Sunday, January 13, 2019

Trump Flips On a H-1B Visas

I wonder who got to him.

President Trump tweeted on Friday morning that he would reform the process for H-1B visas — temporary visas for educated workers, which are used heavily by some of the world’s biggest companies, including Deloitte, IBM and Cisco.


Trump said: “H1-B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship. We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the U.S.”

Notes the Financial Times:
The tweet caught many in industry off guard, in part because the Trump administration has previously made H-1B visas harder to acquire, and in part because the president has spent most of the past week talking tough on immigration generally.
This is, of course, a positive.

Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute, said: “This would be a radical about-face on everything he’s said and written about H-1Bs in the last three and a half years.”

As with everything else with Trump, one has to wait and see what really occurs, If the concept revealed preference ever made sense, it sure does with the policy determination of this president.

Oh, and by the way, it is a positive to allow unskilled labor into the country also.

-RW 


12 comments:

  1. This is disappointing news. There is nothing libertarian about this policy. It's more corporate rent seeking by those with the money. I guess you are okay with American workers being kicked to the curb so a foreigner with potentially less ability and qualifications can replace them.

    This is why I despise the libertarians.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re: The Lab Manager,

      ── I guess you are okay with American workers being kicked to the curb so a foreigner with potentially less ability and qualifications can replace them. ──

      If you have a problem with that, you should feel really outraged about that time so many number-crunchers were replaced by TRS-80 computers! Why, that's not how America can be great again!

      Delete
    2. Torres, once again you show a likely deliberate misunderstanding of the H1-B visa program. The structure of the program basically creates a class of corporate indentured servants. Despite the laws that they must be paid market wages they are often not. The sponsorship part the H1-B visa program gives employers leverage. This leverage translates into lower employment costs for the employers.

      Without this leverage immigrants would be able to demand market wages appropriate for their skills and productivity. This would be a true competition with the "american workers". Of course this is nothing you don't know and nothing I haven't told you before. You simply want the condition of H1-B servitude to continue to advance an agenda you approve of. An agenda that is both statist and collectivist.

      Delete
  2. I think it's MUCH more important to import (interesting juxtaposition of words there) Unskilled labor rather than Skilled labor. After all, that software engineer can phone it in from India, but that golf course which needs mowing ain't goin' nowhere.
    As always, I must remark on all those young Black and White American kids down at the Home Depot parking lot looking for work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, those black and whites and maybe Mexican Americans just won't do those jobs for $3 an hour. You know, RW's and other libertardian's paradise. We all here to be 'cheap labor' because according to libertardian economic theory prices of all products and services automatically decrease ALL the time.

      Delete
    2. Re: Capn Mike,

      LTM is of the idea that employers should only purchase *expensive* labor rather than cheaper labor, maybe because (he thinks) employers have deep pockets and besides they're all a bunch of exploiters anyway.

      Delete
    3. H1B visa labor is only cheaper because of the government and the rules it sets for the H1B.

      Delete
  3. "...and White American kids down at the Home Depot parking lot looking for work"

    Years ago my friend got a job at the Post Office. They had a group orientation to start, and the instructor told them if you don't want a job where you must work in the cold, snow, pouring rain, extreme heat etc then you are free to leave now. A bunch of them actually got up and walked out. None of those who walked out were white, they were all minorities.

    This isn't to say that all minorities are lazy. It's just getting a bit old hearing about how good-for-nothing us white guys are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re: Chubba Dog,
      ── It's just getting a bit old hearing about how good-for-nothing us white guys are. ──

      It's cute how you pretend to hide within the herd. No one is saying white guys or gals are lazy, envious of others and prone to blaming others for their mediocrity, Chubba.

      No, they're saying that about Trumpistas.

      Delete
    2. Kind of like you pretending to be a "libertarian", whilst citing the government to back all of your claims.

      Delete
  4. How is it a positive to bring in unskilled labor when you have a welfare state?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re: Rahul S,

      ── How is it a positive to bring in unskilled labor when you have a welfare state? ──

      First of all let's get out of the way the lie that you cannot bring unskilled laborers to the country because of the Welfare state. The Welfare state is a political tool meant to make certain VOTING groups dependent on the State. Using welfare as an excuse to deprive the economy of added pools of labor is counterproductive because as you keep the current pool of labor too low, the overall level of well-being is actually REDUCED, yet you'll still have the same Welfare state. Unskilled labor is still productive labor, Rahul. By bringing in unskilled laborers, the more skilled native labor is released for more profitable endeavors. If foments Division of Labor. This raises the stock of capital for everyone.

      There are two things that you should keep in mind when arguing about economics: One, it is a GAWDDAMNED LIE that there is only a limited number of jobs and that, therefore, these should be allocated to a certain group based on a purely subjective consideration. Two, labor is the most productive of all economic goods. That's the reason why a tiny space like Hong Kong is so rich──thanks to its high population density──while isolated communities live in a condition just an inch of starvation unless they do back-breaking work from sunrise to sunset, as opportunity costs compel a person to look for food and water rather than work to improve the land or accumulate savings. A greater population allows a society to divide labor to do simpler tasks that raise the laborer's productivity.

      Delete