Of course we'll probably have to get engineering students from India and Pakistan to run them, as math and sciences are "courses Americans don't want to take."
As wages rise the students will take those STEM clases.
“we’ll probably have to get engineering students from India and Pakistan to run them, as math and sciences are “courses Americans don’t want to take.” “
The USA actually already graduates an adequate number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) degrees every year. Many American kids have seen which way the wind is blowing, or have been well advised. STEM enrollment has been growing for some years. They are hard pressed to find initial jobs because of the many foreigners in the field, but it usually works out for them if they keep pushing. Still works a lot better than a degree in transgender food studies or some such.
By making wide use of several types of visas, tech companies can get the cream of the crop from overseas, for below average US wages. So they get both a quality and a cost advantage.
Additionally, those foreign STEM workers can’t jump ship and take a higher paying job, and take their proprietary knowledge with them - they are bound to the company that sponsored them for the visa, like an indentured servant, if they want to stay in the USA (it is still a great deal for them usually).
In addition to the H1-B visa which gets a lot of press and leads to permanent residency and citizenship, companies also make great use of other visas, which allow them bring the employees of their foreign subsidiaries to work in the US, often for years on end. Their pay is based on the rates in their home country, plus travel and a stipend for living expenses. Many are thrilled to get to visit and train in the States.
Quality counts for a lot in the tech area, where it is not uncommon for a good software coder to be more than ten times as productive as an average one, or where one idea can result in a billion dollars. So keeping the best and brightest coming here is something that benefits the Nation strategically, even if there is some downside as well.
We need to push hard on STEM education regardless, because in ten years, robots will be taking over simple jobs en masse. Google and Uber are working to replace human taxi drivers, starting in just two to five years from now.