patrick.net

Absolutely

Good idea.

Much simpler to ax all H1 but Trump will not do that as he would have to pay more to his resort workers, e.i. hire Americans. Of course both parties are complicit, but trump was talking about H1B being harmful when he was campaigning. Even if they would just quit issuing new H1B's it would be sufficient.

Except stupid degrees, those people need to get their shit together.

Will never happen because it makes too much sense.

Right, it makes sense for the majority of US citizens.

But what benefits the majority is not what happens in America, because we have much too much divisive diversity for the public to defend their common interests. We are deliberately fragmented along sex, race, and other subgroup lines to keep us weak. This is why diversity is praised so much by people with power. It gives them more power.

Congress represents business owners and Wall Street, not the general public.

You might also suspend student visas, seeing as a huge chunk of top universities is made up of non-citizens.

IMHO, jobs are not hand-outs or mana from sky. Every job (except for those paid by government payrolls and government subsidies) derives from a hope for mutually beneficial exchange that is above opportunity cost. Many Americans choose not to take jobs because they are supported by family, spouse/sex-partner, and/or government welfare. It wouldn't be surprising that the extra $600/wk unemployment benefit through the summer will result in many young people previously making less than $40k/yr choose to delay rejoining the work force.

Stopping visas won't speed up economic recovery or job recovery, but would only get in the way of recovery as it is a "negative bridge" getting in the way of mutually beneficial exchanges (and have unintended consequences: e.g. less people buying whatever those banned workers would consume, and higher prices for the goods/services that those banned workers would otherwise deliver, which in turn would stop good/services from being delivered as consumers balk at prices).

What could work is rethinking how "minimum wage" is defined: instead of banning all job offers below that numerical number, redefine the minimum wage as having the government paying up the difference: e.g. if "minimum wage" is set at $15/hr, then a $10hr/job from a private employer would get an extra $5/hr kicked in from the government; only US citizen and permanent resident employees can receive that subsidy, up to $12k/yr or $20k/yr per person. That will enable more people to seek out work opportunities, instead of banning people from working or force people to seek illegal jobs in crime (such as drug dealing). Instead of removing the bottom rung of the employment ladder, this policy would add some baby steps at the bottom to help young citizens started on a career that after a while will make more money per hour and get them off the training wheels.

Reality says

if "minimum wage" is set at $15/hr, then a $10hr/job from a private employer would get an extra $5/hr kicked in from the government

So, every single business will start paying 1¢ per hour to the low-skill workers. In fact, what prevents me from bribing an employer with 2¢ per hour for them to hire me at 1¢ per hour so I can collect $15 an hour for doing nothing? Hmmm... $30k/year for doing nothing sounds super! Sign me up.