[speekinout]

Drop the H1B programs, and engineering salaries will rise, thus attracting more Americans to study the field.

You got it backwards, Engineering salaries were high, but American students weren't interested in doing the work. US companies needed the work done, so they went where the expertise was.
American students are lazy these days. They're trained that way from elementary school on. Their self-esteem is more important than their knowledge. And there are plenty of polls that show that we teach our kids self-esteem while the Asians teach theirs engineering.

Anyone who runs a company for profit would rather have employees who know their jobs than ones who just "feel good about themselves".
We are way off track, and shutting the border isn't going to change a thing.

[FormerLurker]

It isn't only recent graduates that are out of work these days. Engineers with over 15 years experience are out on the street with little or no chance of finding work. So don't blame it on laziness or ineptness, as these people are the ones who HAVE written much of the software that not only you and I use everyday, but that which forms the infrastructure of our nation's telecommunications network.

[blueriver]

US companies needed the work done, so they went where the expertise was.

What really happened is that US companies over estimated markets. Managers, directors and CEO of companies with their MBA's didn't know what they were doing. They needed a massive amount of workers to get the job done...Fast forward.. They miscalculated.., over built their inventories, didn't need all the workers after all. LAID OFF THOUSANDS. This was just poor management and incompetent corporate insight.

[SauronOfMordor]

American students are lazy these days. They're trained that way from elementary school on. Their self-esteem is more important than their knowledge

They are lazy because they are not hungry.

In Third-World countries, the facts of life are that if you have no marketable skills, you starve. And I don't mean this figuratively -- these countries are not wealthy enough for a welfare safety net.

The parents of the 50's and 60's were people who grew up in the 30's, when life could get really ugly if you didn't have the skills to compete. If we had a situation where failure to get your kids educated enough to compete meant that the kids would live in Third-World-style poverty, and the parents would starve to death in old age, you would see a lot more achievement.