Comment by spangry
7 days ago
Why don't they just auction H1B visas?
1. Set a monthly quota (for argument's sake, 5000 a month).
2. Each month the government holds an auction, and businesses that believe they need to bring in foreign labour can bid for however many visas they want.
3. The highest bidding companies get the visas.
This way the government can control how many foreign workers come in to the country each year, and the economic rents from bringing in these foreign workers accrues to the public as additional government revenue, rather than as additional profit for corporations.
It also means that the limited number of available H1B visas are put towards their highest value use. The company that wants to bring in a highly skilled foreign worker that's worth $500,000 in additional profit to them will be willing to bid up to $499,999 for their visa. The company that wants to bring in another Tim Hortons worker won't be able to outbid them.
Because the economic rents from bringing in these foreign workers accrues to the public as additional government revenue, rather than as additional profit for corporations.