5,984
edits
H-1B Visa: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
(→2025) |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
Eric Weinstein consistently discusses the [[H-1B Visa|H-1B visa program]] as the product of a deliberate "labor tampering conspiracy" orchestrated in the mid-1980s by key U.S. institutions, including the [[National Science Foundation (NSF)]], and the the [[Government University Industry Research Round Table (GUIRR)|Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR)]] within the [[National Academy of Sciences (NAS)]]. He traces its roots to a secret 1986 NSF economic study conducted under [[Erich Bloch|NSF Director Erich Bloch]], with involvement from [[Peter House]] (head of NSF's Policy Research and Analysis Division) and [[Myles Boylan|economist Myles Boylan]]. This study, titled "The Pipeline For Scientific and Technical Personnel: Past Lessons Applied to Future Changes of Interest to Policy-Makers and Human Resource Specialists," projected that new U.S. PhDs in science and engineering (S&E) fields would command salaries exceeding $100,000 (in 1986 dollars) due to market dynamics, which the study labeled a "pessimistic scenario" because it would require employers to pay competitive wages. To avert this, the NSF allegedly suppressed the economic model's demand-side projections and instead produced a flawed, supply-only demographic study predicting a massive "shortfall" of 675,000 S&E bachelor's degrees between 1986 and 2011, based solely on declining numbers of 22-year-olds without considering wage adjustments or market equilibrium. | |||
{{Tweet | {{Tweet | ||
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg | |image=Eric profile picture.jpg | ||
| Line 36: | Line 38: | ||
}} | }} | ||
This manipulated shortfall narrative, Weinstein argues, directly influenced the [[IMMACT90|Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT90)]], which tripled permanent skilled worker visas to approximately 27,000 per year, introduced the [[H-1B Visa|H-1B temporary visa category for specialty occupations]], and created the "Einstein Exemption" waiving labor certification requirements for certain "priority workers." He describes this as an "out and out conspiracy" headquartered at [[National Science Foundation (NSF)|NSF]] (via its [[NSF Policy Research and Analysis (PRA)|Policy Research and Analysis]] division) and [[National Academy of Sciences (NAS)|NAS]] (via [[Government University Industry Research Round Table (GUIRR)|GUIRR]]), designed to interfere with free labor markets on behalf of employers, universities, and industry, rather than scientists or national interests. Weinstein emphasizes that this was not incompetence but intentional: the NSF hid the competent economic study (a "smoking gun") and faked an incompetent one to justify flooding the market, as he deduced from first principles using a concept he calls [[The Invisible World is First Detected by the Visible World’s Failure to Close|"failure to close"]] in systems analysis. He presented this evidence multiple times at NAS events in 2003, noting the lack of public records of these presentations as further proof of suppression. | |||
Weinstein repeatedly urges people to learn this history before engaging emotionally, warning that H-1B is a "political football" designed to divide good people. He points to the absence of mainstream media coverage over 25+ years as evidence of a broader [[The Distributed Idea Suppression Complex (The DISC)|"Distributed Idea Suppression Complex" (DISC)]], [[Gated Institutional Narrative (GIN)|"Gated Institutional Narrative" (GIN)]] and [[Managed Reality TM]], where inconvenient truths are silenced. | |||
== Economic Mechanisms and Theoretical Foundations == | |||
From an economic perspective, Weinstein argues that [[Labor Shortages|long-term labor shortages cannot exist in large market economies with functioning wage mechanisms]], as rising demand would naturally increase salaries to attract supply, clearing the market. He likens claimed STEM shortages to mythical "jackalopes"—fictitious constructs used by employers and institutions to justify interventions. The H-1B program, in his view, tampers with this mechanism by importing foreign PhDs as a "lure" for immigration, holding down U.S. PhD salaries. A key quote from the secret NSF study he cites: "A growing influx of foreign PhD's into U.S. labor markets will hold down the level of PhD salaries to the extent that foreign students are attracted to U.S. doctoral programs as a way of immigrating to the U.S." | |||
Technically, this creates a "perverse effect" where provisions to "rectify" shortages ensure their continuation by preventing wage signals from functioning. H-1B visas tether workers to sponsoring employers, introducing elements of "servitude" that distort wage negotiations and render the workforce more "docile and pliable." Weinstein contrasts this with [[Ronald Coase|Ronald Coase's]] theorem on property rights, suggesting labor access rights should be securitized and traded (e.g., as shares in compensation packages) rather than confiscated as "seigniorage" for employers. | |||
Weinstein highlights how the system treats STEM workers as non-unionizable "graduate students" or "trainees" (e.g., postdocs), paid partly with immigration lures, which suppresses overall compensation and ignores externalities like displacement of niche businesses that natives might found. Data he cites includes foreign students accounting for nearly all PhD growth since the mid-1980s, with over 50% of engineering PhDs going to foreigners by 1990, and postdoc numbers tripling for internationals while stagnating for domestics. This leads to pay compression, rising unemployment (e.g., math PhDs from 2% to 11% by 1995), and negative opportunity costs for U.S. students, who forgo wages during 10+ years of training for modest premiums. | |||
== Impacts on Workers and Society == | |||
Weinstein describes H-1B as an "evil system" that brings great people to displace other great people, weakening American workers' bargaining positions and forcing them to "mitigate their wage demands." He emphasizes that the problem is not immigrants themselves but the visas and abusive labor market practices by Americans. The U.S. STEM labor market has been "totally & deliberately rigged" since 1986 in favor of employers, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and Boomers, against scientists, science, and the nation. This betrays U.S. STEM professionals, treating them as "STEM serfs" or inducing the complex to "murder careers of our own people." Senior scientists and employers, via NSF/NAS, destroyed career paths for younger colleagues. | |||
{{Tweet | {{Tweet | ||
| Line 89: | Line 106: | ||
|timestamp=3:34 PM · Dec 26, 2024 | |timestamp=3:34 PM · Dec 26, 2024 | ||
}} | }} | ||
Broader societal harms include eroding U.S. advantages in "freedom & irreverence based education," reliance on foreign talent trained in obedience (e.g., from Asia), and national security risks from outsourcing innovation. Weinstein notes short-term damage from cancelling H-1B but argues it's overdue, as the program itself is the "fraud" and "abuse." | |||
== Proposed Reforms and Broader Perspective == | |||
Eric advocates for "tight labor markets" without "wage relief," where true shortages raise wages to benefit society, and suggests printing shares instead of visas to align incentives. Overall reform should fit U.S. needs, focusing on efficiency and rights rather than employer biases. | |||
In broader context, Weinstein sees H-1B as part of systemic issues like [[Embedded Growth Obligations]] (requiring perpetual growth) and wealth transfers from labor to capital, akin to NAFTA or [[Boskin Commission]] adjustments to [[CPI]]. He practices [[Responsible Conspiracy Theorizing|"responsible conspiracy theorizing,"]] backing claims with evidence like the hidden study, and avoiding filling in knowledge gaps prematurely with wild speculation. | |||
== On X == | == On X == | ||