The H-1b Lie: This Program Must END

December 29, 2024 by Karl Denninger

Let's cut the crap on H-1b abuse: The H-1b program is in essentially every single case simple abuse, wild-eyed racism through the effective of the "caste" system into the US and destruction of the wage base .vs. the claimed purpose of the program.

In truth the H-1b garbage and the tech firms, including Elon's, shilling for it is nothing more than the same bullshit run by the construction industry when it comes to illegal aliens putting on roofs or farmers and picking strawberries. Neither industry wants to pay Americans a living wage and so both look for ways to cut their costs and stuff the rest of the money in their pockets. Breaking the law doesn't matter to them and yes, essentially every H-1b as currently used is breaking the law because the law requires first a diligent search for American talent at the wage said talent will accept and then, and only then you must pay more to legally use H-1bs. This is never the case, and the job-shop crap is even worse which I will go into detail on below. The so-called "tech bros" all know this, all exploit this and every single one of them should be imprisoned for suborning it, abusing Americans and foreigners alike.

One of the more-common abuses is to list a "job opening" that has a litany of "requirements" that no reasonably-skilled person in-field actually meets but magically some H-1b person "does." Or so they claim; said person really doesn't have five years of experience in the entire list proffered, but this is the basis of their claim "there's no American who can do this job." As someone who has more than forty years in the computer field as a programmer, networking and systems guy I can spot those "ads" instantly; every one of them is a fraud and used solely to avoid hiring an American. Let me be clear: The posting of a single one of those ads is proof of fraud and thus a felony for which the posting entity should be instantly arrested, indicted and everyone involved in it imprisoned.

If you really are an "exceptional" individual in-field you have no need for H-1b at all irrespective of your nationality; the claim that this program actually provides "exceptional" talent is a bald-faced lie that we must not tolerate in any venue. If you are truly exceptional in your field you can apply for and get an O-1 visa which allows you to work for three years in the United States, it can be extended for additional one year terms indefinitely, it has no tie to a specific employer so you can follow job opportunity or set up your own firm unlike the H-1b that does not and thus forces the holder to stay with the sponsoring company or depart the US, it can form the foundation (assuming you aren't misrepresenting anything and really are exceptional and prove it once you get here) for permanent residency and of course that, over time, can lead to citizenship.

So why don't they do that? Because nearly all of them are not really more-skilled than an average person and further if they were they'd turn their own nation into a technology powerhouse since they have four times our population or more and plenty of natural resources.

H-1b visas as illegally exploited today by industry are essentially indentured servitude. The worker is captive to the employer who sponsors the visa and what's worse is that an entire consulting industry has risen up around these things that siphons off a huge percentage of the pay; many of these people make only the minimum of about $55,000 a year with the rest going to the consulting company which is a direct violation of the intent of the program that is supposed to only allow their use at above-market wages. Of course this means the "employee" winds up working 80 hours a week for 40 hours of $27.50/hr in pay.

No, $55,000 for a "skilled" tech worker who is then expected to work double time for no extra money is not an above-market wage anywhere in the United States. It is in fact way below any such skilled position's wage and in addition that "wage" being that its a contractor position does not include either taxes or benefits.

I know multiple young men and women who, knowing my history in the tech sector from worker bee to CEO asked for my opinion on going to college and entering tech careers a decade or more ago and I warned them of the rise of this program and its abuse -- and that given the cost of a degree unless they had a full ride scholarship it was quite dangerous because they could end up with quite a lot of debt and then be undercut by an Indian on an H-1b who makes a hell of a lot less and they'd have no way to possibly survive and pay down their debt on that wage.

I'm aware of more than one of said young men and women, a few of who are definitely in the top 2% on an intellectual basis (that is, Mensa material and potential future superstars) who completed highly technical degrees with high honors and then left the tech industry entirely and don't work in it today. I do not know if they got directly fucked by the H-1b program as the reason but I bet at least in part it was due to lack of satisfaction with offered working conditions which is driven in large part by this insanity.

Those individuals have deliberately given the finger to the American tech industries despite having the intellectual and educational chops to be top engineers and possibly discover and implement breakthroughs that would change our lives. It is only reasonable to believe they made this decision to stick up their middle fingers due to external market conditions beyond their control and H-1b abuse is a big part of it. And by the way they are also not having kids either; by their actions they have zero intention of putting another generation in that position and this is despite having found an apparently-permanent heterosexual relationship.

Further, many of these so-called "technical people" on H-1bs, particularly from India, have bogus certificates and degrees that demonstrate nothing; they are really no better than an American with no experience who went through a couple of week bootcamp in Android programming or similar. There is utterly no reason that any of those people should be here instead of Americans doing those jobs; if the job is within their capabilities the average High School graduate can, with nothing more than a High School level of education, learn enough to work at that level inside of a few weeks time in learning.

But will they do that for $27.50/hour when they're treated like human trash and members of an "inferior caste" on the job? Not when they can make $20/hr doing what amounts to a near-mindless job at Buc-Ees and punch a clock with no project pressures and related BS -- they can do that instead with a reasonable path to being an assistant manager at over $30/hr and if they stick with it management jobs in that company, which you really can attain, come with a $100,000+ income over the space of a few years!

What's worse is the staunchest defenders of this crap are Indians who came here either on O-1s or otherwise managed to get out of the H-1b trap themselves and stay -- and now are either in those firms as management or running the job shops fucking all the other H-1b workers for 30+% of the billed hourly rate. They have now brought the Indian caste system with them and have to a large degree codified it into the United States workforce and thus love the job-shop abuse crap that goes on in the tech industry and it shows inexorably in the composition of the workforce that winds up under and around them over just a few years time.

You don't have to look beyond simply walking in the door or touring the neighborhoods where these workers live to see the racial discrimination against everyone other than them and just like every slavery system crafted through history its all about the money.

All of this must end; it is wildly illegal and found everywhere in the tech industry. Those who truly are exceptional, irrespective of nation, can already come here via the existing O-1 visa program which is purely merit-based and has exactly zero "pull" capacity by job shops and others who would seek to exploit those in other lands. The existing H-1b program does that in spades and effectively has become an import of the Indian caste system into the tech industries.

That is not embodiment of American values, it is illegal under federal anti-discrimination laws, it has been increasingly exploited to drive down wages and push Americans out of tech jobs and it must be entirely ended with prejudice right here and now as it is in fact no different than exploiting illegal Mexicans to put on roofs and pluck chickens.

If Trump does not do so then his claim of intent to "Make America Great Again" is just another political LIE and YOU are going to get it further up your ass as an American for the benefit of those who are not.