[ones_and_zeros]

Where N becomes a political football that us raised and lowered at the whim of lobbyists ultimately allowing wages to fall below market rates.

There is no labor shortage in a nation of 300 million with the best university system in the history of humanity.

If we need any sort of system, the appropriate one would be to reward companies that train citizens in skills the employer needs in order to fill any sort of skills gap.

[c_lebesgue]

While in principle I agree with you, in practice N was most of the time equal to 65k, with the exception of the dot-com bubble (years 1999-2003, so 80% of the time; program was added in 1990). And there probably should be something like H1B in any immigration system. Anyhow, the current political climate in the US does not give many hopes for an upgrade. In the meantime, I've discovered Switzerland, and quite honestly - I'm not looking back.

[Joky]

"Best university system in the history of humanity", which nation are you talking about? What is the metric for "best system"?

[akhilcacharya]

>with the best university system in the history of humanity.

While I don't disagree, you can only hire so many HYPSM grads - and many of these H1B's are getting hired from our universities.