There are a number of problems with this argument. (1) Great programmers are not evenly distributed around the world because most places lack good educational s

There are a number of problems with this argument. (1) Great programmers are not evenly distributed around the world because most places lack good educational systems. It makes sense that most are in 1st world countries. (2) Big companies have offices in India, China and elsewhere. Immigration policy does not prevent Google from hiring every great programmer on the planet. What's their complaint? (3) Do many companies need great programmers? Sorry, but your web/mobile app isn't rocket surgery. (4) For every single product on the planet the market finds a price to match supply & demand. Why are tech jobs different? $200k in SF is worse than $100K in Dallas. Increase salaries; problem solved. (5) PG says startups are DESPERATE! Yet they won't consider remote employees, so I guess they aren't that desperate. (6) No one can spot a "great" programmer in a pile of resumes. Maybe your interviews and hiring committees suck? The least controversial policy is 1st world countries give their foreign STEM grads Green Cards (or equivalent). The 2nd easy solution is to pay top programmers lots more money. If they are indeed worth "100X or even 1000X" more than the average, it makes economic sense to pay at least 5X more. Only hedge funds seem to understand this. Finally, any company with 200+ employees can put an office in India/China and hire everyone they want. You can either wait for politicians to change immigration laws, or make remote offices work. Which is more likely?