H1B debate: The problem is not racism or an elaborate scam – it’s arithmetic

You may have heard that poem before. Six blind men who do not know what an elephant is are sent to examine and describe one. The one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a spear. The one who feels the knee says it is like a tree. The one who feels the tail says it is like a snake, and so on.

“And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,
each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!”

The debate in India and the United States over H1B temporary work visas is a bit like the elephant being examined by many different blind men who think their perspective defines the whole situation. However, the situation is a complex boondoggle rooted partly in America’s success as a society and an economy that no one in a position of power is diagnosing correctly.

Though each is partly in the right, they all are in the wrong.

This whole debate started with what was a very minor announcement of an appointment in the incoming Trump administration. It was announced that Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist influencer, would be a Senior White House Policy...

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