Technology and Engineers

For decades there has been talk of an engineering 'shortage' in the US. Such shortages should always be viewed with suspicion, since shortages of producable goods are rare in a free market. If there is a shortage of engineers, salaries will go up, and more students will go into that field.

Mr. Friedman wants to "staple green cards to the diplomas of foreign students who graduate from any U.S. university in math or science" (from: Tax Cuts for Teachers). But this is exactly the source of the current problems in US engineering. With a flood of millions of highly talented, intelligent engineers being admitted to the US under the highly flawed H1-B visa program, the effect has been to drive down wages and push American students into other fields.

If Mr. Friedman wonders why the brightest American students chose to become MBAs, lawyers or investment bankers, here is his answer. They are too smart to go into a field where the government and industry collude to manipulate their salaries.

Perhaps we need to use immigration policy to import more intelligent New York Times columnists instead.