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U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled a brand-new Gold Card visa scheme, offering a fast-track to residency for people willing to pay $1 million. But that wasnt the only change to immigration policy that the president announced on Friday: Companies looking to attain H-1B worker visas could soon have to pay a $100,000 annual fee for the privilege. The H-1B visa is used by myriad American companies to hire skilled workers from abroad, but it is particularly beloved by the tech sector. The White House said in a proclamation on its website that businesses have “abused” the system, making it more “difficult to attract and retain the highest skilled subset of temporary workers, with the largest impact seen in critical science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.” The changes are likely to be challenged in court, with some critics arguing the rationale for the H-1B changesto limit the visas usecould face legal scrutiny. If the changes do take effect, however, then they could significantly affect how some of the countries largest companies operate, from hiring to headquarter location. What is the Gold Card and who can apply for it? On a brand-new government website, the Trump Gold Card is described as a means to “unlock life in America.” There are two cards aimed at individuals: One is the Trump Gold Card, which has a $1 million fee and promises applicants can receive U.S. residency in record time. The other is a soon-to-be-released Trump Platinum Card, which carries a $5 million fee and would allow recipients to stay in the country for 270 days without being subject to U.S. taxes on income earned abroad. There is also a business-focused card, called the Trump Corporate Gold Card, which costs $2 million and is aimed at companies that want to sponsor an individuals bid for U.S. citizenship.Trump touted the Gold Card on social media Friday, writing, “We anticipate THE TRUMP GOLD CARD will generate well over $100 Billion Dollars very quickly. This money will be used for reducing Taxes, Pro Growth Projects, and paying down our Debt.”According to the cards website, all applicants must fill out an application and pay the nonrefundable fee to be considered. Individuals who apply will also be vetted by the State Department and Department of Homeland Securitya process that carries another $15,000 feeand once approved, they will be granted lawful permanent resident status, similar to green card holders. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the program is still in the “implementation phase,” but that the administration expects to issue around 80,000 Gold Cards. The program is designed to replace the EB-1 and EB-2 visas, which granted green cards to individuals with exceptional ability in the arts, business, science, or other fields. What about the H-1B visa? Under the new rules, U.S. businesses would need to pay a far greater price to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas. Previously, employers could expect to pay several thousand dollars in visa fees, but if these changes take effect, then that is set to balloon to at least $100,000 per year. The administration said the new fee for worker visas is aimed to crack down on companies that lean too heavily on foreign workers: “The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” the White House wrote in a statement. Commerce Secretary Lutnick on Friday said that the $100,000 fee could be made annually for six years. The H-1B visa system was created during the George H.W. Bush administration in 1990. And according to to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, tech companies have benefitted most meaningfully from the system. The businesses with the most H-1B approvals include tech giants like Amazon (which has more than 10,000 beneficiaries approved), Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple, according to USCIS. Around half a million people live and work in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, according to The Washington Post. While the changes are likely to rattle the companies that rely most on foreign workers, Trump said he believes tech firms will approve of the new program. I think theyre going to be very happy. Everyones going to be happy, Trump said at the White House on Friday.
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E-Commerce
Earth Day is getting a sequeland it comes with an unusually engaging logo. Founded by environmentalist Bill McKibben and Earth Day founder Denis Hayes, Sun Day is a global day of action that will be held this Sunday, September 21. The iconography of the first Earth Day was fascinating, says McKibben. There were a lot of things people were protesting againstyou know, oil spills off Santa Barbara, the Cuyahoga River catching on fire.The most important design element, though, was the picture that had come back from Apollo 8 about a year before, the first vision of the Earth as seen from space, and this fragile, blue-white marble in the black void, arguably the most important photograph ever taken, McKibben tells Fast Company.How do you compete with that? For Sun Day, McKibben wanted to do something perhaps less iconic but equally impactful: Thus, the logo is unfinished and invites us all to fill in the rest.A participatory logo[Art: Courtesy of Sun Day]Before it was called Sun Day, McKibben says he had the idea for Sky Day. After turning to the team at the consultancy Collins, the realization was that there was no good way to draw a picture of the sky, but everybody was drawing the sun.In this case, the design element is the sun, which is, if you think about it, literally the one object on the planet you cant look at, he says.The resulting logo represents only half the sun, with an asterisk-style mark on the left side and a blank space on the right for people to fill in their own drawing. As a symbol, the sun is simple and easily abstracted; as a work of advocacy, it gives people a first thing to do. Its participatory by design.The basic message becomes we have half of what we need, we now have the technology. We live on a planet where the cheapest way to make power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun, McKibben says, noting that whats lacking is the political will to make clean energy work.Collins created the branding for Sun Day with Commercial Type, which designed a custom Sun Day typeface that comes in print, brush, and outline weights. Garden3d built an application that lets users make their own sun drawings directly in the browser with MS Paint-like ease.[Art: Courtesy of Sun Day]The resulting brand is one thats meant to look more DIY than professionally designed. Already about 10,000 people have made their own logos, including Jane Fonda, who drew a heart while in the rainforest of Ecuador doing advocacy work. So many of these protests . . . when really well-meaning designers get involved, they end up looking like national design conferences instead of something where people make shit, designer Brian Collins says. I think part of what people need to see is their own voice in these things, whether its their children . . . their parents, their aunts, their friends. Whats important is giving people a voice to participate collectively.This isnt climate activism as visualized through sad polar bears on ice caps or images of a cause thats lost and a planet thats too far gone. Its optimisticand something everyone can latch on to.As Collins sees it, Hope is a strategy, and hope is our strategy here.
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E-Commerce
Lets be honest: Monetization today is broken. Most platforms are still stuck in a mindset that treats users like ATMs, squeezing every last drop of value through interruptive ads, upsells, and bait-and-switch tactics. Its lazy, short-term thinking, and its killing loyalty, destroying brand equity, and stunting real growth. Rewards platforms have long been dismissed as gimmicks. Get a coffee for clicking here or watch an ad, earn a buck. Thats a fundamental misunderstanding of their potential. Done right, shared-value ecosystems dont just hand out perks. They flip the entire revenue model on its head. Giving more doesnt erode profit. It fuels it. Heres our take: If your business model depends on user extraction rather than user empowerment, you’re on borrowed time. Cynical ploys Weve seen what happens when platforms forget who they serve. Snapchats infamous redesign led to a $1.3 billion drop in market value overnight. Why? Because users smelled what it was: a cynical ploy to cram in more ads, regardless of the experience. The backlash wasnt subtle. Over one million users signed a petition demanding a rollback. That wasnt just a bad PR day. It was a warning shot. Too many companies are chasing revenue at the cost of trust. They prioritize short-term results over long-term loyalty. In doing so, they erode the very foundation their business rests on. You dont optimize your way out of that. You rethink the entire equation. The Value Triangle Enter the Value Triangle: a simple but radical framework that says platform monetization only works long-term when it delivers for everyone: the user, the advertiser, and the platform. Platform value means delivering experiences, not just exposure. Spotify nailed this with Discover Weekly. No one asked for algorithmically generated playlists. But when they delivered billions of personalized streams without a single annoying ad, they proved that relevance beats interruption every time. Advertiser value isnt about reach. Its about resonance. Duolingo integrates ads into study breaks so seamlessly they actually feel helpful. Users are primed, context is appropriate, and ROI improves. Thats what ads should feel like: additive, not disruptive. User value is the ultimate unlock. Personalization, agency, and real benefits. Amazon Prime is the obvious example. People want to pay for something that gives them speed, convenience, and exclusive access. Its not just a subscription. Its a loyalty engine. Put all three together and something incredible happens. Users want to stick around. Advertisers want to spend. Platforms dont have to choose between growth and goodwill. User declines dont happen by accident. They are the natural outcome of data overreach, ad fatigue, and treating engagement as an end rather than a means. The lesson is clear: when you reduce people to targets instead of partners, they walk awayand they take their loyalty and their wallets with them. Building for the future The old playbook of extract first, apologize later is dead. Todays users are smarter, savvier, and less tolerant of being exploited. Growth doesnt come from outsmarting them. It comes from respecting them. Empowering them. Building with them, not on top of them. The future is now. The choice is whether to build for it or cling to an outdated, crumbling model.
Category:
E-Commerce
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