The MAGA War Over H1B Visas with Bob Murphy | HN87

It's another "crossover" episode! Adam Haman and Bob Murphy break down the recent Twitter(X) spat between Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and other elements of the broad "MAGA" movement about the H1-B visa program and American culture.

00:00 -- Intro. Bob's been fighting on Twitter again!
01:49 -- Bob breaks down the controversy, then Adam reads Vivek Ramaswamy's provocative X post (linked below) that caused a bit of an uproar.
08:43 -- Bob responds to Vivek a bit, but really responds to MAGA's response to Vivek. Since when is "the right" allergic to criticizing aspects of American culture?
13:12 -- Adam chimes in. American culture is a Rorschach test. Also, culture isn't monolithic. There have always been trash TV shows even when American culture valued excellence more. Bob points out some MAGA hypocrisy, and some areas where Vivek's critique didn't land. Also, Adam and Bob compare histories growing up as "the smart kid".
20:11 -- Adam points out that the recent history of immigration in the US (along with DEI) impacts this argument greatly. Also, Adam and Bob dive deeper into human psychology and American culture.
43:48 -- So, what's with these H1-B visas? What are the economic implications of them?
64:53 -- If Bob were in charge, what would he do about these visas? Eliminate? Expand? Tweak?
72:16 -- What does it actually mean to the average citizen when "high end" immigrants are brought into the country and "take" jobs that otherwise would have gone to fellow citizens? And who's "rights" should take precedent?
75:02 -- Coming back to culture, what else besides IQ matters? Are there valuable cultural attributes in which American culture shines?
90:00 -- Outro. Thank you for watching Haman Nature!

Vivek's controversial X post: https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1872312139945234507

H1-B visa "mega thread analysis" mentioned: https://x.com/RobertMSterling/status/1873174358535110953

Adam on X: https://x.com/Rerazer
Bob on X: https://x.com/BobMurphyEcon

The Bob Murphy Show: https://www.bobmurphyshow.com/

The Human Action podcast: https://mises.org/podcasts/human-action-podcast

Join us at: https://hamannature.substack.com/

Adam's other podcast: https://naturalorderpodcast.com/