Nutek

Exactly this.

As an aside, I DO think H1-B warrants tightening up... I just don't think this is the way to do it.

Pulaski

It's a lot easier to move photons and electrons than people. ..... And the people bring a need for housing, roads, schools, hospitals, water, etc. and you can't just keep adding people just because they generate tax revenue, not least because the problems of congestion, overcrowded schools, too little water are primarily burdens on the existing population ..... which is presumably part of the reason why Donald Trump was elected.

mrken30

The answer is an electron tax. Or do what the French want to do, tax robots.

Leonid Bershidsky: The latest bad idea from France: Tax those darned job-stealing … robots? | Financial Post

common

I agree, its a global economy and its tough for one country to control it. Trump can impose import taxes on cars made overseas but its impossible to put a tax on "virtual" companies who conduct business on line and do not have any physical product that is imported.

I have heard many opinions against H1-Bs and the abuse. Some people arguing that a governments number one jobs is to protect its own citizens.

I wonder how many expats here came over on a H1-B or similar? I came over on an H1-B, its very risky. If your industry is struggling and you lose your job you have to leave. I came over soon after university all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I then lost my job under a H1-B and I've also lost my past two jobs due to office closures and relocation of jobs to countries like India and Latvia.

I find myself wanting to ask my kids not only what job do they want to do when they are older, but also what job do they want to keep when they are older.

mrken30

This problem isn't helped by the lack of sex education and the attitude towards birth control.

I have several work colleagues who have 7 or 8 kids, in the UK is was very uncommon to have that many kids. I would be lucky to find one person.

Reducing population helps to provide everyone with jobs. Whether that's through wars or birth control.

tom169

I don't entirely agree with this point. Surely reducing the population of people unable to work, for example by training and education, reducing barriers etc. is a positive solution.

Remember that not all people go on to be only job consumers... many people go on to be job creators, so encouraging entrepreneurialism and reducing red-tape is key too.

scrubbedexpat099

Probably not a good idea to move mid production, but for new products, significant new investment that would be the time to move.

Pulaski

That's the nature of industry and commerce - and it is hard to predict 40 years ahead what careers will still be around, and impossible to predict what new opportunities will appear.

My father worked in the steel industry in Sheffield and I think could see the end coming and left Sheffield as there were no opportunities to progress. He worked at a steel foundry in Gloucester until it closed, and later at one in Chippenham, until that closed too, and that was the end of his career in the steel foundries - more than a decade befor he was ready to retire.

scrubbedexpat099

Coal, Agriculture, Steel and Auto.

None of my family left in any of them and not much Auto left so that leaves Agriculture.

I have a feeling those farms have all been built on.

mrken30

Prostitution has been around for years and will continue to be around for a long while yet. But not a career choice I would want for anyone.

Probably a better bet would be a plumber or electrician. However the job market fluctuates wildly with the housing market.

Not much chance of getting an H1B though.

anotherlimey

Hey, $5 is $5....

common

Well hopefully he enjoyed an early retirement. I was not aware of a steel foundry in Chippenham. I had a grandfather who worked nearby at the C&T Harris pork processing factory in Calne. He got to work his whole life there making Wiltshire cured bacon

He would never eat a pork sausage though ...

Pulaski

No, he found work as a school lab technician, the money was pitiful, but he enjoyed the job well enough and it kept him out of mischief. As it was at a private school he enjoyed very long holidays. He didn't eventually retire until his 70th birthday. You didn't know of the Westinghouse plant? ..... part of it was an iron and steel foundry.

common

No sorry, but I was only 11 years old when I left the area. My dad was based at RAF Lyneham at the time, not many 11 year olds have flown on a Hercules

albanks2542

Trump will have to shake up/axe the h1b visa and probably the Australian employment visa category if he wants to be this great "jobs president" that he has pledged to be. 65,000 jobs per year being taking away from american college graduates per year. That is more half a million in the last decade.