4 ms·

Silicon Valley needs to stop harping on the Visa program and simply pay people what they want to receive. It is amazing that an idea can bring in $50 million in

by tomc1985 9y ago

Silicon Valley needs to stop harping on the Visa program and simply pay people what they want to receive. It is amazing that an idea can bring in $50 million in investment and they're still splitting hairs on individual salaries. There is plenty of talent stateside - stop bitching about the costs and just fucking pay it. These cost minimization assholes need to be swept away. Companies are sitting on larger stockpiles of cash than ever before, owing to years of White House uncertainty; they have the money and simply need to spend it. On one hand you hear about how SV is just sooooooo flush with cash and then in the other hand entrepreneurs complain that talent is too expensive. Every single one of those clowns is a fraud.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> There is plenty of talent stateside This is not always true. In any case, the realistic tradeoff is (a) people who would have started businesses in the United States that hired Americans will start them overseas [1] and (b) investment that would have funded American businesses, hiring Americans, will seek out the best founders overseas. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/07/china-makes-the-world-takes/305987/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/07/china-m...
gumby 9y ago
I think you have it backwards. This is to help bring in people who will start companies in the US and hire people in the US. The major VCs mentioned in the article (such as Accel) already have VC arms overseas, funding companies which employ foreigners in their home countries. If you want more of the latter (using US capital to build companies, jobs, products etc) then go ahead, recind this visa.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- biocomputation 9y ago
  << funding companies which employ foreigners in their home countries. Those foreign companies should benefit their foreign founders and local economies. Not every economic benefit needs to accrue to the US.
- weirdstuff 9y ago
  Please excuse this more radical point, but part of me is ok with rescinding the visas to force some investment back into the domestic population. (Out of necessity.) We have a large enough population that there's no reason we should be hurting for talent, and part of me wonders how much of that disinvestment has been enabled by importing instead of breeding our needs. We're exploiting poor conditions in other countries in order to attract their best, as well as creating poor conditions here for natural born citizens to suppress their demands from resource owners.
  - gumby 9y ago
    > rescinding the visas to force some investment back into the domestic population. (Out of necessity.) But it won't, the US investment dollars will simply be spent in the entrepreneur's home country, which won't create any US jobs and in fact will help dilute the power and influence of Silicon Valley. > We're exploiting poor conditions in other countries in order to attract their best, as well as creating poor conditions here for natural born citizens to suppress their demands from resource owners. Well you could see it that way; in my case it is a quality of life sacrifice to work in the US in exchange for significantly more interesting work environment; on the other hand my wife couldn't deal with the lower quality of life here (worse and more expensive medical system, worse food, schools, etc). I suppose if you have a zero-sum model and don't believe Adam Smith and David Ricardo on the benefits of free trade your position would make sense.
    - pm24601 9y ago
      > But it won't, the US investment dollars will simply be spent in the entrepreneur's home country, which won't create any US jobs and in fact will help dilute the power and influence of Silicon Valley. This is a benefit. It would spread wealth and enable more people to be tech/entrepreneurial. > in my case it is a quality of life sacrifice to work in the US in exchange for significantly more interesting work environment ... which should not be exclusive to silicon valley.
  - kamaal 9y ago
    As somebody who comes from a country(India) that routinely loses smart people to the US, your suggestion is welcome. But, think of this from your perspective. You can try almost as hard as your want but there is no way you can build a system from which you can harvest disproportionate amount of smart people from a population mass continuously. The only way to get them is through immigration. Take your net population, Subtract the elderly, children and other dependents(people with medical conditions etc). Given poverty, lack of opportunity, overall direction in life, nature of human capital and personal enterprise. Only a very small fraction of people in any country eventually go on to do things of huge value for everybody else. The only way to get such people in bulk quantities is from outside your country. Forgive me for saying it. This immigration debate will go on forever, and people will keep talking of citizens vs outsiders debate, every time they miss out on a opportunity. But everyone deep down knows if the US has to keep its economic and military might, the only real way is to get those smart people, have them do something amazing of huge value and use that to keep your way of life going.
tim333 9y ago
I think you're thinking of the H-1B visa which does get used to bring in lower salary employees. The article is about a different scheme to let foreigners start startups and presumably increase US employment.
- bksenior 9y ago
  He didnt read the article. Dont feed the trolls.
khana 9y ago
YES! Thank you.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> There is plenty of talent stateside This is not always true. In any case, the realistic tradeoff is (a) people who would have started businesses in the United States that hired Americans will start them overseas [1] and (b) investment that would have funded American businesses, hiring Americans, will seek out the best founders overseas. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/07/china-makes-the-world-takes/305987/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/07/china-m...

gumby 9y ago

I think you have it backwards. This is to help bring in people who will start companies in the US and hire people in the US. The major VCs mentioned in the article (such as Accel) already have VC arms overseas, funding companies which employ foreigners in their home countries. If you want more of the latter (using US capital to build companies, jobs, products etc) then go ahead, recind this visa.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
biocomputation 9y ago
<< funding companies which employ foreigners in their home countries. Those foreign companies should benefit their foreign founders and local economies. Not every economic benefit needs to accrue to the US.
weirdstuff 9y ago
Please excuse this more radical point, but part of me is ok with rescinding the visas to force some investment back into the domestic population. (Out of necessity.) We have a large enough population that there's no reason we should be hurting for talent, and part of me wonders how much of that disinvestment has been enabled by importing instead of breeding our needs. We're exploiting poor conditions in other countries in order to attract their best, as well as creating poor conditions here for natural born citizens to suppress their demands from resource owners.
- gumby 9y ago
  > rescinding the visas to force some investment back into the domestic population. (Out of necessity.) But it won't, the US investment dollars will simply be spent in the entrepreneur's home country, which won't create any US jobs and in fact will help dilute the power and influence of Silicon Valley. > We're exploiting poor conditions in other countries in order to attract their best, as well as creating poor conditions here for natural born citizens to suppress their demands from resource owners. Well you could see it that way; in my case it is a quality of life sacrifice to work in the US in exchange for significantly more interesting work environment; on the other hand my wife couldn't deal with the lower quality of life here (worse and more expensive medical system, worse food, schools, etc). I suppose if you have a zero-sum model and don't believe Adam Smith and David Ricardo on the benefits of free trade your position would make sense.
  - pm24601 9y ago
    > But it won't, the US investment dollars will simply be spent in the entrepreneur's home country, which won't create any US jobs and in fact will help dilute the power and influence of Silicon Valley. This is a benefit. It would spread wealth and enable more people to be tech/entrepreneurial. > in my case it is a quality of life sacrifice to work in the US in exchange for significantly more interesting work environment ... which should not be exclusive to silicon valley.
- kamaal 9y ago
  As somebody who comes from a country(India) that routinely loses smart people to the US, your suggestion is welcome. But, think of this from your perspective. You can try almost as hard as your want but there is no way you can build a system from which you can harvest disproportionate amount of smart people from a population mass continuously. The only way to get them is through immigration. Take your net population, Subtract the elderly, children and other dependents(people with medical conditions etc). Given poverty, lack of opportunity, overall direction in life, nature of human capital and personal enterprise. Only a very small fraction of people in any country eventually go on to do things of huge value for everybody else. The only way to get such people in bulk quantities is from outside your country. Forgive me for saying it. This immigration debate will go on forever, and people will keep talking of citizens vs outsiders debate, every time they miss out on a opportunity. But everyone deep down knows if the US has to keep its economic and military might, the only real way is to get those smart people, have them do something amazing of huge value and use that to keep your way of life going.

tim333 9y ago

I think you're thinking of the H-1B visa which does get used to bring in lower salary employees. The article is about a different scheme to let foreigners start startups and presumably increase US employment.

bksenior 9y ago
He didnt read the article. Dont feed the trolls.

khana 9y ago

YES! Thank you.