> What is the point here? Let them all in in case one of them makes a unicorn?
The point is that if a talented engineer has to go back home because becoming a permanent resident takes over ten years, and the H-1B system is a literal gamble, then the US immigration policy has failed.
> This is rock people thinking on the level of "every aborted baby could have become the next Mozart".
The difference being that we know that visa holders are already talented, and maybe they wouldn't build the next unicorn, but their work provides a net benefit to the economy.
If anything, it would be overall better for the economy to kick out all the underperformers, regardless of their nationality, and let H-1B holders in.
Maybe shut down the southern border and instead admit more H1Bs? And use some judgment instead of a lottery. Someone who's been a manager at Microsoft is obviously a better bet than a TCS bodyshopper.
Unless you come up with a new innovation like self-installing drywalls and roofs, self-picking fruits, or self-slaughtering chickens, shutting down the southern border seems like a really counterproductive idea.
Perhaps in a world where people did not need to live under a roof, and did not need to consume fruit or chickens, that idea would be great.
Most of the money people in unskilled occupations make goes into purchasing essential stuff like food, which pays sales tax and provides income for corporations.
What is the point here? Let them all in in case one of them makes a unicorn?
This is rock people thinking on the level of "every aborted baby could have become the next Mozart".