US to hike H1B visas, merit will count for green cards

[harmonicon]

180. Immigrant/citizen, it's all the same to me.

People are only "hurt" by these visas in the same way that people are "hurt" by other types of immigration, including the undocumented kind (and there are a hell of a lot more workers in the US with no visas than this kind... by a magnitude of what? Some thousands?). The market that's regulated by governments is what makes these things necessary/possible (depending on how you look at it).

All of these arguments remind me of this story:
There are two desperately poor farmers living next to each other in the middle of nowhere. They both have to bust ass just to stay alive, but one of them has a goat which he can use for milk and cheese, while the other doesn't have any animals. One day, while tilling the field, the goat-less farmer finds a magic lamp. A genie comes out and says that since he's so damn poor and miserable, he'll only give him one wish, instead of the normal three. The farmer says, "I wish my neighbour didn't have a goat."

How about we actually try to sensibly regulate the markets, instead of leaving those regulations up to big business and then discriminating against people who are just trying to make the best for themselves in the same shitty market as everyone else. I can't say this enough: in this world, we have enough resources to give every single person a comfortable standard of living. I would rather work on that than wish death on my neighbour's goat.