[bluecheese452]

Why would the average us citizen want to import a smarter foreign competitor. There are far more workers than there are ceos.

[tptacek]

An accountant wants better, more reliable, and cheaper software. They're not intrinsically motivated to subsidize native-born software developers.

[bluecheese452]

No they don’t. They want to work 40 hours a week, go on vacation twice a year, drive a couple of cars, have their wife stay home and raise the kids. All things possible 70 years ago but no longer possible.

[tptacek]

Accountants and software developers do not in fact share a fate. I know it doesn't feel that way when you're commenting on HN, but there are whole lucrative professions that do not care at all what happens in ours.

[bluecheese452]

The same decent at math, moderately ambitious people do well at both. Not 100% overlap but pretty large. If one side collapses the other side will get flooded.

[akerl_]

Because I want to work with talented coworkers and do business with talented counterparts and socialize with people who aren’t scared of immigrants.

[solenoid0937]

Because without having the smartest people, the reigning superpower is totally, utterly, unequivocally fucked.

Power is a function of technological superiority. The moment you it stops attracting the smartest people, a country will fall behind on military and economic power.

[bluecheese452]

Which matters not one lick to the average citizen. Norway is no superpower yet life is pretty good there.