There are a number of employers in the U.S. that have adopted a business model that includes the hiring of large numbers of imported guestworkers. The cumulative number imported since 1976 via just one of these programs is over three million. This employer avidity acts to discourage American citizens from making the large investments in time and money to earn a STEM degree. So this business practice is causing the very problem that is discussed above. Free-market advocate and Nobel economics prize winner Milton Friedman called this program a "government subsidy" program in 2002. This assessment is still accurate today.