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I generally believe we should try harder to educate and hire Americans. I am not against immigrants or H1B holders. Or anyone trying to improve their lot in li

I generally believe we should try harder to educate and hire Americans. I am not against immigrants or H1B holders. Or anyone trying to improve their lot in life. I am against the position H1B holders are in. And the effects it can have on a culture. Especially with the force multiplier of technology. They are basically indentured servants. And therefore more likely to do whatever their boss wants, including morally suspect things. Like buy and sell American's privacy. Speak out or resist? You'll need to on a plane out of the country in 6 days. I'm not saying this is a product of a particular race/ethnicity/identity. The moral suspectness. But rather the product of the position. Most everyone in that position would behave in similar ways to keep their position. Sometimes at all cost. Don't get it twisted. So to me, the reasonable options are to either cut back on the program, or give H1B holders more rights.

tabtab 8y ago
Companies don't want to train: they want Instant Workers. Often they want combinations of skills that are unlikely to be had by any one individual. They want version X of the database, vendor Y of the IDE, vendor Z of the network, etc. Shopping the world increases the chances of fitting their desired skill combo via shere probability; it has almost nothing to do with training. Think about it.
- pteredactyl 8y ago
  I agree. And for the companies it makes sense to not want to train. I'm saying the onus is not on them. But on the US education system. K-12 and beyond.
  - tabtab 8y ago
    That won't work either for the "combo-hunting" problem. One cannot predict specific company combos ahead of time when in school. Plus, companies want practical experience, not classwork experience. I'm at a loss for an easy to way to explain the "combo problem" at the moment.
    - pteredactyl 8y ago
      Fair but why should a certain nation or place be better at solving the combo problem than another?
      - tabtab 8y ago
        I'm not quite sure what you mean. And often there's no reciprocal "combo-hunting" because of labor rates. India in general does not want "reverse" H1B's, for example. The US pays more than India such that Indians are more likely to want to participate in USA's labor pool than vice versa because Indian wages would be small if exported/returned to the USA.

tabtab 8y ago

Companies don't want to train: they want Instant Workers. Often they want combinations of skills that are unlikely to be had by any one individual. They want version X of the database, vendor Y of the IDE, vendor Z of the network, etc. Shopping the world increases the chances of fitting their desired skill combo via shere probability; it has almost nothing to do with training. Think about it.

pteredactyl 8y ago
I agree. And for the companies it makes sense to not want to train. I'm saying the onus is not on them. But on the US education system. K-12 and beyond.
- tabtab 8y ago
  That won't work either for the "combo-hunting" problem. One cannot predict specific company combos ahead of time when in school. Plus, companies want practical experience, not classwork experience. I'm at a loss for an easy to way to explain the "combo problem" at the moment.
  - pteredactyl 8y ago
    Fair but why should a certain nation or place be better at solving the combo problem than another?
    - tabtab 8y ago
      I'm not quite sure what you mean. And often there's no reciprocal "combo-hunting" because of labor rates. India in general does not want "reverse" H1B's, for example. The US pays more than India such that Indians are more likely to want to participate in USA's labor pool than vice versa because Indian wages would be small if exported/returned to the USA.