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.
Eh, doubtful except in very niche areas, perhaps. It’s more likely Americans are not willing to work like indentured servants like H-1Bs are forced into.
If there is a real need to trot the globe to scout for rare talent that we cannot source here, why the ruse of the H-1B program? Why not just offer people full citizenship with no strings attached to any corporate entity?
I don’t believe Elon’s post was exclusively about H1B, please correct me if I’m mistaken.
As for my experience, it’s hard to find Americans to fill certain types of jobs. They are not as motivated to work. My hiring experience is more in low-skilled work, but I’ve witnessed at a company I was a part of before at just how hard it was to find qualified chemists.
I personally support this.
Was it hard to find those workers, or hard to find workers willing to work for what the company was offering? “Nobody wants to work :(” is an extremely common refrain of companies offering $0.35/hr and getting no bites.