Facing Immigration Crackdown, Silicon Valley Rethinks Its Dreams

Discussion in 'Economics' started by Banjo, Nov 18, 2016.

  1. newwurldmn

    newwurldmn

    Trumps advisors now speak for him as he has put them in a position to enact those policies. If Trump disagrees with them, he needs to make that clear otherwise that is what we should expect.

    The tech industry doesn't seem to agree with you and that's the point of this thread. And like the article said, the fear of future deportation (when your visa expires) is already cramping some entrepreneurial activities in that industry.

    Maybe this will all be better for other American citizens, but that's not the point of this thread.
     
    #41     Nov 20, 2016
  2. Sig

    Sig

    Actually the paper your link quotes says "32 percent of computer science graduates not employed in information technology attributed their situation to a lack of available jobs", which is a very different thing than 32% of computer science graduates not being employed!

    While I agree about the shortcoming of anecdotal data, in this case the market is clearly demonstrating a shortage with the salaries which are easily double those of people with comparable degrees in other fields that don't face shortages. In addition, I think it's important to note that by definition an H1B visa holder is willing to move in order to get a job, where as many American's with STEM degrees are not. So there may well be a surplus of software developers in Syracuse who work outside of STEM because they can't find a STEM job and don't want to leave upstate. That in no way means that a company in SF is being cheap or abusing the H1B by importing H1B workers who are willing to work in SF.

    The bottom line is that you, and me, and all the other electrical engineers and CS grads out there, would like to make more money and think we should make more money (because of course, we're smarter than those humanities majors, right?), but we're already making far more than the average for someone with our degree. A "flat" wage for an EE that's much higher than the average wage for someone with the same degree level doesn't indicate H1B abuse! If these (http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes172071.htm) are what you call being "driven down" then they were pretty damn high to start with! You notably didn't provide your salary, but I'm willing to wager that it's easily double what an average humanities PhD makes. You're not inherently "worth" more than the humanities PhD, it's pure supply and demand.

    By the way, I'm one of your article's STEM people who would say I'm not working in a STEM job. When I was a pilot, the vast majority of my fellow pilots were STEM majors but being a pilot isn't technically a STEM job. I know a large number of small company upper management who have STEM degrees but aren't doing computer coding or designing circuits and would probably say they aren't in a STEM job. In other words, saying that half of all STEM majors aren't in STEM jobs says almost nothing about if there is a shortage of jobs there or not, as opposed to the market which says everything about shortage and surplus.
     
    #42     Nov 20, 2016
  3. Surgo

    Surgo

    Yeah, that's what I meant. Misspoke.

    Nobody said they were abusing H1Bs. This works both ways though. If there's a large amount of cheap labor in Syracuse, companies should be willing to relocate to Syracuse. (As far as the Syracuse example goes, to the best of my knowledge that's exactly what happened. I don't live there, though.)

    I don't know what you're referring to with H1B abuse; I suspect you read my post to mean something significantly different.

    I'm not really sure what to say here. Intel was known throughout the 2000s for getting H1B visas and paying them slightly under what they were paying locals, rinse and repeat with "slightly under" going down every year. One of the many reasons I never considered working there or that industry in general, and moved to pure computer science.

    You're literally attacking a strawman here. I never made any claims of inherent worth of degree. For what it's worth, my company's value gained per employee is vastly higher than what it pays its employees. (My salary is roughly $250k/yr, up and down based on the whims of the stock market.)

    I'm not going to claim that society pays me or anyone else correctly. If American society paid people what they were really worth, teachers would get paid and treated way better than they do and those of us here trading wouldn't make anything from it.
     
    #43     Nov 20, 2016
  4. Sig

    Sig

    You said " I'll be happy to see H1B abuse get cut down", I'm maintaining there is no such "abuse". You're claiming there's no shortage of STEM grads in the U.S., and I'm pointing out that the market is indicating the opposite. You're a case in point, $250K a year in upstate New York is easily 2-3X the average of all PhDs in your area with your experience level, that's scarcity at work my friend. I make no statement of the inherent worth of a teacher or a software developer, I'm simply pointing out how economics work and if a particular profession pays more than another with the same schooling requirements it indicates a relative shortage in the higher paying one vs the other. If Intel was getting H1B electrical engineers in the 2000s and paying them "only" $199,000 while the local EEs were getting $205,000 it simply means there was a shortage of local EEs that allowed them to demand such a huge salary to start with. It's in everyone's interest but the local EEs to bring that supply and demand picture at least a bit more into balance. And no, it's not incumbent on companies to go set up shop in every back corner of flyover country when the world's best and brightest are happy to move to where the jobs are. In fact as you pointed out in your very first post, if you force big corps to set up shop in Wichita or Des Moines to find talent they might just as well set that shop up in Sofia or Mumbai.
     
    #44     Nov 20, 2016
  5. Surgo

    Surgo

    Yeah okay, I don't think we'll ever agree on this point. I see abuse ranging from as tame as Intel driving down wages, to as crazy as body shops like Infosys.

    Besides, H1Bs aren't as far as I'm aware meant to bring balance to supply and demand. They're meant to import labor you can't find in-country.
     
    #45     Nov 20, 2016
  6. Sig

    Sig

    I think your last paragraph says it all. If there is an imbalance in supply and demand it means there isn't enough supply to meet demand. That's the same as not enough, can't find it, don't have as many as you need.... When that happens the scarcity employees can demand a higher and higher wage because companies essentially are just poaching from other companies. Only the companies with the highest profit margins get to be fully staffed, and a lot of economic productivity is lost because a number of jobs simply go unfilled. The high salaries are simply an effect of not having enough of something. As you can probably tell my advanced degree is an MBA and my business is running markets; this is classic markets.
     
    #46     Nov 20, 2016
    d08 likes this.
  7. Surgo

    Surgo

    Sorry you took it that way, but I'm not admitting there's an imbalance in supply and demand. I'm just saying that if there is (there might be), the H1B program is not meant to address such a thing.
     
    #47     Nov 20, 2016
  8. 2rosy

    2rosy

    what's your company? I will send you my resume and take less than the salary you mentioned. My only requirement is that I work remotely. I don't think there is any tech shortage. From my experience most of the work is rather mundane and utilizes less than 40hrs/wk
     
    #48     Nov 20, 2016
  9. gkishot

    gkishot

    >>Trumps advisors now speak for him
    Link please.
    >>The tech industry doesn't seem to agree with you
    Not a problem.
     
    #49     Nov 20, 2016
  10. d08

    d08

    There was an article on the crazy sex parties that are the in-thing nowadays in Silicon Valley. A bunch of people with boatloads of money and youth is the perfect mixture for this.
    It's cute that you think all hot women pick men based on looks.
     
    #50     Nov 20, 2016