Summary

Elon Musk faced backlash from his followers on X after advocating for importing “super talented engineers” to address a shortage in the U.S. tech industry.

Musk likened hiring top foreign talent to building a championship sports team and argues that there is a shortage of talented and motivated American engineers.

Critics argued there’s sufficient U.S. talent being overlooked or underpaid, with some pointing to widespread tech layoffs.

Musk dismissed claims of low wages or training gaps, maintaining a need for exceptional engineering talent to advance innovation.

  • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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    22 hours ago

    shortage of engineers? are you kidding me?

    I know of two first degree of separation SWEs who can’t land jobs. One worked at microsoft for like a decade.

    FTFA:

    Other followers accused Musk of simply not wanting to pay top talent what it’s worth.

    Bingo, got it in one. They don’t want to pay american talent american wages, they want to pay all talent 3rd world country wages while they themselves pocket a 50 billion dollar contract.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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      19 hours ago

      It’s a common trick used in American Hiring Practices, knowingly set an impossible standard for hiring. Turn around and say “We can’t fill this position with candidates in the US, here’s the list of people we rejected. Can we get approved for hiring visas?”

      And The Government falls for that bullshit guaranteed… after some donations to the Super PAC of course.

      • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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        2 hours ago

        There are obviously easily exploited loopholes to enable H1B visas especially for a couple of businesses that hire the most H1Bs.

        As long as most countries in this world have median wages well below 33% of the US there will be rampant outsourcing / under the table labor / vastly lower comp H1B roles.

        If you truly try to minimize your cost of living the cost to live in the US is surprisingly cheap. Most shit we buy is optional. Rice and beans are cheap, you can find people giving away clothes, transportation can be very cheap and a simple pay as you go phone can be very cheap and be your access to the internet and is fully functional. You can make enough with a job that just pays minimum wage to send enough money home and feed an entire family without yourself worrying about being homeless or going without food.

        Immigrants tend to try harder and put up with more bullshit than natives because things are that much better here than back home. Hell, we have food pantries! That’s basically unheard of in most of the world. Billions still struggle to put food on the table outside of the US and western europe. I relied on food pantries as a kid to survive in poverty. My wife is from a third world country and couldn’t believe people would just give food to those in need freely.

        I’m not here to bash on immigrants, i’m just pointing out that even the poor in the US generally have more privilege than they could possibly realize. The vast excess of the top 10% in the US is crazy, and the .1% here are so egregiously overcompensated it should probably be criminal.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      He’s running out of inexperienced engineers to burn through. He statedv early on that he wanted to create a surplus of engineers to drive down the cost.

      That cost being, paying the engineers’ salaries.

      I work pretty closely with a lot of young engineers. My work brings them in as interns, hires them, but doesn’t pay them very well and after 2 years we have new engineers because they’ve all found better jobs. Saturating the market with talent really hasn’t worked out the way he wanted it to, because as it turns out that’s nothing new.

      So now he’s gotta find a new way to pay engineers less.

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        So now he’s gotta find a new way to pay engineers less.

        I imagine it would be something like this:

        Position: Senior ML Software Developer
        Join the XTesla420X family of goal-oriented, success-driven, rockstar AI/Machine Learning engineers who aren’t afraid to move fast and break things in the name of automation and mankind’s future.

        With no middle management, you get to be your own boss* and set your own working hours**. The only thing holding to hold you back from greatness is your own potential, and we’re ready to help you thrive in a fast-paced environment where the sky the limit and your own mortality is nothing but a temporary setback.

        Requirements:

        • 10 years industry experience
        • No kids
        • A 210% work ethic
        • Intimacy with a Python

        Compensation & Benefits:

        • Exposure in lieu of salary
        • Office vending machine
        • Office cocaine (unavailable for remote workers)
        • Optional unpaid vacation days on statuatory holidays

        * reporting directly to Elon Mouske
        ** minimum 80 per week

        • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          And how about healthcare? Or will accepting the offer enroll me in clinical trials to have my brain implanted into a robot? Robots don’t need healthcare, pay, sleep, time off, or any of the other things fleshies need to live. Of course, the organic components, such as the brain and possibly spinal cord will require occasional maintenance, but the upkeep cost for those is minimal

          POV Me after having my brain put in an Optimus robot: [Says “Kill Me” repeatedly]

          • sepi@piefed.social
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            8 hours ago

            He’ll buy you a horse! He’ll fire you if you tell him it’s a garter snake.

        • Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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          20 hours ago

          *must relocate to shithole work site with self funded relocation where labor rights have been repealed and report to duty 6 days a week for minimum 14 hour shifts. 20 for crunch time. We make 996 look like child’s play!

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        So now he’s gotta find a new way to pay engineers less.

        Well, except scams like the H1B is a pretty old way of setting that up…

    • Badtouchspez@lemm.ee
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      22 hours ago

      They don’t want to pay american talent american wages, they want to pay all talent 3rd world country wages while they themselves pocket a 50 billion dollar contract.

      This is usually what tech bro ‘innovation’ boils down to.

    • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      I know a guy who’s basically the Goku of computer networking. Listing his accomplishments would doxx him. It took him months to find an escape route out from where he was at.