The world supply of highly capable individuals is finite. The US used to
import all the best experts from all over the world, via the H-1B program. This
meant that no one else in the world could create the equivalent of Silicon
Valley, because no one else had access to the talent.
In my view, the US made
two major mistakes:
1. They didn't make the H-1B Visa's portable, which
prevented the talent from being used most effectively.
2. Eventually, being
unable to get more H-1B Visa's, the US sent the wizards home.
Sending the
US-trained workers and students (tech wizards) back home was a disastrous
mistake. They went home and started the tech businesses. Either directly, as
new startups, or indirectly through outsourcing, those tech businesses are now
competing against the US firms that created them.
Protectionist US
immigration policy that created a huge portion of the tech outsourcing problem
now facing US employees.
Tech companies benefit from having large amounts of
talent in a small geographical area. The cross-fertilization of ideas is
important. The US needs to go back to the old way: take advantages of natural
monopolies, support the creation of these monopolies through foreign policy (in
this case having the most lenient immigration policies in the free world), and
stop sweating about labour market rates. In terms of American jobs, having a
few strategic monopolies creates better jobs than having a weak "me too"
economy. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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