4 ms·

Capital doesn't place too much emphasis on borders. When a person can double or triple their salary just by moving a few hours south it's easy for all the capit

by briga 2y ago

Capital doesn't place too much emphasis on borders. When a person can double or triple their salary just by moving a few hours south it's easy for all the capital to get concentrated in one place (namely the US)

bsder 2y ago
> When a person can double or triple their salary Erm, this is my point, no? This large a differential between Canada and the US has persisted for decades. Why? You would think that the US would have drained Canada of the personnel sufficiently to cause salaries to match by this point.
- randomdata 2y ago
  > Why? Why not? "Highly skilled" people are highly sought after because, by and large, they are the people most likely to create new capital. Success in creating new capital begets a desire to create even newer capital and so long as the people continue to be successful in capital creation efforts, there is really no end. Not a whole lot different as to why Silicon Valley hasn't stabilized with Detroit. Of course, Detroit is also interesting here because it provides a cautionary tale as to what happens when capital creation seizes up. That is what Canada is desperately trying to avoid by trying to bring in the "highest skilled" people from other countries.
red-iron-pine 2y ago
the important caveat here is the TN visa, which makes it reasonably easy for certain skilled fields to move across the border. if you're in STEM there is easy a 40% difference in pay, and considerably more on the high end (FAANGM, or similar large Enterprise tier). by limiting it to high-end, educated work, it also skews the market a lot -- high earners leave, low-to-mid market stagnates. Canada then has to import both high-end talent via immigration, but also low-end Temporary Foreign Workers to do crappy jobs like slinging coffee at Tim Hortons.

4 ms·

Capital doesn't place too much emphasis on borders. When a person can double or triple their salary just by moving a few hours south it's easy for all the capit

by briga 2y ago

bsder 2y ago
> When a person can double or triple their salary Erm, this is my point, no? This large a differential between Canada and the US has persisted for decades. Why? You would think that the US would have drained Canada of the personnel sufficiently to cause salaries to match by this point.
- randomdata 2y ago
  > Why? Why not? "Highly skilled" people are highly sought after because, by and large, they are the people most likely to create new capital. Success in creating new capital begets a desire to create even newer capital and so long as the people continue to be successful in capital creation efforts, there is really no end. Not a whole lot different as to why Silicon Valley hasn't stabilized with Detroit. Of course, Detroit is also interesting here because it provides a cautionary tale as to what happens when capital creation seizes up. That is what Canada is desperately trying to avoid by trying to bring in the "highest skilled" people from other countries.
red-iron-pine 2y ago
the important caveat here is the TN visa, which makes it reasonably easy for certain skilled fields to move across the border. if you're in STEM there is easy a 40% difference in pay, and considerably more on the high end (FAANGM, or similar large Enterprise tier). by limiting it to high-end, educated work, it also skews the market a lot -- high earners leave, low-to-mid market stagnates. Canada then has to import both high-end talent via immigration, but also low-end Temporary Foreign Workers to do crappy jobs like slinging coffee at Tim Hortons.