[foobarian]

> China is five times the US in population. Given enough time, it can just throw people at problems and get there

I feel that for at least the last century, you need to think of the US population for the purposes of talent pool sizing as more or less the entire world because of its focus on liberty and opportunity. Consider how many accomplished scientists and inventors came from other countries (including China) for this reason. The US has enjoyed a very privileged position of being able to skim the cream of the crop in this way.

[woah]

We don’t allow them in any more

[wyclif]

False. In 2015, 1,051,031 resident visas were issued to foreigners in the USA.

[raverbashing]

So, in 2015, and what was the wait time for those

The bar gets higher every day, and it's a hassle a lot of people are not willing to go through

[wyclif]

Classic moving of the goalposts IMO. 2015 was the last year I could get reliable data for. Wait time? What standards are you basing your comments on and what countries are you comparing the USA to? By any reasonable standard, the US is still very pro-immigration and pro-entrepreneur.

[raverbashing]

> Wait time?

So you don't know how long it takes to get an H1B and you want to talk about "reasonable standards"? That's funny

Getting a work visa to pretty much anywhere in the EU or Canada (or maybe even Australia) is quicker than an H1B.

[wyclif]

The key phrase there is "in the EU or Canada." But the point of the parent comment is that the USA isn't like those places and that there is such a thing as "American exceptionalism" in terms of having more entrepreneurs attracted enough to a culture of innovation to apply for visas.