4 ms·

As someone who'd like to drive down the value of my labor down to poverty levels, this is a fantastic idea.

jcrites 13y ago
This isn't a particularly constructive comment, especially the sarcasm. I can see that you've been on HN for a while, but in the future it would be great if you could consider stating your concerns directly. (Unless you're just trying to make a joke, in which case it doesn't make complete sense to me. We're talking about positions that require college education.) Or do you genuinely believe that allowing a greater level of immigration will have more drawbacks than benefits?
- nhebb 13y ago
  On one hand you're trying to invoke the emotional imagery of a wave of immigrants coming through Ellis Island, but with the stipulation that they are college educated. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses - as long as they have a STEM degree. You've managed to come across as both populist and elitist in the same argument, so sarcastic replies aren't completely unexpected.
  - mullingitover 13y ago
    My sentiments exactly. "Let's plunder these unfortunate countries for their talent" is a bit unseemly. I'm not against immigration, in fact I think the US needs it if we're going to avoid having our birth rate go flat/negative. But why couldn't these companies open offices in Spain and Greece instead of trying to siphon off their talent?
potatolicious 13y ago
Oh, this is just hysteria. The kind of software engineers that Amazon, Google, Facebook, et al are importing are all above the six-figure threshold, many of them well above it. This community really makes me facepalm sometimes. It is the only group that can, while getting free massages, catered meals, free shuttles to/from work, get paid well into the six figures, and enjoys an incredibly high standard of living even by its own country's standards, still make noises as if they're the exploited proletariat that can't make ends meet. Whatever the effect of skilled immigration - some argue it raises all boats, others argue it suppresses wages, "down to poverty levels" is dishonest hysterics when applied to our industry.
- zalzane 13y ago
  Who says all those immigrants are going to be high-end google-worthy engineers? The chances are in favor that they would drive down the pay of the first quartile of programmers based on quality, not the savants making 100k+/y.
  - zanny 13y ago
    This would suck. I got a crappy CS degree from a nobody college, got average (3.5) gpa, got out in 3 years and didn't get any internships my first two years (though I tried) so I've just been doing my own stuff for a year. I'd hate for the job market to be even harder for fresh CS grads not out of an Ivy League or state school. Most of my graduating class just gave up and went for cheaper masters programs, I figured I'd learn more on my own (and I was right, I learned half a dozen new languages, and a lot of the practical parts of development like regexes, sql, unix commands and sysadmining, etc).
sliverstorm 13y ago
If they've already got the job offer, it wouldn't be all that different from what we have now as far as competitiveness for your job.

This isn't a particularly constructive comment, especially the sarcasm. I can see that you've been on HN for a while, but in the future it would be great if you could consider stating your concerns directly. (Unless you're just trying to make a joke, in which case it doesn't make complete sense to me. We're talking about positions that require college education.) Or do you genuinely believe that allowing a greater level of immigration will have more drawbacks than benefits?

nhebb 13y ago
On one hand you're trying to invoke the emotional imagery of a wave of immigrants coming through Ellis Island, but with the stipulation that they are college educated. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses - as long as they have a STEM degree. You've managed to come across as both populist and elitist in the same argument, so sarcastic replies aren't completely unexpected.
- mullingitover 13y ago
  My sentiments exactly. "Let's plunder these unfortunate countries for their talent" is a bit unseemly. I'm not against immigration, in fact I think the US needs it if we're going to avoid having our birth rate go flat/negative. But why couldn't these companies open offices in Spain and Greece instead of trying to siphon off their talent?

potatolicious 13y ago

Oh, this is just hysteria. The kind of software engineers that Amazon, Google, Facebook, et al are importing are all above the six-figure threshold, many of them well above it. This community really makes me facepalm sometimes. It is the only group that can, while getting free massages, catered meals, free shuttles to/from work, get paid well into the six figures, and enjoys an incredibly high standard of living even by its own country's standards, still make noises as if they're the exploited proletariat that can't make ends meet. Whatever the effect of skilled immigration - some argue it raises all boats, others argue it suppresses wages, "down to poverty levels" is dishonest hysterics when applied to our industry.

zalzane 13y ago
Who says all those immigrants are going to be high-end google-worthy engineers? The chances are in favor that they would drive down the pay of the first quartile of programmers based on quality, not the savants making 100k+/y.
- zanny 13y ago
  This would suck. I got a crappy CS degree from a nobody college, got average (3.5) gpa, got out in 3 years and didn't get any internships my first two years (though I tried) so I've just been doing my own stuff for a year. I'd hate for the job market to be even harder for fresh CS grads not out of an Ivy League or state school. Most of my graduating class just gave up and went for cheaper masters programs, I figured I'd learn more on my own (and I was right, I learned half a dozen new languages, and a lot of the practical parts of development like regexes, sql, unix commands and sysadmining, etc).

sliverstorm 13y ago

If they've already got the job offer, it wouldn't be all that different from what we have now as far as competitiveness for your job.