You are having quite an argument on your own there by putting words in my mouth so I'll leave you to that except to say that I am in this country because the US government thinks it's beneficial to the US in some way.
Meanwhile let me note you haven't presented any cogent argument as to what benefit the US gets by forcing me to stick to one job while I am already here and waiting for a greencard.
Because the reason you were allowed to in to the country was for that job for which there were no acceptably qualified american applicants. H1B is not simply a skill-based immigration policy, it exists to allow American businesses to hire outside talent when our own pool is running dry. There may be different programs for other purposes.. for instance, some other countries allow you to move there to start a business if you are going to make a minimum investment and hire a minimum number of people.
Now that is actually a logical point versus OP's "quit complaining coz this is not your country" logic. I upvoted you.
As an H-1B, I can only shift to other H-1B jobs. Which means other jobs where no acceptably qualified american applicants can be found. I don't even want to change this. I am just asking that my greencard application not restart if I shift from one H-1B job to another.
So in this specific instance, my question still remains unanswered. However, you are right on the general idea that I am arguing for skill based immigration instead of a specific job based immigration.
Because the reason you were allowed to in to the country was for that job for which there were no acceptably qualified american applicants.
The formal reason for a policy and the real reason have nothing to with each other. The phrase "job for which there were no acceptably qualified american applicants" is pure nonsense - the number of applicants is always dependent on the wage, make the wage low enough, you'll get no applicants, make it high enough, and a bunch of bankers will start retraining to go into software.
If it works anything in American companies like it does in German companies (I'm an American that moved to Germany on the equivalent of a H1-B), they decide who they want to hire, take their résumé, inverse it to submit an application for exactly that. I don't think there's another human on the planet that would have fit for the qualifications that they submitted for my residence permits.
My last one included literally every programming language that I'm good at, being a native English speaker, having a background as a music teacher (it was a pro-audio company, so that wasn't a real stretch) and most of the skills that I'd picked up along the way, regardless of if they were relevant to the job I was taking.
Fortunately, the German system doesn't have the no-job-switching provision, in the 6 years I waited to get permanent residence I was able to have two different jobs. You do however run the risk when switching that your visa won't be renewed for the next job.
I am in this country because the US government thinks it's beneficial to the US in some way
This is factually correct but it's half the truth, and is probably misleading. Any transaction executed by two entities at their own free will is generally supposed to be beneficial to both the entities, otherwise the transaction wouldn't have taken place. Yo mentioned only one side of the deal and it sounds as though you are here purely to help the US.
Coming to my argument part, I was not actually arguing that the immigration policy is good; it has its own problems. I was wondering about why ambitious people behave this way when they face obstacles. The fact that I have been seeing this attitude for quite sometime including on HN drove me crazy and I probably sounded more sarcastic than I would have wanted. Sorry about it.
Anyway, my point is this:
People who are ambitious and want to achieve face many obstacles. If you are really serious, you jump over them, work around them, crawl under them, move ahead and work towards your goal. Obstacles won't stop people from realizing their dreams.
In Randy Pausch's words "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." [http://www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html]
Look at this guy for inspiration,http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=500021 he finally did what he wanted when he found himself under similar circumstances. I would say he would have probably done better; why waste five years? Probably US did a disfavor to itself by not giving him greencard.
But what I'm trying to figure out is why are people saying things like "if immigration policy would have been that way" we would have created startups, etc., Well to me at least, that sounds like "If only those angels had put in money, I would have my business running by now". Things don't quite work that way in reality; do they?
Yo mentioned only one side of the deal and it sounds as though you are here purely to help the US.
When did I imply I am here to help the US?
People who are ambitious and want to achieve face many obstacles. If you are really serious, you jump over them, work around them, crawl under them, move ahead and work towards your goal. Obstacles won't stop people from realizing their dreams.
If one of my obstacles is the law, then arguing that it should be changed is one way of trying to overcome the obstacle. There are other ways of trying to do the same thing, which I am pursuing. Your assumption that the only thing I am doing is sitting here and cribbing about immigration policy is just that - an assumption. The article about is about immigrants and immigration law, so I commented about the law.
I see your larger point about not thinking that the country I am in has to be a constant instead of a variable and I am not.
Meanwhile let me note you haven't presented any cogent argument as to what benefit the US gets by forcing me to stick to one job while I am already here and waiting for a greencard.