Friends, some people really don't like Elon Musk. These days, most of the Musk haters are lefties who -- let's face it -- hate anyone who gums up the works of the coming socialist utopia. Others, however, are conservatives who view Elon as insufficiently conservative. Witness the recent "MAGA Civil War" over the issue of H1-B visas for highly skilled immigrants. I try to settle the matter once and for all in my latest article.
Musk is Right: We Can't Make America Great Again Without the Best and Brightest Immigrants
Recently, the Left has delighted in pointing out the internal contradictions and tensions within the MAGA movement, of which, admittedly, there are many. No doubt this Schadenfreude brings progressives some minimal comfort as conservatives, Republicans, and Trumpers – not to mention Trump himself – solidify their control over both houses of Congress and the presidency.
The fact that there are debates and sometimes even heated disagreements on the right, however, does not mean that the incoming administration, and the movement it represents, will be ineffectual. Quite the contrary! As leftists seem long ago to have forgotten, dissent is healthy, and from these pointed discussions will emerge a set of Trump policies that have been purified of the kind of self-congratulatory idiocy that the closed system of progressivism so often produces.
A case in point is the current debate over H1-B visas, which are praised by many tech sector conservatives, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and roundly condemned by nationalist conservatives like Steve Bannon.
H1-B visas have existed since 1990. They give foreigners in “specialty occupations” the ability to come to the U.S. to work for sponsoring employers for a defined period, usually between three and six years. Every H1-B recipient must have at least a Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualifications, and he or she must receive a salary of at least $60,000/year. Hundreds of thousands of H1-B visa holders currently work in a range of occupations, especially in I.T.
From the Muskian perspective, the brain drain from developing countries to the United States, which brings us legions of the world's greatest inventors, innovators, and experts, provides enormous net benefits to the American economy and to the American way of life. From the nationalist perspective, U.S. companies should always employ Americans first, and they should never employ cheaper foreign labor at the expense of American workers.
While these views may seem incompatible, the fact is that they are not. When programs like the H1-B visa scheme bring to America computer whizzes and other professionals who are unobtainable locally, they can add enormous strength to our most dynamic industries. When, however, U.S. companies fire or layoff their domestic employees (as was allegedly the case at Musk's own Tesla) to replace them with cheaper foreign H1-B worker drones, then the purpose of the scheme itself has been subverted, along with the standard of living of some of the most highly educated and skilled Americans.
While it may be tempting to slam the door shut against legal and illegal immigration simultaneously, given the flood of humanity that has poured across our borders in the last four years, that would not be right, and it would not be wise. What is needed is a thoughtful, balanced approach that emphasizes and perhaps even increases those types of immigration that strengthen America, and that curbs, or even completely ends, those types of immigration that disrespect our laws, undercut our wages, and ultimately serve no one's interests except those of the immigrants themselves.
For example, if we wish only to receive the world's “best and brightest” through the H1-B program, then why not increase the educational requirements to a Master's degree or better, or why not boost the minimum salary requirement to $100,000/year or more? Donald Trump himself has voiced support for this approach, which would hardly inconvenience the vast majority of existing H1-B visa holders or employers, since average salaries are already far in excess of this. No U.S. companies would be tempted to replace an American with a “cheap” foreigner, needless to say, if the foreigners who received H1-B visas were no longer cheap!
Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and other conservatives in the tech sector and corporate America are not fools. They realize that the H1-B visa system needs reform, and they support laws and policies that aim to protect American economic interests and American workers, first and foremost. What they don't support – and none of us should – is a narrow-minded xenophobia that views all foreign talent, no matter how stellar, as suspect.
As some doors at our borders rightly slam shut, therefore, let's ensure that others remain open, and, in some cases, that new doors and pathways are created, always keeping in mind that a country of lawful and responsible immigration is what the United States of America was meant to be.
Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on the Newsmakers show on WLEA/WYSL.
And here it is at Townhall:
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In other news, some Europeans are talking tough in response to Donald Trump's refusal to rule out the use of force to ensure U.S. control over Greenland and the Panama Canal. Could the massive EU navy be deployed to the Arctic Ocean? Do you need to start building a bunker in your backyard in case of EU airstrikes? No, one presumes that the future of Greenland is almost entirely up to Trump himself. How pushy is the man prepared to get? Hmmmmm.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteI hope recruiting all these "best and brightest" foreigners doesn't include people like the late Klaus Fuchs. You know, the smart German refugee who worked on the U.S. Atomic Bomb project, and then sold all the information to the Soviet Union. Make sure all those future "eggheads" coming here are super screened.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteThe "special visas" project is a bandaid on our wrecked education system, a product of at least 60 years of deterioration since World War 2. So, what kind of talent are these "vetted" foreigners really going to bring to out country? What about the educational systems of the countries they are going to come from? No school shootings, or teachers having sex with students in those far off places, I hope? I would think Musk would know that, and is willing to gamble, so to speak.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteAbout 20 years ago I remember talking with a retired teacher who had taught high school from 1954 to 1974, telling me how the system changed from a generally positive experience to "hell on earth".
There are of course, lots of books on the changes in our educational system over the decades, offering all sorts of opinions about what happened.
Dr. Waddy and Ray et al from Jack: Given the hatred of America which motivates so many on the farleft ,its probably just as likely that a traitor of Fuchs' cast could come from America itself. The Rosenbergs were American. The staggering wrong headedness and malice which gave Fuchs to betray our nuclear secrets to a monster like Stalin could well be bred in a smoky Ivy League dorm room. Look at the evil such a setting released in the execrable neonazi spectacles enacted there last year.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Jimmy Carter's well deserved state funeral has commenced and the traditional military honors afforded are impressive and redeeming.
ReplyDeleteIt may not be widely known but Carter was as a naval officer carefully selected to be a key assistant to Admiral Hyman Rickover in developing our indispensable nuclear submarine program. The Russians had noted how harrowingly effective the German Uboats were and they had quickly developed upon advanced German designs. If Stalin had attacked Western Europe , as some believe he might have done once he got the Hbomb , he would have flooded the N. Atlantic with submarine products of a massive Russian buildup.
Rickover was a demanding and very ascerbic man whose supervisory mien was abusive and very trying to his subordinates. He had experienced scorn for Jews in the aristocratic Navy officer corps though I do not know if that prompted his derogatory manner. Apparently he developed some respect for the dutiful Carter, for which Carter is due much praise for his self effacing role in this vital development. He was a good man.
RAY TO JACK
DeleteCarter was basically a good man, but that does not mean that he was competent to be President of The United States. Lots of so called good men out there, but that doesn't mean they are qualified for that position. He probably thought he was qualified, but that doesn't make him qualified.
As you know, he left The Navy because his father died of cancer, and he felt he needed to run the family business. Maybe he should have just stayed in business instead of getting into politics, where he left a trail of bad decisions from which The U.S. is still paying for today, namely in Korea, and in dealing with Iran.
The only reason he is getting a state funeral is simply because he was president. and not because of his presidential record.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteF*** the EU, which is nothing but a bunch of Euro-weenies attempting to unite a so called continent they will never to be able to unite.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: You have made a good argument in favor of the H-1B visas. Nationalism, given the America hatred of antiamerica, is a beneficial stance and the dialectic between these views on this subject may well produce a constructive synthesis both in this and future disagreements among common sense Americans. (No I don't know enough about Hegel's very esoteric views to say anything but that Hegelian dialectics, though they were misused to justify Marxism , do seem to make a lot of sense: i.e. thesis, antithesis and resulting synthesis.The futurist Buckminster Fuller promoted a similar view in his "mistake mystique" philosophy which holds that our lives are endless progressions of mistakes and reactions to them).
ReplyDeleteOf course the far left seeks to promote an image of MAGA as being rigid and authoritarian (like them)The obvious controversial dynamic in the H-1B issue among MAGA activists helps to put the lie to the radicals' assertion that we are so. And it suggests ,and I think will continue in power to do so, that there is plenty of room in our polity for a wide variety of views yet free of neomarxist , incipiently totalitarian America hatred. To purpose the marginalization of the proven wrong headed , amoral and potentially murderous antiamerican left is most certainly NOT to advocate one party rule.
Healthy free dialogue on a wide range of views backed up by intellectually creditable give and take showing mutual courtesy, by empirical evidence whenever possible and by willingness to accept policy decisions arrived at thus, is impossible under leftist radical rule. Their way has been historically proven, far beyond any reasonable standard of confirmation ,to be utterly inhuman in practice. To resolutely oppose those in our country who yet"demonstrate " devotion to such monstrous doctrine, is completely honorable.
Ray from Jack: Carter's Presidential tenure was largely free of scandal, unlike the next Dem President. He did his honest best; he simply lacked the instinct for the political and diplomatic jugular demonstrated by instinctively canny types like Reagan ( and I loath to say it , Clinton) and our past and future hombre, DJT.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
DeleteLots of people do their "honest best". There are janitors who do their honest best and keep millions of public places, private places, and business places, sparkling clean. So, Carter was doing his "honest best" at his "highest level of incompetence."
As you say, he "lacked the instinct....", which is exactly what is needed for a President of The United States of America. He should have stayed home and out of politics, and continued to teach Sunday School.
While his watch was "largely free of scandal" as you say, it was filled with disaster based on so called restraint. He allowed Iran to invade our Embassy in Tehran (an act of war), and did nothing but organize an abortive "rescue attempt". In Korea, he allowed North Korean soldiers to axe murder two U.S. Army officers, an act of war of ever there was, and blew it of with bullshit talks.
Sorry Jack, but your assessment of Carter's presidency is just different than mine, but so what.
With that said, I await the return of that "canny hombre" DJT with great hope after four wasted years of those fools JB and KH. In that respect, and by comparison, Carter does look like the most honest man who ever lived.
Ray from Jack: When I started my first prison library in 1983 I was given my choice of the discards from a nearby teacher college's library. So many of the books bore '60s and '70s copyright dates. So many of the perhaps premature educational reforms of those times (many predicated on the conviction that ANY change was , by definition, much needed progress) had apparently proved to be passing fancies!
ReplyDeleteIt can be argued that we far too dominantly iconoclastic boomers were yet the product of teachers guided by far more traditional standards (though sometimes frivolous Dewey might have exercised some guidance in their education as prospective teachers early in the 20th century). I don't know enough to say.
I experienced some of the far more basic teaching methods (lots of rote memorization) used in a Chinese oriented University in Singapore. I had a Chinese roommate who regularly studied all day. He told me , "I must NOT fail").
I think that products of such "bitter study" are bound to be better schooled and motivated than many in our more indulgent higher education system . In saying this I do not mean to minimize the ordeal that such as engineering students go through in American universities. I saw it first hand with such students who shared our library school building. They can't have had much of a social life! But I'd guess the vast majority of foreign students in the US don't come here to major in " Soash" or humanities.
Ray, you're right that plenty of foreigners are pinkos, even Reds. We should always be in a position to pick and choose.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, Raymundo, you are absolutely correct that the H1-B system is a band-aid covering our own gross educational failures. I remain convinced that school choice is the only viable solution to that problem, and the good news is that we are slowly getting it in an increasing number of red states. Eventually the gulf in outcomes may become so vast that even the blue states have to play ball.
Jack makes a good point that refugees and immigrants CAN, in rare cases, be threats to our national security and way of life, but they are more often assets and occasionally (if ironically) among our most fervent patriots. They, after all, know what it is like to live elsewhere!
Both Jack and Ray are right about Carter: he was a decent fellow, but fundamentally his personal virtue has little or nothing to do with his fitness to be president. I know that may sound shocking, but many of our greatest presidents were awful people, and many of our worst were rather pleasant. There is too much at stake in the leadership of the free world to turn it into a popularity contest, or a question of with whom one would like to drain a pint...
I guess the question, going forward, is: when disagreements arise on the right, will most conservatives be willing to give Trump the last word? Mike Johnson certainly had better hope so! On the issue of government "efficiency" there will be some very wrenching decisions to make, and I suspect Trump will have a tough time keeping the tribe united.
I wasn't paying much attention during the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis -- I was mastering my Legos at the time -- but I nevertheless regard our loss of Iran as an ally as a foreign policy failure roughly comparable to the loss of China a generation before. We didn't see it coming, and we didn't have any coherent, effective response to it, either.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
DeleteMost important now, is for the majority of pro-Trump Americans to clearly understand that 2028 is equally as crucial, if not more important than 2024, because Trump will be an ex-president as of January 2029. It will be more important then to elect another strong-minded Republican to carry on with "house cleaning" the nation, or otherwise the Leftists will sweep in again, and resume the destruction of the nation.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: In my comment above I mistook John Dewey, the American philosopher of education ,
ReplyDeletefor Melville Dewey, who was a bit of a crank. I know nothing about John Dewey.
Your comparison of the "loss" of Iran to that of China is certainly supportable. In both cases we saw and see these changes as greatly increasing the international power of doctrines we consider a threat to us, communism and radical Islam. I hope the Iranian people soon find deliverance from the insufferable ideologically bound dictators who enslaved them , as China has to some extent.
Dr. Waddy and Ray et al from Jack: Supposing FDR had passed in 1944. Henry Wallace would have succeeded him and he was deservedly suspected of much ideological admiration of the Soviets. Given the A Bomb decision in August 1945, might he have demurred, thinking"oh but I don't want to make Uncle Joe feel threatened" ? "We will persist with a blockade. The result would have been thousands more of Americans slaughtered by the Kamikazes. Beyond that, a ground invasion would have been a butchers' bill writ unimaginably terrible. Truman made the decision which for anyone short of sociopathy, had to be agonizing but he had the steel to do what had to be done. That's what a President must have, considering the challenges he faces.
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
ReplyDeleteYou may want to read the article by David Cloud on his "Way of Life Literature" site, on his "Friday Church News Notes" titled "Jimmy Carter Dead at 100", dated TODAY
Cloud is a fundamentalist, independent, Baptist Pastor and Missionary, and of course approaches everything from a Christian (Baptist) viewpoint. However, his research and writing is excellent, and well researched. Take a look at his article for a better look at Carter.
Ray from Jack : I read the article you cited and it opened my eyes to many facts of which I was unaware. It appears he was an apologetic Christian and that is to me an unfortunate stance for one who meant good. In a hard world, as terrible in its inhumanity as the one into which it was born, Christianity, especially after its painful Reformation and Counter-Reformation , remains on balance a monumentally redeeming doctrine. Christian thought guided the West through many centuries of trial, probing intellectual examination, barbarism and painstaking devotion. Modern Christian thought and devotion has been graced by such as St. John Paul II. Every even small town in the US and I would guess, much of Western Civilization, honors Christianity with a sometimes dominant building. So I think Christian based criticism such as that you cited in that article is a part of the dialogue about Carter as creditable as to stand along with all others of soundly supported reasoning.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know I considered Carter a moderate in '76 and I voted for him but you have provided much empirical evidence to the effect that his conservative side was at best apologetic too.
RAY TO JACK
DeleteThanks for reading Cloud's article.
Dr. Waddy and Ray from Jack: "Onward Christian soldiers , marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before! Christ our royal master. . . " This magnificent anthem, profound far beyond its eloquent wording, aptly expresses Christianity's redeeming influence and let those who would insouciantly and foolishly dismiss it bring to their assertions similarly historical, dialectical and intellectual support. I do think it possible that they can but let them put their beliefs to the true test. Meanwhile, I'll rely on the cultural values of our western civilization, unadulterated by marxist humbug.
ReplyDeleteNo apology here! This hymn's militant timbre is more than justified by the opposition of other doctrines which advance convictions as confidently supported. And dialogue in which Christian based reasoning is used deserves objective credit standing with any others arrayed against it.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think we can assume that a perhaps diminishing rump of erstwhile conservatives might persist for awhile in hectoring DJT. The "neocons" of the '80s - many of them theretofore liberals but then repelled by leftist totalitarianism, - heroic warriors in their time- some of them still cannot reconcile themselves to DJT's happy warrior stance: "they smote me hip and thigh and right merrily did I return their blows". They still retain some apology for their "apostasy" and some touchiness about his crudeness.
ReplyDeleteBut DJT and MAGA have produced astonishing results and may well continue in executive power to do so. And as they do they will further convince those who cannot yet grasp that the once seemingly inevitable antiamerican onslaught on our civilization has met its match and maybe its consummate defeat, to the everlasting benefit of our country.
Raymundo is right: one election victory, in itself, doesn't move the dial very much!
ReplyDeleteJack, Henry Wallace may have been soft on the Reds, but on the "Japs"? I rather suspect he would have been happy to drop the bomb on them, as indeed pretty much everyone was in those days, but I further suspect that he might have "internationalized" the bomb after the war, with who knows what consequences.
Jack, it will be fascinating to see if any Never Trumpers repent. Perhaps not, but there were plenty, like Haley and McConnell, who sniped at Trump from the sidelines, when it felt safe, but who certainly no longer do so, for obvious reasons. I think the simple truth is that we live in times when the views of all such "opinion leaders" are increasingly irrelevant. Zuckerberg and Musk and Bezos have far more influence than they do.