Why should the number of foreign workers here be anything greater than zero?

Why specifically, should the American employee, American homebuyer/renter, American college student uniquely have to compete with the entire world, when nearly no other countries on Earth have to, especially not at this scale?

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jonstewart 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If there such a thing as American exceptionalism, if the USA has an edge, it is immigration. Without it, our demographic future is cooked. So, that’s why.

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rayiner 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> If there such a thing as American exceptionalism, if the USA has an edge, it is immigration

You’re conflating cause and effect. The U.S. has had high immigration because it’s exceptional, not the other way around. The U.S. GDP/capita was head and shoulders above everyone except Great Britain by 1801: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/bdvazr/top.... That was before even the German mass migration.

Silicon Valley arose during the 1950s and 1960, during a period of very low foreign born population in California: https://www.ppic.org/publication/immigrants-in-california/

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FreakLegion 2 hours ago | parent [-]

At least five of the traitorous eight were immigrants or children of immigrants, but do go on.

	▲	chickenzzzzu an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Why can't existing American businesses invest in these individuals while they live abroad, and then the US government can tax the profits the investors make? Why must it be that they must live here, taking desk jobs and barista jobs from Americans? How many hundreds of thousands of Shockleys got their start working as baristas, nurses, and mechanics (yes I know they are not H1B)? Do you believe that any American who fails to compete with the entire world deserves it? Why can't I move to India and become Shockley over there?

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9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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ivewonyoung 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

A quarter of all the billion dollar+ US startups had founders who were on student/work visas at some point. If you include founders who are born of work immigrant parents that number will only go up.

Just imagine all the technology, jobs and wealth created by just SpaceX, Google, Tesla alone.

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chickenzzzzu 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Retail investors can't purchase shares of SpaceX. Nearly anyone on Earth can purchase shares of Google and Tesla, and we all benefit from the knock on effects of their technology.

And yet only Americans have to compete for housing and jobs in this context.

I ask you once again, why would I lose anything if Tesla was in the UAE?

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ivewonyoung 8 hours ago | parent [-]

> ask you once again, why would I lose anything if Tesla was in the UAE?

Tesla employs 120,000 people in the US, not to mention all the federal, state, local, SS and Medicare taxes paid. Tesla employees, especially early ones, also had their stock options grow huge, building US wealth and increasing taxes owed and paid.

	▲	chickenzzzzu 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That is a reasonable counter argument, however I would argue that that is no longer a benefit for the American public. Similar to how our country effectively relocated our entire manufacturing sector to the entire world (to externalize the environmental impact), only to enforce it with gunboat diplomacy to ensure that only the profits make their way home, I don't see any benefit in having the jobs located on US soil. Politicians will say that there is a good reason to have the jobs here, but there isn't. It is much better for everyone if we just tax the owners of the company when they exercise their shares (something probably has to be done about the loaning loophole). America should be a nation of suburban houses, spread quite far apart from each other, of people mostly working from home. Anything else is a legitimate nuissance.