Gruber linked to this yesterday and it got my attention.

The immigrants I interview and work with are not 100–1,000 times as effective as US Citizens, which is the implication I get from Paul’s article: that the US has plenty of non-great programmers, but we need to recruit outside our borders to find enough great programmers. Immigrants are not hired with an understanding or expectation that they will be twice as effective as US candidates. We hire immigrants (and employers deal with the costs and paperwork) because we need people to do lots of (often basic) jobs, and there are simply not enough qualified candidates — whether programmers, system administrators, or other tech types. […]

But be honest. H-1B visa demand is not high because companies are striving for excellence. The visas are being used to preserve the existing labor market (salary levels) rather than paying higher salaries as dictated by supply and demand.

The entire H-1B Visa argument has been complete bullshit for years. Take this long stanging lobbying effort by all of the established companies in Silicon Valley coupled with the Apple/Microsoft/Twitter/Facebook/Everotherfuckingtechcompany actual god damned conspiracy to wage fix that they're now being sued for in court, and it starts to paint a picture. It paints a picture of companies who are willing to cut their own employees off at the knees to eek out another 3% profit margin at the end of the year. And when you have Paul Grahm write these whiny posts where he tries to legitimate this argument into something than what it actually is, which is the rich just trying to get richer, then it no longer becomes "just business". Its mean, spiteful, and evil.

Fuck that guy.