[starfishjenga]

If this guy is starved for talent couldn't he just increase what he's willing to pay and steal people from other tech companies? (There are a number of people who would be willing to jump ship for the right #s I'm sure.) This seems to be where BusinessWeek is correct. At the end of the day engineers should be getting paid more.

[cryoshon]

Exactly.

They complain about a lack of talent, but really they're complaining about the high price of talent and the difficulty of enticing strong talent.

If they're not willing to pay enough to entice someone reputable to switch, they figure that a political solution is cheaper.

[tmarthal]

There are only a handful of Yann LeCuns in the world. You can't just duplicate certain technical expertise.

This isn't about developer X using framework Y; this is about research level PhDs (and equivalent) that cannot continue work for a US-based company because of visa issues.

[RhysU]

So have said companies fund research fellowships/projects producing PhDs with the skillsets they want. Then pay enough to entice them to join the company. The US DoE does this specifically because it cannot hire non-citizens.

[AngrySkillzz]

Look at the numbers; the vast majority of H1B are not research level PhDs working on unsolved problems.

[shas3]

And Indian H1B workers who match those skills for the high-skill / high-paying jobs will settle for less than industry average?

Also, in the current system, even if he wants to steal people from other tech companies, there is a good chance those people are on H1B, and that it will be exceedingly hard to steal them without immigration problems (particularly if they are, as is likely, to have a green card application in process.)

[dominotw]

>If this guy is starved for talent couldn't he just increase what he's willing to pay

Would you buy a hamburger for 100$? You cannot "just increase" what you are willing to pay. You are limited by market economics.