2004: What does Buffett think about US immigration law for highly skilled workers?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good afternoon, Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger. My name is Van Argyrakis. I’m from Omaha.

Many U.S. multi-national corporations depend on the importation of foreign workers.

What is your opinion on the current state of U.S. immigration law as it applies to the employment of highly-skilled permanent workers?

WARREN BUFFETT: Charlie, you want to comment on that?

CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, of course, that’s a subject on which reasonable minds disagree.

My personal view is that I’m almost always glad to have very talented people come into the United States, and I’m almost never pleased when the very bottom of the mental barrel comes in. (Laughter)

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah. We may differ just a bit on that one. (Laughter)

The — this country has certainly benefited enormously over the decades, you know, by immigration.

We started out with 4 million people in 1790. China had 290 million at that time, just about what we have now. Europe had well over 75 million.

So you had 70 times as many people in China. You had, probably, 20 times as many people in Europe. We had the same degree of intelligence in China, or in Europe, as we had here. We had similar natural resources. And now this country has well over 30 percent of the GDP of the world.

So it’s a pretty remarkable story. And how to attribute — or how to quantify the various components that entered into that is very difficult, but we’ve certainly been a country characterized by lots of immigration.

And whether that is responsible in any way for the incredible record of this country, I don’t know. But I suspect that it was. And I think what Charlie would like to do is perhaps be the admitting officer. And — (laughs) — it would work —

CHARLIE MUNGER: You’re right.

WARREN BUFFETT: It would work pretty well if Charlie was, but in the absence of that I think — I don’t think, net, this country has been hurt by immigration over time.