[mlc9852]

Get a better education - get a better job. Start your own business. Stop whining.

[Willie Green]

William Hawkins ping!!!

[Lizavetta]

Poverty isn't defined in this article, and "poverty" wages in one part of the country wouldn't be in another.

[Rodney King]

This was particularly true in the blue collar category where immigrants accounted for nearly 700% of the new jobs

I assume he means 70%. Anyway, for those of you watching "Rome" on HBO, the last episode had an interesting line by the bad-ass legionnaire when he said that he would march with Caesar on Rome because the Roman's were all unemployed as the slaves are doing all of the labor.

[austinite]

Article makes total sense however, I predict the Free traders/open border crowd will have a field day trying to rebutt.

There is no illegal immigration problem, nothing to see here. Move on.

[1rudeboy]

At the beginning:
Indeed, the Census Bureau also reported that "2004 marked the second consecutive year in which real median household income showed no change."

At the end:
But to keep on that path, the flood of unskilled and impoverished aliens needs to be halted before they further drag down American living standards.

If median income shows no change, then that means that for every "poor" alien, another "rich" one (alien or otherwise) was added to the calculation.

[Shermy]

But there are those in the business community who seem to think the American achievement has been overdone. In their view, we need more poverty, not less. Open borders and a new "guest workers" program to legalize millions of illegal aliens is what groups like the Chamber of Commerce desire, in effect creating a proletariat.

In effect that's what they are doing, but most aren't thinking why, and the effects on America. They want to increase profits. One cost to be reduced is labor. What labor that can't be practically outsourced overseas, illegals will be insourced.

It's a short term profit strategy, not looking to long term macro economic issues, which, btw, they don'tcare about. Bush is all for this, still there are some who express shock when they wonder why Bush doesn't see this. He does see this, and he's for it.

[elbucko]

There is a real gem in the article:

"The United States needs to choose which path it wants to follow. America has historically been an economy short on labor. Though a "nation of immigrants," there was an entire continent to fill up."

We are at a fork in the road that the "absolutist" free border and free traders fail to notice. A labor surplus in a capitalistic economy is the formula for civil and political unrest. The middle managers who are waving the absolute free trade flags are doing so only to get attention of higher ups. When push comes to shove, as it did with computer programers, the wealthy won't hire them to muck the stables of their thoroughbreds. They'll hire Mexicans. AAMF, they already have.

Good to hear from you, Willie, I hope you had a pleasant Labor Day.

Regards, Buck.

[mad puppy]

"The unregulated availability of cheap labor leads away from innovation."


Please read the article first.

[KC_Conspirator]

I live in the DC area and we are importing crime and a draining welfare class. Its ridiculous.

[GOPJ]

Cheap labor in the pre-Civil War South kept the South from industrializing. What was good for individule plantation owners in the short run, hurt the region in the long run.

Another unintended consequence of a "guest worker" program is that for the first time since the civil war we will have official second class citizens. And that's too high a price to pay for cheap labor. Having two classes of citizens will diminish the dignity of all.

[Sam the Sham]

Leaving aside the usual open borders imbeciles, a society awash in cheap labor will find not only its standard of living corroding but its morals.

Cheap labor means cheap flesh. It isn't just because of the proximity of film industry professionals that Chatsworth is Porn City USA. It is the proximity of all those young girls who will do anything for a couple of thousand. And more and more every day.

[fallujah-nuker]

"The one exception was the pre-Civil War South, which used slave labor. The slave-owners prospered on their plantations, but the South as a whole stagnated. To defend their reactionary system, their political leaders even tried to undermine the policies that promoted the much more productive development of Northern industry and Midwest agriculture. The Civil War was as much a contest of economic systems as soldiers, and the Confederacy lost that audit in decisive fashion."

The "The Great Conspiracy, Its Origin and History" written by John Logan in 1886 has very good background on this:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7140/7140-h/p1.htm

[A. Pole]

The great success story of the United States is that it raised the working class into the middle class, the real path to higher standards of living for the population as a whole. But there are those in the business community who seem to think the American achievement has been overdone. In their view, we need more poverty, not less. Open borders and a new "guest workers" program to legalize millions of illegal aliens is what groups like the Chamber of Commerce desire, in effect creating a proletariat.

Bump!

[Alouette]

Outsource the lawyers.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[MarkL]

Something that this article doesn't seem to mention is just how many people escaped poverty. The article seems to assert that once you've sunk into poverty, that's it, there's nothing more that you can do, and you'll be destitute for the rest of your life, as will your children.

It seems that people in the US (and most capitalistic societies) are moving into and out of "poverty" all the time.

Mark

[reelfoot]

"'as immigrants entered these occupations, native workers exited.' This was particularly true in the blue collar category where immigrants accounted for nearly 700% of the new jobs! That means they pushed tens of thousands of Americans out of those jobs, by underbidding their wages."

It seems that those jobs not being exported are being filled by bottom-rung illegal immigrants. I know the left-wing, open-borders, we-are-the-world crowd could care less. Also, Pres. Jorge Bush and his big business buddies also like the arrangement. But the long-term trend for America is very disturbing.

Halt ALL immigration now. Revise the immigration laws to only allow limited numbers of highly trained, highly educated immigrants. Close the borders. Enforce the laws, El Presidente.