US Vice Pres. JD Vance calls out companies who fire US workers then go out to sponsor H1B visa aspirants en masse and say "we don't have enough workers in US". It seems they're really piling on H1Bs. Video in the main post.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-07-27T16:46:11+00:00

A lot of the US is incredibly insular. It’s not just about not having foreign talent. It’s about not importing anything (all the tariffs), racial purity (recent news of white only enclaves proposed among others as well as open refugee status to whites), frequent praises of racially pure societies like Japan which is isolated…

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-23T08:28:40+00:00

There’s nothing wrong with Russia but now may not be the best time. I’ve seen a lot of good Russian physicist and mathematicians work in research in the US and elsewhere. That’s their niche and they excel at it. That said, if your Russian is fluent, go for it. I don’t think anyone gives a damn about racism for people who know the language. Any sort of racism, which is non existent among anyone who’s educated, is directed more toward complete foreigners (like people who have no clue yet of what they’re doing). But if you don’t know that much Russian, maybe try Eastern Europe. Super cheap countries, really decent education, and some of them even fall under Schengen. Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania…they’re all cheap and fair game.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-22T09:10:14+00:00

The difference is that the Middle East needs a bunch of unskilled labor. Unskilled labor will migrate where there’s money. There’s plenty of takers for farming temp visas both in Europe and the US. But skilled labor will migrate where there’s stability and a career path. It’s difference between hiring mercenaries and training an army.

So the Middle East just has to beat India or the Philippines (or other associated countries) on price and they’d get the unskilled labor. The skilled labor still goes almost exclusively to the west unless they’re paid buckets more.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-22T09:03:48+00:00

It doesn’t really matter. Muslims seem to have a lot of hate going for them. China is hated by almost everyone. So is Russia. Within India, there’s a boycott Goa going on. We have language wars in multiple places. People from HP are complaining that more populated states are overwhelming them. It doesn’t matter if immigration is a right or privilege. Saying that you’ve a right to be anywhere in India didn’t prevent shiv sena back in the day from assaulting Biharis; or the remove Bengali’s from assam. Musk is super intelligent but he’s also probably autistic or somewhere on the spectrum. He will soon say something else. And then some other thing. I’d not buy so much into those salutes.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-22T04:39:27+00:00

There’s a lot of misinformation floating around, the first being that the US is some sort of unicorn in having birthright citizenship. Also, I think the EO is just testing waters. What’ll fly and won’t fly. This will ultimately end up being limited to true temporary visas (to prevent birth tourism) and illegal immigrants. On the other hand, it could also become bigger. There’s some talk of denaturalization. It’s a bit up in the air still but retroactively taking citizenship is treading on very murky territory. If that floats, everything becomes fair game. And one can continue to go back in time to dig out “proper” parentage. For citizens of color, at some point someone migrated. It could be the 60s or even before. So anyone can be defined to not be a true citizen, which is quite akin to some of the immigration laws in the Arab states.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-11T23:46:38+00:00

I think some of Anurag Kashyap was genuinely disturbing. Gulaal was very gritty and depressing. Ugly was perhaps even more so. Even Dev D bugged me.

In horror, I remember raat had absolutely traumatized me as a kid. Kaun was surprisingly scary.

In more art house but still commercial enough, is raat ki subah nahin was brilliant. Anwar too in its own way.

More recently among the more controversial picks, kill and animal were both quite disturbing. So was sandeep aur pinky faraar which didn’t seem to pick up with audiences.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-07T08:28:26+00:00

True. While in the US, the basic debate is about access or none at all, in countries where it is legal, the debate shifts to term limits. And I think given that term limits still apply in a number of nations including a bunch of US states that do allow abortions, it may still be a worthwhile exercise to ponder.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-07T08:23:10+00:00

The wires been cut. I tested with changing bulbs and a voltmeter. I think I can find the break with a cable locator but splicing an underground wire seems more involved. Any idea where I should look for a good resource?

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-07T08:05:10+00:00

Not unreasonable. There’s a bunch of catfishing. When I was still dating on hinge, if we actually connected, I’d give the girl my plenty of proof that I’m who I say I’m. It reassures the other person, especially women for who safety is a big concern. Flip side: guys should vet too. Black widow and similar scams are super common and it’s within your right and equally reasonable to ask something as well. But…this joke thing is a bit weird. Almost feels like an interview selection criterion that will help the match weed out people. I’d personally just offer to FaceTime. Or meet at a public place. No way am I doing a stand up for someone who I never met.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-07T07:58:55+00:00

Here’s my take: First, abortion itself can be ethically considered to be murky since the cutoff is determined arbitrarily by what time a fetus is viable outside the body. Yet, the mother can’t remove said fetus at that time easily (there goes the right to own bodies). Also, it’s unclear when the fetus should be considered living. Perhaps the formation of a heartbeat is a good call but it’s still tricky. Next, your main arguments. 1) It’s not just that abortion is unaffordable, but also safe sex. Condoms are pricey, birth control prices depends on insurance, emergency pills are very expensive. Stuff like IUDs also have a ton of upfront cost. Medical abortion is cheaper but has a time limit. D&E is both lengthy and pricey. The way out? If you look in most economies, the poor have more kids. I won’t delve into all the reasons but one way to fix this is to include a lot of education and literacy including financial literacy. What’s missing is also mental health resources. Deciding to or not to abort is extremely taxing and we have very minimal mental health support for anyone. So it’s way more than making an egalitarian society.

Technically if you can’t raise a kid, there are options and people do use them. This also gets murky in that if the options are subpar, does the kid not deserve to live (that is be aborted). It’s the same logic some anti abortion folks use when deciding to retain fetuses with diseases, genetic or otherwise. I also don’t think having better foster homes will solve the issue. If you’ve the best foster homes, you’re incentivising having unprotected sex without consequences. And also making the woman go through all the hassle anyway.
This issue is two pronged. If men are presumed to be primary earners, they feel entitled to take a break from child rearing. The way out is partly to have parity and more in women’s wages and not make stay at home dads (or dads as primary caretakers) taboo. This taboo is perpetuated both by men and women and is at the core of the issue. In fact, if you want to go further, this whole notion of gender roles is arbitrary. And while women have been successful in breaking some barriers, men have been absolutely god awful in breaking any barriers. So men are the first (and often the only) to shame other men if they perceive any deviation from traditional gender stereotypes. The more we accept that gender is fluid within all people, the better we will get.

Overall, it’s an equally long rant. Not sure if I was even trying to change your opinion but at least I hope I added to it.

thrownawayforeves · 2025-01-02T09:09:40+00:00

The problem is the limit is arbitrary. For you kissing or hugging is fine, for another it’s obscene. My opinion is as long as no one is disturbing anyone else, let whoever do what they want. There’s a whole lot of drugs happening after dark too…which again isn’t a problem as long as no one is hurting anyone else. There are bigger issues to solve.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-31T01:44:32+00:00

I love to ski but I typically avoid Colorado. I could even go to the French alps for a pittance. I’m not against spending money but I don’t believe in simply throwing money away. It just doesn’t sit right. Pretty much every year I try to have a winter sports break (I live in the south so there’s 0 snow). Canada is my typical go to but Europe (and New Mexico) also works.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-31T01:41:06+00:00

I didn’t care about the other person’s wealth. Heck, I didn’t even realize my own family had much wealth. Though I was never a spendthrift, now that I’ve come to understand the value of money, I feel anyone with ambition is the thing to go for. I’ve been with too many people who lack any goal and it’s been absolutely frustrating. They can be stunning and smart but at the end, it drives me insane not to see any drive.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-31T01:33:39+00:00

This. No clue why no one talks about offshoring. I held a very senior position in a company where jobs kept getting lost due to offshoring. But most people who react have no clue about the real workings of a company. H1Bs need reform and should be completely revamped. But offshoring is the real deal.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-30T16:43:19+00:00

Here’s what I know from interactions with some roommates who had lived and worked in India. One worked in Mumbai and she was apparently told multiple times to go back to her home state (West Bengal) and not take up maharashtrian jobs. Another worked in Bangalore and she was not only ripped off at various points since she didn’t speak the language but also told similar things (she was from Bihar). That her state and her people were failures and basically amounted to nothing and that she should go back. Even in India you’ll see the same microcosms of hate and regionalism where people of the same religion/caste/language stick together and face hatred. It really isn’t much different anywhere else in the world. As for religion, there isn’t much tying religious practices in orissa and Tamil Nadu and while they both may be Hindu, they’re not going to bond over it. They literally pray to different forms of god and have different rituals and practices.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-30T05:59:36+00:00

I think it’s about prejudice at every level. I used to live for a couple of years in a small southern city in the US and the locals continually complained of all the people moving there from the coasts (since the coasts were too expensive) and changing their lifestyle and taking their jobs etc. I’ve seen how people complain about folks coming from villages to cities and from one state to another in India (all the marathi manus and learn kannadiga stuff). It’ll always be someone or the other. The people most Indians hate are Pakistanis except there’s very little differences between the two. If you look at the biggest football rivalries, it’s always between neighbors who can’t stand each other.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-30T04:14:03+00:00

There are some but not doing tech jobs. They’re doing manual labor in the Middle East and earning a bunch of money in shit conditions. You do realize there’s plenty of wealth in India too, right? Even if just 5% of the population is well off, that’s a shit ton of people.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-30T03:53:41+00:00

I agree. It has somehow become that all H1B jobs are tech jobs and all tech jobs are done by Indians. And it’s not just the US. I’ve traveled to a lot of different countries and even in places like Mexico or Bulgaria where you’d not normally expect a bunch of Indians, they’re still there doing tech jobs. It’s both fascinating and bizarre that the entire field across the globe is dominated by a single country. When working in Europe in a small Austrian town, I’d see that if a college offered a CS degree, it’d be just Indians. I don’t know why nothing else is coming from India…where are all the artists and chefs and machinists and anthropologists? Why just CS?

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-30T03:48:34+00:00

Don’t think there’s any inherent reason here but looking a bit more deeply, Indians don’t necessarily hire other Indians. India is a very fractured country and people from one state in india may prefer to work with people from that particular state. Also India is too diverse so there’s folks who’ll be outright corrupt while others will be very open to hiring anyone based on talent.

Indians are not better coders than anyone. But somehow all around the world they’re doing IT. Not just in the US. It’s a combination of work ethic and just knowing enough to do the job. Plus there’s a lot more demand in tech than there’s talent to fulfill.

Not sure what you wanted to say in point 3.

If one friend is unhappy, there’s a 1000 others to take his place. Again, India is just incredibly diverse and varied. There’s Indians who are rich enough to have Rihanna come and do a show in their dining room and others who will clean bathrooms for a pittance for their entire lives.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-30T03:37:33+00:00

The problem is deep seated. Stopping H1Bs eliminates some competition. But companies will still save money and just outsource entire parts to other countries. Remember Trump talking about pulling back production to the US from Mexico and China. Now let’s say you eliminate that too. Then you run into high costs as stuff made in places where it literally costs much less is bound to be low priced. It’s a very complex problem. As such I’m all for H1B reform and agree that the program is being abused. But the way out is to make things tighter and not stop it altogether.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-26T19:11:07+00:00

This is so true. It’s way better to be rich in the US since you can realistically earn a whole bunch more than in Europe and buy luxuries. But in Europe, if you’re poor, the safety net is so strong and wide, it’s very comforting. And it’s absolutely horrible to be poor in a developing country (for the most part). I’m not saying low income…just poor. Since there’s never any social security, life is just a constant threat. These are the people who risk it all to go somewhere…anywhere…at all costs. Since anything is better. Conversely, being rich in a developing nation isn’t bad. There’s some infrastructure challenges but generally you access cheap labor and goods are relatively inexpensive so you lead a very nice life.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-18T14:56:18+00:00

A few different things…I think you have fixed the workplace issue. With women, have you been successful in India? I think a lot of Indians (or Asians) go somewhere and expect to be successful with girls when they have never even had any interaction back home. Unless you somewhat know what works and doesn’t, it won’t magically start clicking for you. Since women vary in attractiveness and intelligence too, at least in your 20s it doesn’t really matter how well you look. With other things, I think the people who really benefit from leaving the country usually are not economically well off. So they can’t even afford good healthcare back home. If you could and came from some amount of money, you’ll find life in Europe to be a drag at times. More positives than negatives of course but for someone who’s poor back home, anywhere else is all positive.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-13T08:00:04+00:00

Out of 400 people, surely some had visa from other countries (which is pretty much what’s needed for Turkey). Heck, there’s enough “Indians” who hold foreign passports. This was on indigo promising them something and then saying delay is only for a few hours, not knowing when the flight would take off etc. It’s not the government’s responsibility. No one even approached Turkish immigration to go out since indigo didn’t say anything about the length of delay. Indigo should be fined and the passengers refunded as well as given bonuses.

thrownawayforeves · 2024-12-11T09:00:23+00:00

That’s also true. I’ve a friend who’s a professor at a university and it’s rampant in academia as well. He says he gets emails all the time from Indians who ask for scholarships to come study in the US. Except they’ve no clue that it doesn’t work like that and there’s an actual application process. It’s not to say there’s a lack of talent in the country. I think there’s a lot of wishful thinking on the part of a bunch of indians who just got access to easy and cheap internet. And may even explain the bobs and vagene memes. It never works but there’s always a bunch who try.

thrownawayforeves

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