023 while hiring 34,000 H-1B visa holders, arguing this undermines U.S. competitiveness.
Musk, who credits the visa program for his success, defended it, stating he’s ready to “go to war” over the issue.
The debate has divided MAGA conservatives, exposing rifts within Trump’s coalition.
Interesting perspective, but also a little derogatory or at a minimum…overly prescriptive about the folks coming here on those visas?
I’ve known multiple PhDs here on H1-B as well, and while the exploitative nature of their living status depending on their employment is always there and a problem, and I’m sure they were underpaid compared against a US citizen equivalent - the pay was nowhere near the fractions you’re describing, and several of them were far more knowledgeable about their areas of study than any citizens I met at the company.
One of them probably has top-100 understanding of his field globally, if I were to guesstimate. Let’s not portray all H1-B recipients as fundamentally less qualified than Americans. Not only is it overly reductive, our increasingly poor educational performance compared against e.g. China and India are starting to reverse that idea in a lotta cases, too.
Edit to add: I should say I also met one who was a fraud at best and a spy at worst. Totally clueless about his supposed “field”. I understand some parts of the world have issues with corruption and buying of degrees, but I know little about it.
You aren’t wrong on that part. That’s what the H1-B program is designed for. In practice, corporations have exploited the intent of it and instead used it to select very narrowly trained software developers, it workers, and technicians instead of Ph. ds, inventors of specific techniques, or experts with rare and niche technology.
Out of 30 or so I have worked with, I have only worked with one true expert. He was an optics dude who knew specific techniques for using TI DLP to create 3 dimensional images on a transparent plane (I think it was just acrylic). In what I could observe, it was not obvious that he was being exploited, and if I remember right, he was compensated to the limits of the visa, and only brought back on his terms.
You must be fucking joking if you seriously think that every single one of those tens of thousands of H1Bs were actual experts at the top do their game to the point where no American worker could fill the position otherwise.
You must be joking if you think even 3/4ths of them meet that criteria.
Oh but thank god you know a few H1B PHDs. That little anecdote changes everything.
You seem to have chosen only a few of the words in my comment to read. Feel free to read the rest, or fuck right off with your ridiculous nonsense, your call. Blocking you regardless so enjoy whatever you choose I guess.