An auction based on highest wages will be the worst thing that can be done to H-1B. You may have only technology/CS viewpoint here with this proposal. There are

An auction based on highest wages will be the worst thing that can be done to H-1B. You may have only technology/CS viewpoint here with this proposal. There are lot of other industries that use H-1B. At one time, I was one of such H-1B holder. Do you really want to import foreigners for high paying jobs? Do you really want to starve low margin industries that are unable to pay high wages but need specialized locally unavailable skills? The skill shortage doesn't necessarily equates with high wages, for example shortage of skills needed for short term. One example, a COBOL programmer needed for a cobol to xyz conversion project. Using any one criteria as qualification is recipe for disaster and gaming the system. An appropriate process should look at multiple items both from hiring org perspective and the fit of a foreigner for hiring org as well as industry and the country. A point based system that evaluates suitability of employer and non-immigrant candidate might be better approach, a system somewhat like what Canada uses for permanent residency. In the end, either you import foreigners or you export jobs. If there is an arbitrage opportunity, it will be exploited by someone somewhere.