Ep. 373 Crossover: Unpacking the H-1B Visa Controversy
Adam Haman joins Bob to discuss the recent “civil war” on the right over the H-1B visa program, with a focus on Vivek Ramaswamy’s critique of American culture.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- The YouTube version of this episode.
- Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial tweet on US culture.
- Robert Sterling’s stats on the H-1B program.
- An EPI study (based on 2019 data) of the H-1B program.
- The Haman Nature page.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
Hi Bob,
There is one somewhat nefarious aspect of the H1B program that causes employers to artificially prefer them that I didn’t hear you mention – and that is the fact that an H1B employee basically cannot quit because their visa is tied to their employment.
Hi Dave,
Yes, I had meant to get into that, but I forgot during the show. When I cover this again in the InFi podcast I’ll bring that point up.
Sponsorship (can’t quit without losing status) Visa’s seems to be the norm (happens in UK, Australia, Canada, etc.) so H1B’s aren’t unique in that regards.
When is Haman going to become a cohost?
We are doing a weekly crossover, but since he posts them on his podcast as well, we are keeping it as “crossover” rather than co-host.
Haman is once again spookily in my head.
What he said towards the end about football captains is exactly why I had a negative reaction to Vivek’s comments. I agreed with the letter of what Vivek said, but not the spirit of it, because I don’t think we need more engineers sitting in cubicles.
I think what the culture needs is broader than that. Excellence is a fine way of putting it, but I think boldness hits the mark more, which in a way is actually antithetical to stereotypical nerd-dom. Peterson’s very close when he talks about the call to adventure. The culture needs to celebrate dreamers and risk-taking, and danger. The current obsession with safety and security and authority is suffocating. I want to have a fit every time someone wishes me a “safe” holiday; how sick is it that we think it’s better to be safe than happy? And we need to stop making people feel like they can’t succeed or even safely attempt anything bold without being a trained, qualified, certified, licensed, authorized, experienced professional, Six Sigma expert.
I don’t think Americans are mediocre because they’re stupid or lazy. They’re mediocre because they’ve been so scared to death about doing anything unfamiliar that they don’t even consider a path in life that doesn’t come with comprehensive health coverage and a 401k.