4 ms·

Why would I want an immigrant smarter than me? If I have a 120 iq and he has a 130 iq then he is going to take my job. You really aren’t convincing me here.

tptacek 5mo ago
You reasonably might not. We would though. Who prevails, the small-but-concentrated interest, or the vast-but-diffuse one? It's the central question of all public policy.
- bluecheese452 5mo ago
  Why would the average us citizen want to import a smarter foreign competitor. There are far more workers than there are ceos.
  - akerl_ 5mo ago
    Because I want to work with talented coworkers and do business with talented counterparts and socialize with people who aren’t scared of immigrants.
  - tptacek 5mo ago
    An accountant wants better, more reliable, and cheaper software. They're not intrinsically motivated to subsidize native-born software developers.
    - bluecheese452 5mo ago
      No they don’t. They want to work 40 hours a week, go on vacation twice a year, drive a couple of cars, have their wife stay home and raise the kids. All things possible 70 years ago but no longer possible.
      - tptacek 5mo ago
        Accountants and software developers do not in fact share a fate. I know it doesn't feel that way when you're commenting on HN, but there are whole lucrative professions that do not care at all what happens in ours.
        bluecheese452 5mo ago
        The same decent at math, moderately ambitious people do well at both. Not 100% overlap but pretty large. If one side collapses the other side will get flooded.
  - solenoid0937 5mo ago
    Because without having the smartest people, the reigning superpower is totally, utterly, unequivocally fucked. Power is a function of technological superiority. The moment you it stops attracting the smartest people, a country will fall behind on military and economic power.
    - bluecheese452 5mo ago
      Which matters not one lick to the average citizen. Norway is no superpower yet life is pretty good there.

tptacek 5mo ago

You reasonably might not. We would though. Who prevails, the small-but-concentrated interest, or the vast-but-diffuse one? It's the central question of all public policy.

bluecheese452 5mo ago
Why would the average us citizen want to import a smarter foreign competitor. There are far more workers than there are ceos.
- akerl_ 5mo ago
  Because I want to work with talented coworkers and do business with talented counterparts and socialize with people who aren’t scared of immigrants.
- tptacek 5mo ago
  An accountant wants better, more reliable, and cheaper software. They're not intrinsically motivated to subsidize native-born software developers.
  - bluecheese452 5mo ago
    No they don’t. They want to work 40 hours a week, go on vacation twice a year, drive a couple of cars, have their wife stay home and raise the kids. All things possible 70 years ago but no longer possible.
    - tptacek 5mo ago
      Accountants and software developers do not in fact share a fate. I know it doesn't feel that way when you're commenting on HN, but there are whole lucrative professions that do not care at all what happens in ours.
      - bluecheese452 5mo ago
        The same decent at math, moderately ambitious people do well at both. Not 100% overlap but pretty large. If one side collapses the other side will get flooded.
- solenoid0937 5mo ago
  Because without having the smartest people, the reigning superpower is totally, utterly, unequivocally fucked. Power is a function of technological superiority. The moment you it stops attracting the smartest people, a country will fall behind on military and economic power.
  - bluecheese452 5mo ago
    Which matters not one lick to the average citizen. Norway is no superpower yet life is pretty good there.