WHAT TARIFFS AND H-1B VISA FEE HIKE CAN TEACH INVESTORS

Ronald Reagan had a joke about life in the Soviet Union, where chronic shortages meant citizens faced absurdly long waits for basic goods.

- DHIRENDRA KUMAR

In this story, a man finally saves enough money to buy a car. He navigates the country’s bureaucracy, pays the money upfront, and is told by the clerk to return in exactly 10 years to collect his vehicle.

“Should I come in the morning or afternoon?” the man asks.

The clerk looks puzzled. “Ten years from now—what possible difference could it make?”

“Well,” the man replies, “the plumber is scheduled to come that morning.”

The joke captures something essential about life under unpredictable systems. Even when delays stretch across decades, people still need to plan around them. They still need to coordinate their lives, make arrangements, and think ahead. The 10-year wait isn't the real problem—it's the inability to plan rationally around it that corrodes everything else.

This Soviet-era joke feels remarkably relevant today as we watch American policy create similar planning paralysis across the globe. The recent announcement that H-1B visa applications will now cost employers $100,000 —a roughly 2,000% increase from the previous fee—is just the latest example of how sudden policy shifts are forcing businesses and individuals into situations that make planning impossible.

Uncertainty is poison