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this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
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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.
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.
presses X to doubt
It is possible but it's not the quality of life Americans are accustomed to. For example, in this scenario you definitely aren't living alone, it's many many people living together with the same mindset.
In my wife's home country a salary of $11k/year is considered typical. Some make a lot less, some make a lot more. So a lot of people get by on about 6k/year.
In my state minimum wage is 16/hr or $33,280. Almost all jobs pay substantially more than this, but if all your costs are day to day are food, transport and renting a room with family/cousins/etc you can afford to send $6000 aka $500/mo. It's way less than rent anyway. $500/mo can trivially feed a family in most of latin america for a month with some leftover. If you have that much a month you can absolutely survive, but don't expect any luxuries. AC is unheard of. You probably have a tiny portable washing machine for clothes, the kind kids get for their dorms in the US. You hang your clothes out on a clothesline. Electricity isn't 100% stable, brownouts are common and so is service interruption. Generators are a luxury. You can't drink the water without boiling it, so everyone drinks bottled.
My wife was more likely to only send $100-200, because even that little makes a major impact and in the US where we are, it doesn't do very much. $1 goes a lot further in places like, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador and many, many more countries in the Americas than it goes in the US.
When my wife went clothes shopping in the US for the first time she thought Primark was incredibly expensive. They're known for being very cheap low quality clothes in the US. Still way more expensive than clothes in her home country (aside from the typical imported luxury brands that few can afford.)
At the start of the pandemic my wife's mom sold their condo in a wealthy portion of their capitol for about $ 40k US. I just bought a condo that is slightly bigger for about 600k.
So yeah, you can X to doubt all you want but I promise you really don't know what it's like in the overwhelming majority of countries in the world. It's impossible to understand if you haven't even been to a place that doesn't speak English.
No I get that. I actually had some guy who did comissions for me and I found him insanely cheap. I didn't understand how he could charge so low for what I was asking, until the bill came and I saw he was in a South American country where the exchange rate basically meant that when all was said and done; 20 bucks from a North American client was like a couple hundred down there.
What I doubt is being able to find any building on American Soil that you can afford the rent on while working minimum wage. Especially since most entry level jobs will actively prevent you from qualifying for full time benefits no matter how much you work.
Minimum wage in massachusetts is $16/hr or 33,280.
Here's a furnished room for rent, 995/mo aka 12k/year - well within minimum wage budget above, just a hair over 33% of gross. https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/apa/d/roslindale-995-furnished-room/7813596105.html
here's another, 1100/mo https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/apa/d/somerville-roommate-situation-br-avail/7813966888.html
689/mo room for rent (lowell but still possible to find minimum wage jobs near lowell.) https://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/apa/d/lowell-brazilzian-room-mates-furnished/7807989802.html
975/mo https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/apa/d/everett-private-bedroom-975-month/7811735244.html
There's no shortage of rooms for rent that are affordable for a single minimum wage income. You're just not living on your own. Isn't the trope that 4-6+ immigrants all live together in one house? because that's what they do to minimize housing expenses. You don't need a great home to survive or thrive or to even raise kids... because the listings above that we consider actually end up being less finding a random stranger on the internet and more extended family focused where you find family or friends of family who have immigrated to the US and already live in an area. Here in MA that is a mixture of different cities depending on what cultural group you're from.
Now let's take a look at a poorer state like Georgia. 7.25/hr minimum wage, or 15k/year. This one will be harder but I suspect people will largely make way more than that since walmart pays closer to 10.
$175/mo https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/roo/d/atlanta-atl-marta-furn-mid-age-man-free/7810363955.html
$400/mo for a trailer (eww, but doable... 4800 a year) https://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/apa/d/thomaston-mobile-home-for-rent-in/7810137528.html
495/mo atlanta highway loop https://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/roo/d/red-oak-great-room-available-in-college/7813455844.html
That being said, there are some cheaper places out there. $250/mo (incl utilities) in the heart of the city for a room but women only https://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/roo/d/atlanta-seeking-cool-roommate-for-old/7813271349.html
Some (likely) gay dude wants a gay dude to move in $350/mo https://atlanta.craigslist.org/eat/roo/d/decatur-sharing-accommodation-with-gay/7814264684.html
If there are situations where you can split a rental even there for that cheap... how can anyone even argue that it isn't at all possible to survive on minimum wage?
I get that most people do not want to live with strangers or anybody at all if they can help it but it's a much better option than being homeless or living in a country where you will be paid a couple hundred bucks a month.
I meant at 7.25, but hey a state where the wage is more than double would work, and kinda dodges the point. I mean 16 an hour is more than I make in my state and I do not make minimum here.