The more I think about it, the more I like the auction system. The big companies that need highly skilled employees can afford to pay en masse. Now if you are

The more I think about it, the more I like the auction system. The big companies that need highly skilled employees can afford to pay en masse. Now if you are a US based small business and you found a dream employee in say Australia. Either this employee is so valuable that you would be willing to shell out something like 50-100k to bring him/her over, or what is more likely you become flexible and let him/her work remotely. I do not foresee many small businesses who would actually need to bring a foreign employee in for a constant presence in US. Does a barbershop really need to bring a foreign born barber. If it does then that barber would probably qualify as an alien of extraordinary ability... My views is biased as a European who programs for a medium sized US business and sees no need to visit US more than once every year.