[winter_blue]

> Can never stand it when a government steps in between two individuals enriching their shared human experience in a way that harms no one else.

The US does this all the time with its horribly restrictive work visa policy.

Some startup wants to hire a passionate engineer from abroad -- and what happens? The US govt says you can't.

Paul Graham wrote about it back in December 2014: http://paulgraham.com/95.html

The US hates immigrants so much that there was at one point an attempt to create a floating ship in international waters near the Bay Area (without being actually in it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed

And lastly, the craziness of American xenophobia (especially the puzzling intense hatred of skilled immgirants no less) can seen in full blast, right here on HN, any time high-skilled work visas come up -- a lot of people right here on HN just can't wait force every last software developer (even those earning $200k) out of the country for the simple crime of them not being born here. I've conversed with immigrant-haters on HN for a long time[1], like for years. I've never understood why they hate me and other immigrants so much. It's puzzling, tbh. It's very tiring and emotionally tiring (when they effectively repeatedly tell you to "gtfo".) I've given up on engaging with them directly.

[1] One example where a user named ones_and_zeros essentially tells me to gtfo: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11313462 (see the parent of that comment as well). And I was in fact actually even scolded by dang for bringing it up later on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13599190 dang is right in the sense that it is indeed an extremely emotional topic for me. These people are trying to (quite literally) destroy my life, and want to force me out of what's been my home for 10+ years. But I've learned it's actually best for one's own emotional/mental well-being to not engage with them.

[koheripbal]

This is the weirdest argument I've ever seen on HN.

1. No nation on Earth allows foreigners to move and work without a visa. Singling out the US here is completely illogical.

2. A nation regulating the movement of people into it's borders is a fundamental function of any government. Not having that would be like removing passwords from your server and opening it to the internet.

[winter_blue]

It seems like you completely missed the point, or are intentionally being facetious and trolling here. (No where did I say anything about doing away visas. If the US had a less restrictive visa policy, like Canada or other Western countries, I would have few complaints.)

Most countries, at least most Western countries don't have a hard numerical limit on high-skilled work visas. (They might have numerical limits/targets on permanent residents, but rarely on highly-paid, educated, high-skilled workers.)

The only countries that do (that I'm aware of) are the United States and Switzerland. Note: most other countries don't arbitrary numerical limits on high-skilled work visas whatsoever.

Switzerland has a limit of 8,500. This is for one of richest most advanced economies in the world with a population with 8.5 million. The visas are obviously rapidly exhausted. For example, here is an article from 2017 complaining about it: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/worker-visas_cantons-demand-mor...

The Swiss high-skilled work visa limit as percent of population is ~0.1%. Why is the limit so low in Switzerland? Answer: Xenophobia.

The United States has a limit of 65,000 plus 20,000 for US advanced degree holders (and an exemption for non-profit research). Also an extremely rich country with an advanced economy that would (yes) benefit from high-skilled immigration. People that graduate from Harvard often can't manage to find a way to stay in the country, because of the US' horribly restrictive visa/immigration policy. Here's an article from the Harvard Crimson about it from freaking 2007: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/9/raise-the-h-1b-c...

The American high-skilled work visa limit as percent of population is ~0.03%. Why is the limit so low in the US? Also, answer: Xenophobia.

The xenophobia is so bad that the Trump administration has been trying extremely hard to exclude/deport this tiny 0.03% of new highly-paid educated immigrants. I was personally affected by this, as a previous visa of mine was denied for bullshit grounds (that courts have ruled in individual cases as being facetious and motivated by anti-immigrant animus). People with $200k+ salaries are being denied on joke grounds and told to depart the US. The United States is so xenophobic that it cannot tolerate adding 0.03% of highly-skilled well-paid educated people per year to its population.

[renewiltord]

Preach it, brother. One of the biggest reasons I'm anti-software-union: every place where software engineers fervently advocate for unions they fervently advocate to keep foreigners out.

[winter_blue]

Thank you. I try. It's a little tiring, and I wonder if all the energy I've expended on it is worth anything, or a complete waste of time.