Y Combinator's Ankit Gupta faces backlash over H-1B comments

(americanbazaaronline.com)

37 points | by Tabular-Iceberg 5 hours ago ago

31 comments

  • happytoexplain 2 hours ago ago

    >Gupta described it as “DEI” to “prop up” Americans as a “preferred group.”

    This is easily one of the most eyebrow-raisingly dangerous things I've ever seen a leader of any kind (business or political) in the US say out loud. It summons images of the USA on fire from coast to coast in riots.

    • exolymph an hour ago ago

      Yeah that one got my hackles up. The idea that America should not be run for the benefit of its citizens is uhhhh saying the quiet part out loud, I guess.

    • rpmisms an hour ago ago

      Always nice to know how someone really feels about a country that has made them very rich.

  • xvxvx 4 hours ago ago

    It was clearly a minor joke but I don’t think people realize how close to the fire the immigration debate is. There are sections of X making plans for seizing the property and belongings of deported H1B visa holders. It’s extreme but not impossible.

    • _--__--__ 2 hours ago ago

      Most of the people talking like that are far removed from real power and influence. But I suppose extending your twitter flamewar to include the chair of the FTC is one way to change that...

      • an hour ago ago
        [deleted]
  • ActionHank 4 hours ago ago

    Why not spin up the startups in those other countries then?

    Heck, why not spin up YC Foundries elsewhere in the world?

    No H1B needed.

    • blhack 3 hours ago ago

      YC has. There has been (if I remember correctly) batches entirely based on India.

      • ActionHank 3 hours ago ago

        No, you misunderstand, I am not saying run a batch there. I am saying that YC should startup an org there that purely contracts to their startups, no need to hire, no need for H1Bs.

        • downrightmike 2 hours ago ago

          Then you are competing for talent with Fortune 500 companies that pay more than startup wages.

          • em-bee 2 hours ago ago

            in the US they are not competing?

    • phoronixrly 4 hours ago ago

      Because US VCs seem to have an allergic reaction to EU regulation?

      Was that a rhetorical question or do you miss the regularly scheduled front page posts complaining that the EU kills innovation?

      • ActionHank 4 hours ago ago

        Gotta be honest, I very strongly doubt that most H1Bs go to people out of the EU.

  • 4 hours ago ago
    [deleted]
  • samrus 4 hours ago ago

    trolling very close to the sun

  • tkel 4 hours ago ago

    Capitalist right-wing vs nativist right-wing

  • decremental 4 hours ago ago

    [dead]

  • zerr 4 hours ago ago

    How is discrimination by citizenship more acceptable than e.g. discrimination by ethnicity or race? All of these are outcomes of birth lottery.

    • samrus an hour ago ago

      Citizenship, while usually a circumstance of birth, comes with a a shared responsibility of the society one is a citizen of. That responsibility also goes the other way, where the society has a duty to look out for the citizen

      While it sucks that people from other societies dont feel like those societies are good for them, it doesnt mean that citizens of the host society should extend that responsibility to people who do not share responsibility for that society like citizens do.

      Essentially these foreign workers are mercenaries, and do not derserve the same loyalty and protections that citizens do

    • estearum 4 hours ago ago

      Not taking a position on either side of the underlying debate, but obviously a government has a unique obligation to its own citizens, and ideally no unique obligation to an ethnicity or race.

    • ckrapu 4 hours ago ago

      A country's first responsibility should be to its citizens.

      • 4 hours ago ago
        [deleted]
    • happytoexplain 2 hours ago ago

      Maybe in one thousand years we will all be one joint geo-political entity, which will be great, but until then it is an unassailable fact of physical reality that nations must prioritize their own citizens. That doesn't mean ignoring everybody else - just prioritizing.

    • gos9 35 minutes ago ago

      I vote to discriminate citizenship, economic or otherwise, based on the answer to this being a self evident truth

    • ActionHank 4 hours ago ago

      What obligation does the government have to those who are not their citizens? 100% a lottery, but your logic here is willful ignorance.

      • zerr 4 hours ago ago

        The point is to have a system that does not discriminate based on lottery.

        • ckrapu 4 hours ago ago

          Well, an American farmer cannot sell his grain in India. That also seems to be discrimination simply because he is in the wrong place. Are you arguing that all protectionism is flawed and wrong?

          • __d 3 hours ago ago

            Until very recently, that was a pretty common view. Countries generally want unconstrained exports, while limiting competitive imports.

            • ckrapu 3 hours ago ago

              That might be true in practice but also 1) completely incompatible with global notions of fairness and justice, and 2) not an especially compelling political argument for getting countries to open up their markets.

        • happytoexplain 2 hours ago ago

          That's a great ideal, but is obviously impossible to the extent that you are implying, until we can eliminate national and legal borders entirely, which is a distant-future goal. You're putting the horse lightyears before the cart.