Summary
Elon Musk faced backlash from his followers on X after advocating for importing “super talented engineers” to address a shortage in the U.S. tech industry.
Musk likened hiring top foreign talent to building a championship sports team and argues that there is a shortage of talented and motivated American engineers.
Critics argued there’s sufficient U.S. talent being overlooked or underpaid, with some pointing to widespread tech layoffs.
Musk dismissed claims of low wages or training gaps, maintaining a need for exceptional engineering talent to advance innovation.
It’s not really “between the lines” when he’s been straight up shouting exactly that for years. He’s been very vocal about it at least since he bought Twitter, “keeping only the most talented ones who really want to work” and it turned out that only the immigrants who can’t AFFORD to leave stayed for shit pay.
Another fun thing about H1B holders is that, in their home countries, there are often kickbacks and indenture schemes that mean that they’re spending the first year of their working life in the US paying back someone for “arranging” the work. So if they quit, they’re in debt to the mob, and if they don’t return, their families are at risk.
I’d love to see the entire program scrapped. It’s such bullshit, and always has been. If there is some real talent that is just somehow so rare it cannot be found here, then give people full citizenship after they’ve been scouted for and found. With absolutely ZERO strings attached to any company. If they are so very rare and such high caliber that Americans are somehow lacking, then why on Earth wouldn’t we want them to STAY here and thrive and contribute long-term to this country? Hell, they might even found a company or two…
Instead, we have them stay here six years max on the H-1B and paid less than Americans. WTF? I thought these people are so sought after and so rare, etc…we are going to send them away after six years?
Scrapping the whole system would force us to finally fix our education system and stop intentionally raising unskilled people who leave college with $100k of debt and are still unqualified for a job.