Saturday, June 23, 2018

A damn good question

Why does a nation of 320 million people need more immigrants?  What exactly do they bring that we cannot find in our country?

To most ears, the question sounds blasphemous, which illustrates the rottenness of our immigration debate. Actually, "debate" is far too generous. One side has made sure that there is no debate. Good people want more immigration, and bad people object or raise questions. An inherently political issue has been effectively rendered religious, with the righteous on one side, sinners on the other. 
The basic question remains. The pat answer over the past 20 years 0-- "to do the jobs Americans just won’t do" -- may seem to have some salience with a 3.9 percent unemployment rate. But that only further begs the question. After at least two decades of wage stagnation and even decline, now that we've finally reached the nirvana of full employment (and who knows how long it will last), why not take advantage of this tight labor market to raise wages across the board? Especially for the working and middle classes that got nowhere or even lost ground during the housing, finance and tech booms of recent years?

3.9% unemployment ain't gonna last forever.  We'll get Democrats in power again at some point, which will further accelerate the destruction of this country and slow the economy up once again.  How exactly does flooding the market with low-skill, low-wage workers help Americans?  Especially those Americans who need those jobs?

And along with taking those jobs, they bring crime, drugs, and various other cultural habits (such as Female Genital Mutilation or kiddy-rape with muslims).

Why do we need that here?

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