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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   25136 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025

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That argument shouldn't apply unless the US has full control over the other country's government. Otherwise the other country's government can mismanage it in such ways that people there are willing to work for very low wages, and then those people will work for low wages in our country and drive our salaries down. On the level of each individual laborer the laborer is working for peanuts in the US voluntarily, but on a level of incentives, most of them would not have done so if the other country's government had not made their country so poor.

And the other country's government, of course, is a government and as such not subject to market forces or economic efficiency.

Also, this assumes some sort of weird EA-variant. If it's economic efficiency to not hire Americans, I don't want economic efficiency. Why would I hold economic efficiency as an end in itself without regard of who gets to benefit from it? I don't treat all humans alike.

Why would I hold economic efficiency as an end in itself without regard of who gets to benefit from it? I don't treat all humans alike.

Is your claim then that you would rather American firms hire mediocre American programmers over talented Indian ones?

It depends on the value of "mediocre". "Mediocre" could, for instance, mean "does equally good work, but demands an American salary", in which case yes. It could also mean "is slightly less efficient and the amount by which he is less efficient doesn't matter", in which case, also yes.

Who would you rather an American firm hire: a talented Indian programmer, or an American programmer who is less efficient to the degree that it matters?

The answer is tautologically the Indian programmer because of the phrase "to the degree that it matters". It is possible to think the Indian programmer should never be hired and still agree with that (the degree that it matters would then be zero).

I don't know if that answer is tautologically true: I think there are quite a number of nativists who think the number of Indian programmers getting hired by American companies on H1B visas ought to be zero, regardless of how talented they are.

Then they think it doesn't matter, so it's still true.

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