You can fill any job without H-1B if you put in enough money (you may need a bit too much though). The bigger the shortage, the bigger the spread of salary bet

You can fill any job without H-1B if you put in enough money (you may need a bit too much though). The bigger the shortage, the bigger the spread of salary between americans and foreigners salaries. So, if a company doesn't get the visa it will pay the spread, or worse, it will produce less. Minimizing the total loss of the companies under a constraint of total number of visas is a very simple problem mathematically speaking: by selling H1B visas to the highest bidders. Plus, it means that these companies are compensating society for bringing more job competition.