Elon and Vivek have failed at communication. An explanation and post-mortem for those who missed it:
According to Vivek's posts, there's a desire to "gut" the H1B and replace it with a more merit-based visa, similar to the O1.
So, in effect, the H1B would turn into a lesser version of the O1, setting a higher bar for foreign workers.
Is that correct? If so, that's all they had to say.
Instead, they initially gave extremely nebulous statements about "the top 0.1%", or they degenerated into weird dystopian analogies involving sports teams, or a post would devolve into a full deconstruction of American culture. Almost everything was devoid of detail and specifics.
None of this would be weird if it wasn't the
@DOGE. Someone expressing opinions on immigration isn't uncommon on X, but when you have a seat in the upcoming administration, people tend to take your words more seriously. Especially true when the base who voted you into power did so on the promise that the admin would curb immigration loopholes.
The lack of detail combined with the smoke and mirrors created a lot of confusion, especially if you didn't have time to sift through dozens of X posts to figure out who was saying what in response to what.
Then in the middle of it, there were more highlights:
- Elon's midwit employee trolling people.
- Elon high-fiving his midwit employee at the height of the trolling.
- Elon patting himself on the back for angering the "far right".
- Elon agreeing with the "americans are retarded" post.
All of that antagonized the situation even more. I'm not surprised Vivek was still up at 3am trying to weather the storm.
What will this new merit-based system look like? How exceptional would migrant workers actually have to be under a new system? Who knows?
Now everyone can go back to fighting over whether Americans are being overlooked for tech jobs, or whether foreign tech labor is necessary for a prosperous country.
Or, maybe more of the discussion could be around how this hypothetical merit-based system would even function. People are right to be skeptical of a system they haven't seen, especially if it hasn't been described beyond a few shitposts on X.
I’ve said it countless times in the last 2 years & will say it again: the H-1B system is badly broken & should be replaced with one that focuses on selecting the very best of the best (not a lottery), pro-competitive (no indentured service to one company), and de-bureaucratized.