I told you so.

[elfs]

I told you.

I fucking told you.

You didn't believe me.

And now we're fucking doomed.

There is nothing wrong with the brains of people from India, China, Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, or anywhere else. We used to welcome these people, treasure them, and shower them with advantages that convinced them to keep their talents here. After 9/11 we decided to chase them away. I said it would be a disaster. I was right.

Comments

[solarbird]

I have also spent time telling people about this, but am too lazy to look them up.

[sherm.livejournal.com]

You could look at it like that - but one has to ask whether or not we're lumping thousands of Microsoft and IT-contractor-farm "skilled" laborers in with the kind of minds that you're fretting about.

How many overeducated, underpaid SDETs does a society really need in order to remain competitive?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

There's a reason the UK is a world leader in human embryonic stem-cell research: it's because of George W. Bush. Srsly. When he banned federal funding for ESC work in 2000, a large proportion of the US research faculty in that sector upped sticks and moved to the UK, which has a very progressive attitude to ESC (as a side-effect of having struggled over medical ethics rules in the 1980s and 1990s due to test tube baby and then cloning research).

The productive folk are more likely to leave for new pastures than the stuffed-shirt MBA types because they can be certain of paying their way.

The research will get done, whether it's done in the USA or the rest of the world. Look for a reduction in the number of US Nobel Prizes 15-30 years down the line ... it happened to the UK in the 60s and 70s, now it's happening to you.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

Except I've worked a few places where none of the creative lights of the firm were H2Bs, or other recent immigrants. Hell, some of them weren't even above average. They were, however, cheap, docile, and more than willing to rat-out their co-workers who broke the rules and discussed what they were being paid.

I disagree that this is any harbinger of doom for America by itself. Sure, while the capitalist regime of "free trade", more properly called the international race for the bottom, is in place, it is a threat. Replace the current system with one based on fair trade designed to promote local economic vitality globally, and I would argue that skilled people going home to build their homelands is good for us.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Elf's entire point is that a nation has to pander to the scientific elite if it wants to see the benefits of science and technology. Just because you've seen different doesn't mean that government policy should pander to you instead. It means that you work in a company that isn't quite at the top of the science and technology pyramid (not that I do either, I'm just sayin').

Yes, such pandering will result in side effects like what you've experienced. At the same time, what's your excuse? If you work at a company that really values competition over loyalty, compete dammit. Likewise, I've also worked with plenty of fresh-off-the-plane immigrants and my experience is totally different. You're overgeneralizing and saying "these guys are *all* like the 3 guys I met" and that's totally untrue. The immigrants I've worked with have been more inclined to be quiet, tow the line, and not rock the boat than to complain about how everyone else isn't working as hard as they, and blow the whistle on other people's web browsing habits.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've also worked with some bright fellows from India. My point was more that not all immigrants are the best and the brightest, nor is it necessarily the best and brightest that are returning to their homelands. I think it is more a matter of the current global economic downturn. While I am sure there are some bright folks heading home in a bad economy, I don't think the bulk of the people doing so are the best and the brightest. I'm certain the bulk of the folks heading home are just average Joes.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

The lure that catches the Salmon also catches the Whitefish, you know.