Paul Graham, co-founder of seed accelerator Y Combinator and investor in Dropbox, gauges that 95% of the world’s best engineers live outside the US, and that America’s strict immigration policy means the country will never be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour. According to Graham, unless there is a major reform of immigration laws to allow talent to enter the country, the US could be “f—ed”.
Graham shared his concerns on his personal blog:
“The more of the world’s great programmers are here, the more the rest will want to come here.
And if we don’t, the US could be seriously f—ed. I realize that’s strong language, but the people dithering about this don’t seem to realize the power of the forces at work here. Technology gives the best programmers huge leverage. The world market in programmers seems to be becoming dramatically more liquid. And since good people like good colleagues, that means the best programmers could collect in just a few hubs. Maybe mostly in one hub.
What if most of the great programmers collected in one hub, and it wasn’t here? That scenario may seem unlikely now, but it won’t be if things change as much in the next 50 years as they did in the last 50.
We have the potential to ensure that the US remains a technology superpower just by letting in a few thousand great programmers a year.”
Source: Business Insider
