John, That is what I thought at first too. But then I started talking to tech people and hearing their stories. One person told me that his company (I promised not to name) hired a H-1B hire to replace him. They then laid off his entire team and off shored it to India. So they got both worlds - a cheaper H-1B manger reporting to the US office and the entire tech team off shored. Huge cost savings.

I have no idea how common the above scenario is. Remember there is currently a cap on H-1B hires.