Summary

Elon Musk faced backlash from his followers on X after advocating for importing “super talented engineers” to address a shortage in the U.S. tech industry.

Musk likened hiring top foreign talent to building a championship sports team and argues that there is a shortage of talented and motivated American engineers.

Critics argued there’s sufficient U.S. talent being overlooked or underpaid, with some pointing to widespread tech layoffs.

Musk dismissed claims of low wages or training gaps, maintaining a need for exceptional engineering talent to advance innovation.

  • DrFistington@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Yeah, when you import your slaves you can pay them less and they’re more subservient because they don’t want to be deported. It also drives down the wages for US citizens that perform the same jobs. News flash, there are plenty of good software engineers in America. They just aren’t going to work 60 hours a week for 60k a year while the company they work for posts billions in profit each year.

    If you need my skill and time to make a million dollars, I better be getting at least 15-20% of that profit. Employers can obviously afford to pay it if they can give a CEO that barely does shit 250 mil plus stock options

  • WilderSeek@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    I know most people will write this off as him being an idiot, but I believe he’s doing this to distract from his involvement with the government. It’s all theater to distract us from what he and the politicians he’s heavily involved with are actually doing. Add in his involvement in the tech trade, and it’s actually really disturbing what he may be doing.

  • Gjolin@lemmy.ml
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    15 hours ago

    He’s right though. One of the reasons the US is so technologically dominant is because of the brain drain. Of course there are also employers and employees who abuse and try to game the VISA system. That is also true.

    I feel like people are talking over each other. The top 0.1% of talent goes to the US because the US has better growth opportunities and better prospects than any other place on earth. It’s not just about sourcing talent. It’s also about denying competitors that same talent.

  • AnIndefiniteArticle@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Musk replied. “OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

    I’Ve BuRnEd OuT aLl ThE WiLlInG nErDs hErE aNd I nEeD tO bUy SoMe FrOm OvEr ThErE1!1!

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Well, I’m not sure I’d call it stupid, exactly. He wants indentured servants, cheap. It’s about accruing more power and wealth to himself.

      Now, our government should be set up to STOP unregulated capitalism like this, but at this point, it’s been captured by the capitalists, and they are basically there to give a huge assist to capitalists instead.

      • Fades@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Bit of both, Mysk didn’t even complete his college degree. Being born into money does not, by default, correlate to intelligence

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      2 days ago

      I just want him to be a little bit stupider. A little bit more to cross over the “mix household chemicals and fucking die” line.

    • vga@sopuli.xyz
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      22 hours ago

      Well, not in this case. In this case, Musk is absolutely right. Probably what he would actually be if he hadn’t gone full to the weird dark side.

  • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Super talented = extremely desperate foreigners who’ll work 90hr weeks for very low pay.

    Just in case anyone needed a translation.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I was “lucky” enough to be around during the dot-com meltdown and seeing H-1Bs still being used/abused, even as so many citizens were being cast away. This scam has been around for quite some time. The cap was 115K in 99 and 2000.

      Perversely, when the bubble really started taking its toll, the cap was 195K from 2001-2003.

      During much of this time period, you’d look around and see 200 people applying for one cruddy junior/intermediate type of software engineer position. Why the cap was not zeroed out in emergency legislation tells you all you need to know about anyone looking out for Americans who work for a living.

      Companies claiming things are so dire that they just cannot find the local talent are so very full of it. If they were the least bit genuine, they’d be paying HIGHER wages to the people they do bring in on a visa and they’d be lobbying for permanent status, not this six year max thing.

      Now if Elmo was talking about basically being a worldwide talent scout to bring people here with full citizenship status AND being paid top dollar, we’d be talking something different, but if he’s talking about more H-1Bs, it’s the same old shit as it ever was…

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      1 day ago

      Well he saw that the only people willing to work at Twitter were extremely desperate to stay in the country

  • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    What I’m reading is that he wants Chinese or Indian engineers because they are as qualified as the next guy, they’re already used to insane hours and no holidays AND he can just pay them their original wage, which is peanuts compared to what US engineers make. Also once he’s done with them he can just deport them. What’s not to like?!

    • threesaken@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      For that comment, yes. It appears that the author has limited it to signed-in users only. This is one way to ensure that the Bluesky moderation tools are applied to everyone who might view / screenshot / interact with the post in question.

      • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        This is one way to ensure that the Bluesky moderation tools are applied to everyone who might view / screenshot / interact with the post in question.

        What mod tools? Shouldn’t need a login to view or screenshot. Interaction should require an account but I see no reason for the others.

        • underwire212@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          Completely agree. This a grab for leads by Bluesky. Not exactly something I like to see in social media platform outreach tactics…

    • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      christ it should be a rule to never post links to sites that require accounts or logins when sharing information about a discussion without also providing screenshots or a non-account mirror.

      • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Christ, it should be a rule never to be this pissy with people sharing information. Here’s a screenshot. Of an audio post. Not sure how much help that’s going to be, so I guess you can just read about it on Mediaite or Raw Story in a few days.

        • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
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          8 hours ago

          Christ, it should be a rule that you post the transcript from a professional stenographer of any audio clips that get posted from a site with mandatory logins.