Lol again, they’re not labor. They don’t have anything to do with the traditional capitalist-labor relationships. I am well aware of the reality you describe and I can still tell you, it doesn’t apply here. Cutting edge chipmakers are the golden goose of the digital age. For best reference, see anything about the US’ extreme efforts in collecting rocket scientists after world war 2. Capitalists know a golden goose when they see one.
… You really do not understand the nature of the game that’s being played here, and that’s okay. Feel free to keep thinking of world-class scientists as nothing more than indentured servants. Again, extremely xenophobic to dismiss their intelligence and personal volition, as if they’re just slaves waiting for america to import them.
So many issues here. I’m sorry but you deeply misunderstand a lot of things about chip manufacturing.
These really, really, really are not laborers. They have nothing to do with labor. These engineers are effectively the same level of cutting edge as the scientists the US picked up after WW2. They are literally national resources - valuable pieces on the international game board.
No, they don’t get deported to economic rivals. Ever. They are not cheap labor. They are line-item assets in the military-industrial complex.
H1B recipients are horribly abused, true. But that’s because they’re used the way capitalism uses everyone it considers replaceable - grind them down and move onto the next. Doesn’t apply to - again - the literally best-on-the-planet engineers. They’re not coding for Xitter, they can walk at any time and find employment and visas elsewhere.
cheap indentured labor from Taiwan
The extremely well-paid and literally best-on-the-planet chip manufacturers? The highly skilled engineers with years of education and expertise, who continuously outpace the achievements of much larger companies and nations? The ones who work in a narrow field that doesn’t actually matter for jobs reports, because they’re such a small group of experts and the real gain in jobs for the economy would be the labor involved in building the fabs for them?
Calling them “cheap indentured labor” is just casual xenophobia.
Nah. I get it, but no.
This is the one thing you keep missing. We don’t have people here who can do the work. Straight up. All the big players send their engineers to learn from TSMC for a reason. Of all the labor, of all the capital, these people are the exceptions to every rule.
Capitalists went to extreme lengths to win the nuclear arms race. They will go to the same lengths to keep winning the digital arms race too. These engineers will never be billionaires on their brains alone - because you’re right, they do not own the capital - but they do have a significantly higher value than any other laborers in the eyes of capitalists and therefore will never be deported to a rival.