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Mr. Aron keeps saying "so get out of IT and do something else".

That's the problem - the H1B visa is constructed to create a class of people who can't get out of IT and do something else. The terms of the visa even make it challenging to stay in IT and merely start working for a different large corporation.

I want to make it very clear that I am 100% behind the notion of silicon valley as a desination for entrepreneurs from all over the world. That said, I'm pretty disgusted with a visa that allows Oracle to control an employee's right to reside in the US, or the employee's application for a green card.

I think the H1B visa is the visa that says "we'll let you into the US to work for Oracle, but we won't let you into the US to compete with Oracle.

Paul G wrote about this in an essay about "how to be silicon valley". If another country created a better worker visa - one that respected the need for personal and economic freedom, it could gain a real competitive advantage over silicon valley. America's idiotic skilled worker program is probably SV's achilles heel.

I read an article about how some H1B holders are getting so frustrated with the green card wait that they have started looking to other countries to start businesses - I think it was in businessweek (sorry I can't give a link). I don't think this is enough to knock SV out of the top spot, but it is a place where a competing city in another country could score some points.

I think the elephant in the living room ignored in this debate is:

Median wages in the U.S. are falling. Full stop.

Mr. Aron keeps saying "so get out of IT and do something else". But except for a small and shrinking number of people, wages have been stagnant for the last 7 years. There are a handful of people soaking up all of the growth in our economy.

So there's a good chance that even if you do pick something besides IT, you don't have a very good future ahead of you in the United States. Unless you are already rich, in which case the future prospects of getting even richer look very bright.

I think startups are a good solution to this problem (not just software, but taking advantage of the ease of incorporating, marketing, communicating, outsourcing etc. enabled by technology). But I am concerned about how well it scales. In startups, the best competitor in a market can take almost all of the growth and profits for itself and leave little for everyone else. Are there enough startup niches out there to provide a living for everyone in a country with 300 million people?

Otherwise, look for more peasants with torches and pitchforks demanding a more socialist/communist economic model.

(ps Yes, this is all my observations from my perspective living in the U.S. but I am curious if people in other developed countries face similar issues and how they are dealing with it.)