If you work for a large American corporation you've heard this story many times...

[PatrickforO]

25. The H1B program is abused. We did a study in my state of

skilled workers coming over on H1B visas. We found the IT people were making a wage between the 25th and 50th percentile.

A couple other significant things:
- The most common IT occupation to be brought over on an H1B visa is computer system analyst.
- According to ONET Online, the typical entry level education for a systems analyst is a bachelor's degree.
- In 2016, an in-depth analysis of IPEDS training outcomes showed that while there were 869 openings for systems analysts, there were only 55 persons who graduated with a bachelor's degree in systems analysis or other closely related training program.

In the case of my own state then, I'd say we'd be better served working with postsecondary educators to increase business-relevant graduation outcomes in this occupation before we cap the number of H1B visas.

That said, the problematic issue in any regional economy with H1B visa people is remittance. 'Remittance' means the money they send home to their families in their country of origin. This averages 10% of the gross income.

Here's how it looks on the ground:
- The average wage in my state for this occupation is $94,536 per year.
- If we have 100 Americans performing this occupation, then they are earning an aggregate of $9.453 million annually, and this money goes out into the community as demand for goods and services as well as contributing to the tax base.
- If we have the same 100 jobs filled by H1B people who are earning $79,934 for the same job, and remitting 10% of their gross. This means that these 100 workers are only contributing ($79,934 X .9) X 100 = $7.194 million.

So, the opportunity cost to the regional economy of companies hiring 100 computer systems analysts on H1B visas paying between the 25th and 50th percentile versus 100 Americans at the average wage is that there is $2.259 million LESS money in the economy. WE can also read this as $2.259 million LESS demand for goods and services.

Thus, while hiring people on H1B visas might help big publicly held corporations (examples from my state: IBM, URS) hold down labor costs, which is good for their shareholder earnings, it is BAD for the regional economy in which the people are working.

This is why Bernie was right - postsecondary education at state colleges is an investment that benefits everyone in the community through higher wages, which equal more demand for goods and services, and more money into the tax base, which pays for stuff people need, like good roads, clean water, police, firefighting, K-12 (and postsecondary state, if we adopt Bernie's platform), and so on.

Education is a good community investment, and we are better off growing our own than bringing workers in from other countries with H1B visas. That said, in the example above, the companies were justified - this is a critical occupation for which the state's training pipeline output (number of graduates) is INADEQUATE to meet demand.

That is how it works, and that is why we need to elect politicians who have a couple of brain cells to rub together, some common sense and are not moronic ideologues. Sometimes, we can get to the bottom of something and design really intelligent policy just by ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.