It’s spring, and cheap employers minds turn to using immigration to depress wages.

So, we see two articles regarding employers having problems finding workers because the H-1B (employees in specialty occupations), and H2B (seasonal employees) visa limits.

So we have hand wringing reports of high tech firms being unable to grow because of H1B limits, and, “Carnival operators in Alaska, landscapers in Pennsylvania and sugarcane processors in Louisiana” complaining of the same with regards to H2B.

The late Milton Friedman called the H1B a “just another government subsidy“, and he was right.

What’s more, it is a subsidy that works like a reverse Robin, taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

If you cannot find an employee in this moribund economy, you are not offering enough in wages and benefits.

Not only that, in the case of H1B visas in particular, it exacerbates any shortage (and there isn’t one, it’s just that people flee the profession in question) by dissuading people from entering these fields of study.