from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do you personally plan to handle Elon's scam to drive down wages?

by mdgrech23 on 1/2/25, 2:40 PM with 3 comments

Elon has plans to double the number the H1B visas driving down the price of labor. H1B workers are also easier to exploit and less likely to unionize which is currently the tech sectors biggest fear. More American devs are waking up to the reality that despite being salary workers they should not be consistently working nights and weekends for free. It will be easier to force H1B workers to work long hours for less. I know many on this forum have been around for a while, likewise we're seeing mass layoffs in tech by many companies who've received large government subsidies. What are your personal plans?

  • by solardev on 1/2/25, 4:16 PM

    I'm actually kind of glad. Big tech has been paying way too much and driving up the costs of living for ordinary people. We've needed an adjustment for a while now.

  • by talldayo on 1/2/25, 3:11 PM

    Finding a new job, programmers are overpaid and the market has been saturated for about two decades now. San Francisco wages are the reason why so much development is outsourced without a second thought. That compensation will not persist, with or without Musk.

  • by taylodl on 1/2/25, 3:16 PM

    Pop some popcorn and watch the show:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/did-the-sun-rise-from...

    Other than that, I'm thinking about what kind of side hustle I could start and get going. I suppose we all should have been developing a side hustle all along. BUT - I've never worked for Big Tech because their hiring and firing is so fickle. I've been able to carve out a long career working for startups and mid-caps. It doesn't hurt that those companies don't have the resources to manage the H1B process.