I have to say that while it’s a stupid idea and motivated by spite , it’s more logically consistent than the usual MAGA shitshow
this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
382 points (98.0% liked)
politics
26409 readers
2222 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Ahahahahahaha
It’s counterproductive and racist all around but holy hell is it funny when these goobers fight each other.
Dude they turned on her so hard for just not pivoting when Daddy did. Bless these cult antics
Playing “Who is the more extreme patriot?” Trump went in like an aimless wrecking ball, she’s going to do precision extreme moves. Bet she runs for prez. All or nothing.
She might want to heed Michelle Obama's warning...
We’ll see if the monster she helped create crushes her, or, if for some bizarre reason trump doesn't run again, Republicans hate Democrats enough to vote for a woman.
Honestly., I really think workers should be able to move through borders like water. All it should take is applying for a job, getting the job, and moving (and filling out so the proper tax documents, etc before you start working.)
Are you a globalist? What you say makes perfect sense. I'm a globalist too. Being a globalist is the end result of societal progression, not some evil cabal. Everyone on earth should shoot for globalism and then the planet would be running on all cylinders.
Pretty much I guess. I just think it’s a human right to be able to move freely and that nations and borders are just arbitrary things.
Yeah, I don't agree.
Here in Canada we pay a buncha tax to get things like universal healthcare and to fund various social programs, we also handle taxes differently than other jurisdictions.
Like even with the existing setup, one of the issues we have is that there's been a fairly standard style of immigration where chinese citizens will buy property in Canada and have the kid and "stay at home mom" living in Canada, while their Dad/breadwinner stays in China. One reason its done this way is that Canada was considered to have better education opportunities and social supports for the non-income earning side of the family -- and property taxes are fairly low in places like Vancouver, with income taxes being very high. However in China, it's the opposite -- high property taxes, low income taxes. So as a country/region, you end up with basically no tax income, but high social program costs, with 'needy welfare' people living in multimillion dollar properties.
And once the kid is through school, and entering the workforce.... they often go back home to china to take over the family business from a retiring parent. That parent then comes to Canada, and enjoys the old age social security network.
If you remove all impediments to inter-country immigration, I reckon that sort of abuse would become so rampant that social programs would become essentially unsustainable.
Canadians that move abroad don't pay the sales tax and lose their insurance. Why shouldn't people who moved to Canada and pay the sales tax get the healthcare insurance?
Canadians who move abroad for a long time lose their insurance, but it's not tied explicitly to the fact that they don't pay a sales tax. They also tend not to report their income / pay income taxes to Canada if working outside of Canada (unlike in the states, where they expect taxes to be paid from every citizen no matter where they are in the world).
People who move to Canada, can currently get insurance coverage as part of immigrating to the country, which generally means staying in and working in Canada for an extended period as a PR to start. During that time they're paying income taxes and sales taxes etc.
The ops comment implies that it should be like a light switch that is tied to your employment. There's a reason there's a process to immigration flows.
Those sound like the sorts of issues that could easily be addressed by well thought out legislation. I have a nephew that recently got a digital nomad visa so that he could work for his US employer while traveling around Europe. Some of those countries require you to prove you have health insurance or buy insurance from their national health network. Those countries also regulations regarding taxes, etc. that the visa holder is responsible for.
So Canada should pass laws to close the loopholes you describe. They would need regulations similar to digital nomads that apply to foreign exchange students etc.
load more comments
(1 replies)
You are making two claims, perhaps indirectly, that I think are simply false. (1) You claim there's no contribution requirements for national pension. Not true, says the government website. (2) You claim the mom and kid don't pay taxes in the hypothetical. The national government already has various rules to prevent "income sprinkling" that address this exact issue.
So basically, you're accusing the Canadian tax agency of failing to do its job without presenting evidence of that.
Issues with Chinese immigrants are well known and documented, literally with immigrant families openly exposing their own community's rampant fraud methods to our supreme courts, because "that's just how its done in Canada!".
Paying a little bit of sales tax on modest purchases, is not sufficient to sustain social support programs. Taxes are paid in various ways, and yes, there's a minimal contribution made by the non-earning people staying in Canada, but it's not enough to offset the costs of providing social support services to the extended family.
I don't think I mentioned the pension program specifically, that's on you. When I 'm mentioning old age social supports, there's more than just 'old age pensions' in Canada (heck, there's CPP and OAS, so two direct payments in terms of 'pensions' even) -- the universal healthcare system is another example. The cost of that system increases significantly for the older demographic, as people become more reliant on pills/medications. There's a reason a bunch of seniors from the states, in the past at least, would buy prescription meds in Canada, for example -- and that's tied to us having a government funded approach to providing those medications (the US medi-tourists are basically leeching off us). The basic premise of the system is that, generally, working age adults who have less reliance on the healthcare system, fund it via taxes, with the expectation that it'll be there when they need it (generally when they're older).
We do have a problem with frauds and abuse, but the system can tolerate some fraud and abuse. If the ops approach were adopted, we'd have rampant fraud and abuse. The system can't tolerate rampant fraud and abuse. I don't think this sort of statement requires me to go into absurd detail to justify/demonstrate, frankly, and I'm not going to bother further.
Yeah thats some kind of asinine loophole Canada has that has nothing to do with what I proposed. Like how is that even possible.
applying for a job, getting the job
Applying for and getting a job implies income, which in turn should result in taxation.
My current employer is headquartered in Austin, TX. We have software engineers, QA engineers, and other technical people working remotely all over the world, including Germany, Ukraine, India, Australia, and elsewhere.
YES!
YEESSS!
SPLIT YOURSELVES! DIVIDE COMPLETELY BEFORE MIDTERMS!
Mutually assured destruction of Republican factions?
Pass the popcorn.
The program doesn't need to end, it needs to have severe restrictions on use.
It 100% needs to end...
Like, how it was intended was fine, but now it's used to get employees who can't quit. Sign them to a contract that doesn't get OT and make em work 100 hr weeks when here till they burn out then replace them.
So Americans need to put up with it, or they won't get hired.
Yep, it's basically slavery via holding the visa for foreign workers who have to put up with the corps holding their status over their heads, all while driving down pay for citizens. It was a good thought, but it's being heavily abused now.
It was a good thought, but it’s being heavily abused now.
I'm not sure when it was a good idea and I also don't know a time when it was not being abused, if I'm being honest. At least in IT (and in general, engineering, or so I've heard) going back to the 90s...
Now, the other threat they hold over our heads is that companies will just outsource if we don't allow this, but that's not a law of nature or anything, either. There is no reason we should not tax such services like that, too.
America kept telling their youth (and probably keep telling them) to "learn to code" because those were the jobs they were told Americans should aspire to, etc. Since I've been in IT since the 90s, I have more than my share of doubts about this promise, since I've seen how we are treated and the strong desire in the corporate world to suppress wages, benefits, any sense of autonomy, etc...if America is serious about this message, maybe they ought to look out for the workers.
America will never look out for the workers. The workers have to unionize. Probably even the H1B employees. I think until that happens, we're going to see wages stagnate and fail to keep up with inflation.
Unfortunately people are so cowed by their employees and the system that they won't unionize.
Personally this is why I think we don't have universal healthcare and basic social support systems. They would enable us to negotiate.
The original (presented) heart of the visas were to pull in some of the best and brightest of other countries to fast track them to become Americans, thus bolstering the output of America. This actually resembles the current American brain drain, where other countries are taking advantage of the mistreatment of scientists and other high-intelligence fields in the US to help their country have an even better output. In theory, the original plan makes a lot of sense. Improve the compensation of some of the smartest people around the world, and improve America. But in practice, it is being sorely misused.
The original (presented) heart of the visas were to pull in some of the best and brightest of other countries to fast track them to become Americans, thus bolstering the output of America.
I think if you'd ask most (non-racist) Americans about this, you'd probably get a willingness to find some way to get exactly that kind of result. Seems like a win-win all around, except for corporatists only looking at next quarter's profits.
The underlying rationale seems well-founded - there are smart people everywhere, how can we get entice some of them to come here and work for us? Hell, whether it was true or not, that used to be very much America's brand, too.
Unfortunately, the charade and exploitation that is where the H-1B very quickly ended up is very much our brand, now, too, and that just sucks. I'd love to find a way back to that original idea and find a way to live up to it...
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
I think it needs to be replaced immediately with something less exploitative a skilled persons visa that's closer to a green card and requires multiple companies or a union to request skills then a government agency checks if those skills are actually in higher demand then capacity and issues reasonable length visas that merely require regular employment in a certain industry and become a reasonable speed onramp to green card status. Or something similar.
The reality is getting rid of skilled labor visas entirely is shooting ourselves in the foot in a way that reminds me of how much of the Manhattan project's scientists came from axis nations. What we have now is hurting the visa holders and the labor they compete with, but we really do benefit from being able to bring in the exceptional.
load more comments
(4 replies)
H-1B visas are how our universities fill crucial teaching roles. Ending them would be disastrous to American higher education.
To this administration, that would be a feature not a bug.
H-1B visas are how our universities fill crucial teaching roles.
I had an H1-B for three years. I was one of thousands of PhDs who brought expertise to US labs. US biomedical research is primarily driven by H1-Bs because very few in the US can afford to be scientists with the cost and debt levels of US education. So, the best and brightest in US universities head to Wall street to steal money.
I was offered a US permanent position and a J-1 Visa. Three years was enough for me.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Do not discount her, she's keenly sensing a disruption and looking to create a schism. Pay attention to her statements now basically "I just want everyone to be kind to each other, I am sorry I participated in the divisive politics of yesterday." This will ring a bell with a lot of folks in the rural areas. Then she leaps on his anti-populist mistake. I think we might be looking at the next leader of the party.
Honestly.... It would be so fitting.
America deserves its first cro-magnon president now that they make up such a huge portion of the USA
Americans can totally do all these high skill jobs they just need some training!
Usually starting with an engineering degree...
It's not just the skills but the pay. H1-Bs are not too far off from slave labor since the person is tied to the company. H1Bs should be allowed to switch employers (after some initial trial period) and it will make them more expensive to keep, leveling the playing field with US workers.
Wow, this is extremely stupid. Like getting on the freeway and shooting your tires on a turn. We're gonna be spiraling for a while from that moment until all the dust clears.
Normally I'd just ROFL but this is the era of stupid so instead I'm going to assume that stupid will happen.
So our technology will be ejected to other countries and that will start a global economic boom outside our country. Which is great for those countries. But that also means our country will be less advanced. We won't have the edge.
Let's hope our kids make better choices.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I can't speak for the tech industry only the system as a whole.
I think people calling it slavery or likening it to some kind of bonded labor are obviously exaggerating to a degree.
The only situation where its clearly problematic are for countries like China and India that have massive populations but still have the same green card cap as a nation a tenth of their size.
Everyone else on an H1b would generally be working towards a green card on a timeline of 3-5 years. Yes mobility is limited during that time (though not absolutely so) but I can't think of a country on earth where new immigrants don't have to work with their hands tied to a degree.
Right now employers only have to pay the prevailing wage to an H1b employee. This can be significantly less than the median.
I think the median should be the absolute floor. One can make an argument to have 75th percentile be the floor also.
I think if a company is allowed to pay below median wage for a large number of employees they should be forced to invest in local education / apprenticeship. Even if they are allowed to, there should be strict caps on this.
There are many H1bs that get paid above the median wage in the US but I think conversations around the tech sector tend to dominate so the perception is that these are mostly lower wage entry level workers. It's really the tech sector that has exploited the system the most so I think it's worthwhile distinguishing tech H1bs and therefore considering more significant restrictions on a sectoral level.
It is very close to slavery. Your employer gets absolute power over you and your immigration status. "You're fired" means "you need to leave everything you built and everyone you love behind".
Are you gonna risk leaving your family behind and being banned from the country to join a union? To protest bad work conditions.
It is a scourge of a system that legitimizes the exploitation of immigrants.
load more comments
(4 replies)
17ish years in tech here…
H1-B’s at one of my previous companies (2015-2017) were regularly working 70+ hours a week and getting paid less than new hires coming out of college.
They often were either isolated, or stuck within their one self made cliques of other H1-Bs from their country of origin. They did not try to socialize or make friends. More often than not, they’d leave and go home within 2 years. You could feel the despair and unhappiness.
Aside from how it impacted the H1-Bs (which from what I saw was almost all negative and fucked up), I wasn’t thrilled about seeing a multi-billion dollar org making so much extra money, and then not really distributing it correctly.
The H1-B thing helped one group of people to the detriment of everyone else at that org. I’m pretty sure you can figure out the only group that it benefited.
This sounds more like H1b fraud (failure to meet prevailing wage for hours worked) on the part of the company rather than an issue with the H1b visa itself. More oversight is certainly necessary to ensure American companies don't break the law.
Ya, it really may have been.
I have long thought - since the 90s - that the H-1B program needs a lot of oversight and a revamping on exactly how it is governed, but I don't for a minute think that MTG understands the nuance here. Trying to talk about this in certain company is always fun, because it's like trying to talk about Israel in the early 90s - you'd get accused of being a nativist or whatever immediately w/ almost no thought, just like talking about Israel in frank terms would get people called "antisemitic". It seems that, like the Israel thing, it's kind of broken through into the national conversation at least vs. just people within IT only. Unfortunately, it seems to be nativists like Bannon and MTG trying to make the counter H-1B arguments, and I hate that.
If we really cannot find local talent for an endeavor, and it is truly something that is rather time-bound, sure, bring in people for 3-6 years, I guess.
But I think the terms that the person is under should not be something where they have much reliance on the good graces of a company. And I think finding easy paths for them to transition to full citizenship if they so wish should be there. And I think the requirement should be that they are paid 2x what the going rate here might be.
But using these visas for cheap labor for companies to exploit in things like programming jobs - most especially in a crappy job market exacerbated by things like AI - well, hell to the no. We have PLENTY of that talent in this country, FFS. Companies just want to suppress the cost of doing business here.
And for people saying that this is the alternative as opposed to shipping jobs overseas - bullshit, we can tax the shit out of overseas services, too. Apparently, Pedonald is even able to do such things as tariffs on goods without an act of Congress; it would be something that could be done on services as well.
Ending H-1B will only further accelerate domestic layoffs for outsourced talent. 🙄
Because there was something stopping them from outsourcing from the start, or what are you trying to say?
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(14 replies)
view more: next ›