Personal Finance Topics / Macroeconomic Trends and Risks
No. of Recommendations: 23
There is a myth that foreigners are displacing red-blooded Americans in our society. Go into most major medical centers and you will notice the largee proportion of foreigners more willing to go through the years of work required to become a doctor (not to mention more acedemically prepared than most American students).
But let's move to IT - the crown jewel of America's global dominance.
It's true that the most visable names tended to be home brewed; Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg - all of whom were college drop-outs.
That said, those who did finish college included:
- Elon Musk (South Africa) – Founder of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla (not to mention Paypal).
- Sergey Brin (Russia) – Co-founder of Google/Alphabet.
- Satya Nadella (India) – CEO of Microsoft.
- Sundar Pichai (India) – CEO of Google and Alphabet.
- Patrick and John Collison (Ireland) – Co-founders of Stripe.
- Apoorva Mehta (India) – Founder of Instacart.
- Ali Ghodsi (Iran, grew up in Sweden) – CEO and co-founder of Databricks.
- Pierre Omidyar (born in France, to Iranian parents) – Founder of eBay.
- Andrew Grove (Hungary) – Former CEO of Intel.
- Steve Chen (Taiwan) – Co-founder of YouTube.
- Jan Koum (Ukraine) – Co-founder of WhatsApp.
- Mike Krieger (Brazil) – Co-founder of Instagram.
- Jerry Yang (Taiwan) - Co-founder of Yahoo!.
- Jensen Huang (Taiwan) - Co-founder and CEO of Nvidia.
- Garret Camp (Canada) - Co-founder of Uber.
- Eric Yuan (China) - Founder and CEO of Zoom.
Sure these guys breathed air that might have been breathed by Americans if they had been prevented from coming here (or been deported), but I wonder if those Americans would have invented the same products which, in many cases, have created our high standard of living.
If America's home-brew students could have created the above list of accomplishements, they would have. Kicking out foreign university students will definately not only cripple the "liberal education structure", but also cripple our ability to continue the quantum advances in technology that we have seen over the past few decades.
We should be carful what we wish for if our objective is to prevent foreigners and "people of color" from accessing the freedoms we have grown to take for granted.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 3
That is an impressive list !
Immigrants to America have played an enormous role in the building of the Country.
I do think we need to have a controlled process for getting in, as does virtually
every Country. There is blame to be had on both sides, of course. If the business's
were prosecuted for hiring illegals, that would cut off a lot of incentive for people
to enter illegally, knowing that they couldn't get work. That would probably be cheaper
and more effective than the current plan. But actions speak louder than words. America
mostly does not prosecute employers who hire illegals. One political party luvs, luvs,luvs
to paint the false narrative that it is all the fault of the other side.
Am looking forward to see if farmers have trouble getting the crops harvested in the
labor intensive sectors of the ag industry. Seems a sure thing that food prices are
going up. Same with meat and poultry. What I've read is that segment is laden with
illegal labor.
So we will all find out in due time if the fire and brimstone rhetoric of current admin
is being carried out, or if it's more wink wink, our special friends in business don't
need to worry, as long as there are some hefty "incentives" given.
No. of Recommendations: 0
I do think we need to have a controlled process for getting in
There *was* a controlled process--but not any more. Spankee did not like it because he is not capable of understanding how--or why--such systems work. He does NOT comprehend "ability" other than as defined as "being RICH". Note that HE is relatively impoverished, and, combined with his lack of comprehension of virtually everything, he can never learn.
The ag sectors will get hit pretty hard. Remember what happened in GA when the migrants left the state? Unpicked crops rotted in the fields--and mega-losses by Magat farmers. Be interesting to see what happens in the near future, when crop-picking season arrives. No migrants = no picking = repeat of last time. Do you think this year is any different?
No. of Recommendations: 8
I think the damage is already done. Who is going to come to the US to study, knowing that they could be deported out of their PhD program at any moment.
Elon Musk came to the US to study at physics and business at U Penn. Today he would probably have stayed in Canada.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Yessterdcay, State Secretary Marco Rubio said the US will “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students” – especially those in critical fields or with connections to the Chinese Communist Party. There were more than 270,000 Chinese students in the US in 2024 and, for example, they make up the largest nationality group represented at Harvard University.
Chinese families save for years and spend exorbitant amounts of money to send their kids abroad, with students attending cram schools or hiring tutors to polish their applications – with students now facing potential deportation in the middle of their education. Given that China is a one-party state, that reaches deep into nearly every aspect of society, it can be difficult or impossible for many students to disprove any claims that they’re connected to the Communist Party – especially if the State Department defines that term loosely.
It's hard to say whether the ensuing brain-drain will prevent sensitive information from being aquired and brought back to China or if the crackdown could see more Chinese scholars, including some of the brightest minds in their fields, return to their home country – or choose to stay in the first place, and advance Chinese technology instead of the US's. Probably both to some extent, but it's sort of an interesting question as to whetheer it's a zero-sum game.
Jeff
No. of Recommendations: 0
this was never a 1-way street.
many are aware of tech entrepreneurs that were here as foreign students, but also...
to the extent that foreign students are convinced america is a less scary\more equitable society, most of the valuable pro-western intelligence recruits come from contact during student years.
