It’s terrific to see someone stand up to the demagoguery coming from some on the right on immigration. I realize I’m in a distinct minority of conservatives on this issue, but I’d like to see us stand for things like assimilation and reforming our welfare laws, rather than blaming immigrants for our failures.
I believe it’s possible to reconcile the very real need for border security, assimilation, and further welfare reform WITH THE EQUALLY PRESSING NEEDS for path to citizenship and businesses’ need for migrant labor.
The failed immigration bill did not do all that as well as I would prefer, but the President deserves credit for trying and idiots like Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs deserve to be put in their place. Kudos to Geraldo for taking a stand!
Monday, July 16, 2007
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3 comments:
I think the current hubbub over immigration can become a path to some of the welfare reform we need.
KyProgress:
I hope you're right. I guess the issue is pretty nuclear especially given that large numbers of welfare recipients (and I use welfare in the broadest possible sense to include SSI, medicaid, heat aid, food stamps, etc.) are living in inner cities, on reservations or in rural places like East KY. This makes it almost radioactive to start talking about it b/c you invariably tag a particularly group of people.
We'll see.
We always need to be cognizant of the need to assimilate immigrants. But we also need to better assimilate millions of Americans to the free enterprise system. If we did the latter, we wouldn't need as many migrant workers because legal citizens would have incentive to do those jobs.
Businesses and policy-makers have found a clever way to manipulate the supply-and-demand dynamic of the labor market. The ruling class in both parties has come to increasing consensus over the past fifteen years that the federal government simply will not enforce the most basic of laws, in order to increase the supply of cheap labor. Consumers are subtly bribed to consent to non-enforcement, with cheaper retail and real estate prices.
Meanwhile, we underestimate the hidden costs of a welfare state and a laissez-faire border regime operating in tandem. The transition back to a normative order will have painful economic transition costs in the short term. If we are not willing to pay those costs, we will lose much more in the long run.
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