[FormerLurker]

What's the problem with this? The effect is that overall wages in the software industry will be decreased, as they should.

The net effect is millions of US software engineers will be replaced with Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani "engineers". Many of them filling 'sensitive' positions. Gee, what a good idea that is. You ever wonder how "espionage" REALLY happens? It's when you let those into this country who have motives other than the best interest of the United States, give them a security clearance, and then put them into a "high-tech" position. Even those positions which aren't deemed "sensitive" allow those individuals to pick up our latest technology in ALL facets of our "high-tech" world, be it telecommunications, imaging, or signal processing.

That is not even to mention that those US engineers who are unemployed are currently not spending what they used to spend, so the entire US economy goes into a downward spiral.

Slave labor is always cheap. Then again, you get what you pay for...

[billybudd]

That's such BS. Only a small percentage of developer jobs are actually "sensitive" for national security, and sure, those should be well protected. But the vast majority are coding jobs that a monkey could do. If companies are willing to hire foreign workers over domestic ones, it must be because they think they are getting a better deal. If foreign workers were so bad, this would quickly be known, and there would be no demand for them. But of course, foreign workers are good, either because of higher skill, or the willingness to work longer hours or for cheaper. In any case, I don't see why domestic software developers should be protected from competition. BTW, I'm a developer.

[billybudd]

BTW, your argument about unemployed American workers being a negative effect on the economy is also BS because they don't disappear - they are simply displaced by new foreign workers, which will have a neutral net effect on the economy. Also, the fact that companies have to pay developers less means higher corporate profits, which means a better economy.