Americans and Mediocrity

I am very familiar with this because IT is my field and my kids who are 16 are also thinking of getting into IT-related fields or engineering but this issue is a bit complex.
I personally think that if we limit H1B visas the need for workers is still sufficient here at home because there is enough workforce here in U.S. about IT folks but it gets overwhelmed with people from India or Asia .
You can call it “cheap labor” which is where I think the issue is because they don’t pay these folks what they should be paying them which is why they get so many of them.

I saw a video taken on the sly of a VERY large conference where HR officials were being taught how to disqualify American works so they could hire H1B visa holders for less.

BaNG!

Where'd you see this?

I believe personal/spiritual growth is most important, and then other growth. On the other growth, it is a matter of ask and then you shall receive (if God wants) but you have to work towards that also. I do not see in the Bible that we should not pursue other growth.

How do you think is the quality of the labor? Is it worse, same, or better than American labor?

It's worse in communication first of all and technically speaking since i've been doing this for 20 years i don't see any higher intelligence from them which is better than an American kid who was born and raised here in the school system.
Their advantage might be that they might be more determined whereas an American is more relaxed.
For them it's a win situation too because they'd never make that kind of money in India, so it's a win-win for both parties.
The US Corporate and the individual ... at the expense of the American citizen tho.

I think that is why Indians hire other Indians due to communication differences and work style which can be major. Americans talk back more. It is also more risky to hire an American because you dont know what you may get, both in terms of work ethic and personality. From what I understand, Indians don't just hire you as they also want access to your network.

I can give you a recent example of an intern from Ghana we had at our (IT) job.
We hired him during the summer and what everyone (including me) liked about this kid is that he never stopped asking to do something else after he was asked to complete one task.
So because of this "eager" attitude to do work, we (the HR dpt.) hired him permanently. With a lower salary of course.

To add a little bit more to this, when it comes to hiring a full-time employee who's a citizen they take months and leave the position open, sometimes even a year, because they want to get the lowest paying candidate who can give them the most skills.
They want to low ball them basically.
This made me personally upset because in September i had a position lined up for a technician who is also able to interact professionally with high-level executives who was going to help me personally and assist me and after i spoke to the CIO who was going to retire in September he approved the hire which also involved a good salary and other perks such as a new phone, laptop, office etc. The candidate was a girl (in her 30s) who was already working in another department who i thought was best for this job.
She's born and raised in Massachusetts.
But when the CIO left, the HR dpt pulled the position until summer when we hire a new CIO.
This is what they do all the time by the way with these positions, despite of the changing of CIOs. The HR dpt pulls the job for no reason and they don't tell us.
Or when we tell them "this guy needs a rise" they won't do it.

Society needs a full set of roles to function. From top to bottom. Not everyone can be Elon Musk and etc. Society needs both people like him and people who are doing the nine to five work.

I’d sure would have loved to be more successful but unfortunately I’m not smart enough for that. So I do what I’m designated to do.

Honestly, nine-to-fivers are probably more useful to society than some of these techies.

In my book, "mediocrity" is being mediocre at whatever it is you do. If Lynx there is taking orders at the McDonald's drive-thru unto the Lord with all his mind and strength, he's worth infinitely more than the tech-guy that comes up with garbage programs that are really designed to just skim change off the backs of actual working people.

Well there's also things like work ethic, and the verse about whatever you are doing, do it as though you were doing it for God. I have plenty of reason to put my back into it.

It also doesn't hurt that they treat me well there. I don't stay home on a whim, so if I do call in sick they know I'm really sick and if I ask for a vacation at a certain time I will get priority over people who do call in for just any reason.

I don't take orders though. They don't trust me to talk to customers. They have no idea what I might say to the Smart Alec ones... I stay in the back, cooking burgers on the grill.

Looks like both you and your boss is way above average IQ.

If, as a metric, we rely on the recent accomplishments of our educational system, and the recent accomplishments of the Biden administration, I'd say that mediocrity is a towering pinnacle of wishful thinking that we can only dream of achieving.

The philosophical left has placed us on a course of abject failure... nowhere near the blissful heights of mediocrity.

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That’s why we are the majority. We are useful to make society work, but we also need those crazy, intelligent individuals who can make ideas about how to set directions for us all. But even those ideas should be scrutinized by people who aren’t equally crazy, but know how to make those ideas work their way through society at a pace people can accept

Note: My statement above is answering the broad philosophical question of the OP.

If the thing we're REALLY addressing is the H1B issue, well that is NOT a broad philosophical question. That is a very narrow and pragmatic question that requires a narrow and pragmatic response.

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I'm happy to hear that.

I prefer the background myself. I have a short-term shield of extreme tolerance for nonsense; but once that's gone, it's all over.