I'm all for the best and brightest becoming citizens, but we should offer visas for the most in-demand, high salary professions first. We can tell from salaries that the shortage of CEOs, lawyers and hedge fund managers is much more acute than the shortage of programmers and engineers.

Since when do CEOs, lawyers, and hedge fund managers ever have visa problems?

Certain categories of US visas can basically be bought, but it is not cheap.

I think michaelt was being ironic.

I would think you are responding to a sarcastic comment.

I don't know about lawyers and hedge fund managers but CEOs are able to manipulate their own pay and avoid accountability due to their position of power within a company. The labour market has no bearing on someone who effectively writes their own paycheck.

That isn't at all what the H-1B Visas are being used for in practice. They are being used for cost cutting and facilitating outsourcing.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/03/176134...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/silicon-valley-h...

Indentured Servantry sounds like a plan B.

NBD is H1-B fails.

Along with 10 million physical laborers, just to kick in the teeth of the middle class a bit more.

The middle-class doesn't benefit Silicon Valley. Cheap nannies on the other hand...