6 ms·

It sounds terrible, but what's much, much worse is living in India. Sanitation is dreadful, salaries are low, and a corrupt bureaucracy ensures things stay that

It sounds terrible, but what's much, much worse is living in India. Sanitation is dreadful, salaries are low, and a corrupt bureaucracy ensures things stay that way. So the NYT is opposing a practice which makes very poor people much better off, and makes much wealthier people a little worse off - unlike their Indian counterparts, they do not need to jump through hoops to get a visa and work at some other job - all on the basis of where those people were born. Classy.

davesque 11y ago
Is India any better off if the people who could fix the problems have no incentive to stick around?
- murbard2 11y ago
  India isn't better or worse off, India is a country, it doesn't have well being. In addition, no those people cannot fix these problems: political change is extremely hard to achieve and it rarely happens. Empire collapses, revolutions, death of dictators, the rise of an enlightened ruler... short of something like that, you're stuck.
  - kamaal 11y ago
    Start up/Product industry is growing in India. But its no where close to providing jobs for India's population scale. Beyond that the new breed of start ups are extremely elitist, and tend to hire only from the best of the colleges. In short it makes sense to play the start up game in India, only if its your own start up.
mcguire 11y ago
I'm a little unclear on this: by "makes much wealthier people a little worse off" do you mean the American tech workers, who were most likely middle class before their wages were pushed down by competition from India, or the much wealthier management of Disney, who in my opinion are actually being made much better off?
- murbard2 11y ago
  The middle class workers are massively wealthier than their Indian counterparts.
  - s73v3r 11y ago
    Which means fuck all in the context of what's going on.
s73v3r 11y ago
The NYT is opposing a practice which makes rich companies even richer while making life worse off for people who live here.
shanemhansen 11y ago
It's not as simple as poor vs wealthy. The H1-B program is better than the alternative for many indians, but that's not an argument in it's favor. To use an extreme example, the workers at Foxconn who work 12 hour shifts, share a bed, and have terrible health problems due to chemicals for making ipads more shiny are quite likely making a decision that's better than their nearest alternative. That doesn't make how Foxconn treats workers ok. The H1-B program is flawed in that it not only hurts these wealthier americans (those who are being laid off), it hurts Indians too by hanging the threat of deportation over their head if they ever want to change jobs. As usual the wealthiest of americans are able to use the law to make themselves even wealthier.

davesque 11y ago

Is India any better off if the people who could fix the problems have no incentive to stick around?

murbard2 11y ago
India isn't better or worse off, India is a country, it doesn't have well being. In addition, no those people cannot fix these problems: political change is extremely hard to achieve and it rarely happens. Empire collapses, revolutions, death of dictators, the rise of an enlightened ruler... short of something like that, you're stuck.
- kamaal 11y ago
  Start up/Product industry is growing in India. But its no where close to providing jobs for India's population scale. Beyond that the new breed of start ups are extremely elitist, and tend to hire only from the best of the colleges. In short it makes sense to play the start up game in India, only if its your own start up.

mcguire 11y ago

I'm a little unclear on this: by "makes much wealthier people a little worse off" do you mean the American tech workers, who were most likely middle class before their wages were pushed down by competition from India, or the much wealthier management of Disney, who in my opinion are actually being made much better off?

murbard2 11y ago
The middle class workers are massively wealthier than their Indian counterparts.
- s73v3r 11y ago
  Which means fuck all in the context of what's going on.

s73v3r 11y ago

The NYT is opposing a practice which makes rich companies even richer while making life worse off for people who live here.

shanemhansen 11y ago

It's not as simple as poor vs wealthy. The H1-B program is better than the alternative for many indians, but that's not an argument in it's favor. To use an extreme example, the workers at Foxconn who work 12 hour shifts, share a bed, and have terrible health problems due to chemicals for making ipads more shiny are quite likely making a decision that's better than their nearest alternative. That doesn't make how Foxconn treats workers ok. The H1-B program is flawed in that it not only hurts these wealthier americans (those who are being laid off), it hurts Indians too by hanging the threat of deportation over their head if they ever want to change jobs. As usual the wealthiest of americans are able to use the law to make themselves even wealthier.