That actually would have been a better title for Robert Scoble’s post. Instead he said “Why US will remain dominant in tech..“. Scoble’s blog; Scobleizer, is one the most popular on WordPress it seems. I have found some of his articles quite intriguing but this post was, well, I’ll say it; ridiculous.

Scoble actually saw a post on Global Voices by an Iranian blogger who was tired of having her blog filtered by the government, something that happens in quite a few countries. Based on this post he goes on to argue that USA welcomes immigrants from the world over and from countries which mistreat their citizens and says as long as the other countries mistreat their citizens and they keep coming here US will remain dominant in the tech arena. That is a rather ridiculous assertion.

Depending on immigrants to carry the burden of the entire US tech industry on their shoulders is shooting yourselves in the foot. Conditions do not remain the same in other countries and constantly change. India is a prime example. The brain gain that US enjoyed and is still enjoying is being eroded by brain drain now. A lot of people are choosing to return to their countries of birth and I personally know at least 7 people who have returned to India in the last 2 years. That number is not very large and there are still very large number of people who are coming to the USA.

But what should be more concerning is the fact that a lot of American kids are choosing to stay away from the tech field because immigrants, who are willing to work on lower wages, are snapping up these jobs in the tech industry. As a result more and more kids are choosing other occupations over the computer industry. The long term effect of this should be all to visible for anyone. It isn’t to Mr. Scoble, which is quite surprising. The US tech industry dominance was not built on the shoulders of immigrants but by the American kids themselves. They were later lent a big helping hand by the immigrants, no doubt about that, but you cant expect the immigrants to sustain an entire industry.

In the comments to that post, Mr Scoble makes a few other ridiculous statements as well. While responding to a user`s comment who chooses to question his assertion by pointing out the case of Indian immigrants who don`t come to the US because India is autocratic, Mr. Scoble scornfully says: when you visit India, do you see a lot of different faces from all over the world moving there?

That is one of the most stupid statements I have ever read. First, India, because of its population can`t have an open immigration policy like much of the western world. Secondly, India is a developing country and US is a developed country. It is common sense that people would choose to move to a more affluent country rather a than a less affluent one. India on the other hand is much better than some of its neighbours like Srilanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Burma and therefore people from those countries do keep streaming across the border to come to India.

Overall a rather simplistic and ignorant post by someone who is so well regarded on the blogosphere. The argument almost seems childish.