Why Ruin the World's Best Anti-Poverty Program?

Tech Central Station ^ | 05/25/2006 | Alexander Tabarrok

[Plutarch]

This nonsensical OBL drivel was already posted.

[upchuck]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1639942/posts

[kinoxi]

looks like crap to me, i'm no economist though...

[andyk]

A helpful hint: if you chastise someone for a "duplicate" post, emulate upchuck. If it's too much work, don't do anything.

[kinoxi]

looks like duplicate crap to me...

[andyk]

Much like your enlightened post.

[kinoxi]

it's about 23 hours old (the duplicate link) read it.

[Intolerant in NJ]

..."too many immigrants"...amazing how the word "illegal" keeps being forgotten by those who keep pushing for little or no reform of the present conditions. No one is against legal, orderly, planned immigration, which usually brings skilled workers of some means into the country, but "illegals" are almost always low skilled workers who overtax local schools and medical facilities - part of the current reform movement should be to place a surtax of, say, one thousand dollars per worker on every employer who hires immigrants at substandard wages to help reimburse local schools and hospitals for the increased services they must provide.....

[possible]

Some people would sell their country for thirty pieces of silver.

[andyk]

23 hours old?! Holy crap! That's certainly plenty of reason to chastise someone for posting a duplicate without providing a helpful link to said duplicate. After all, that might actually involve learning some basic HTML, and spending more than 25 seconds on a hit-and-run. But, we're not really friends here, eh? It's easier to chastise and run, without contributing to the FR.

[The Red Zone]

Immigration makes immigrants much better off. In the normal debate this fact is not considered to be of great importance -- who cares about them? But economists tend not to count some people as worth more than others, especially not if the difference is something so random as where a person was born.

"National sovereignty? Bad idea. The whole earth should be one single economic zone."

This is just another example of the adage "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

[kinoxi]

looks to me like 5 referred to 3. i found the article a bit offensive, you?

[OneWingedShark]

Some people would sell their country savior for thirty pieces of silver.

[billybudd]

Economists are probably also more open to immigration than the typical member of the public because of their ethics

I'm basically a free trader (anti-illegal-immigration), but arguments like this one are just bad - and won't endear economists to anyone.

[andyk]

looks to me like 5 referred to 3. i found the article a bit offensive, you?

Negative. 5 referred to 2. Yes, the gist of the article is offensive. We need to be exposed to the thought processes of the enemy. The "to" field in my post 5 holds the key...Well, that and the fact that I referred to post 3 as the post to emulate (by referring to upchuck).

FReegards.

[kinoxi]

ok

[Plutarch]

A helpful hint: if you chastise someone for a "duplicate" post...

I wasn't chastising for the duplicate post, I was merely pointing it out. The chastising related to it being drivel.

[jocon307]

It certainly is nonsensical. Comparing the next generation of children to adult immigrants is just stupid. The implication that we have some obligation, as a nation, to fund an "anti-poverty" initiative for Mexico is ridiculous. And besides, it seems not to be working.

[ModelBreaker]

Economists are probably also more open to immigration than the typical member of the public because of their ethics -- while economists may be known for assuming self-interested behavior wherever they look, economists in their work tend not to distinguish between us and them. We look instead for policies that at least in principle make everyone better off. Policies that make us better off at the price of making them even worse off are for politicians, not economists.

The author must surely be a wonderful person--clearly a better man than I.