Posted on 04/10/2006 11:07:26 PM PDT by goldstategop
The latest jobless rate -- 4.7 percent -- is at a five-year low.
Yet, despite this and other good economic news, the Left is frantic to repeal the Bush administration's tax cuts. In fact, even if every single economic indicator were better than at any time in American history, the Left would still want to repeal the tax cuts.
The reason is that the essence of the Left is ever bigger government for the purpose of controlling ever more of the economic and social life of society. That America is so much more economically efficient than the major socialist countries of Europe, such as France and Germany, is of no concern to Democrats and others on the Left.
Even a child would readily understand that the more of their money citizens are allowed to keep, the more money they will spend and the more workers they will hire. But liberals want high taxes not in order to improve the economy, but in order to expand government and reduce economic inequality. Therefore, the obvious economic benefits of lower taxes do not much interest liberals.
The socialist economies of the major European countries are failing -- the French and German economies are stalled, and the entire socialist system is unsustainable -- but this, too, has no impact on the Left in America. The future they want for America has actually been tried in fellow Western democracies and is failing. To invert the famous statement of Westerners who praised communism, "We have seen the future and it doesn't work." One wonders if ever before in history such a large number of people had such a clear view of the consequences of their policies, and despite the failure of those policies, continued to devote their lives to enacting them.
And the Left thinks religious Americans are irrational.
That is why the language of liberal condemnation of tax cuts is that they are "tax cuts for the rich" rather than that they are "bad for the economy." It is resentment of the wealthier -- and most productive -- sector of America that animates liberal opposition to tax cuts, not concern about unemployment.
But the unemployment data not only challenge the Left. The record low jobless rate also challenges a widely held belief of many on the right -- that illegal immigrants have been taking jobs away from Americans.
There are excellent reasons to be concerned about the vast number of illegal immigrants in our society. But their taking jobs from Americans is not one of them. If we have historically low unemployment rates while at least 11 million illegal immigrants are here, how many jobs have these people really taken away from Americans? What would our unemployment rate be if we had no illegal workers here? One percent? And wouldn't our inflation rate be higher without millions of people working at such low wages helping to keep consumer prices low?
It must be emphasized that while just about everyone on the left is opposed to what they describe as "tax cuts for the rich," many on the right do not argue that illegal immigrants have taken jobs away from Americans. But an energetic segment of the Right does.
And they do so despite what the conservative Washington Times reports: "The economy appears to have achieved what analysts call 'full employment' -- a state where nearly every worker who wants a job can get one fairly easily."
How, then, does the whole Left and a significant part of the Right argue things that just aren't so -- that tax cuts are bad for the nation and that illegal immigrants have taken millions of jobs from Americans?
The answer is that passion often trumps reason. The Left is passionate about inequality and ever larger government. And the Right is passionate about America remaining American.
I share the Right's passion and agree with the conservative voices that argue for (1) building a fence to prevent millions more from illegally entering America, (2) creating a national ID card, (3) making English the official language of the United States (thereby ending, for example, ballots being printed in myriad languages), and (4) ensuring that American schools Americanize foreigners rather than celebrate multiculturalism (if all cultures were equally wonderful, millions of Mexicans wouldn't be leaving theirs to live in ours).
But those of us who are very worried about the demise of American national unity, identity and security need to argue about those things, not about illegal immigrants taking millions of jobs from Americans.
And those on the left need to cheer the unemployment data. But they can't do that until they love the low unemployment figures even more than they hate George Bush and his tax cuts.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Is it the tax cuts or the reckless spending that is propping this economy up?
Please replace 'immigrant' with 'illegal immigrant' in the above paragraph.
And the essence of the GOP is to give us ever bigger government throught borrowing.
This is why I LAUGH at folks who tell me that young folks "can't find work" due to the immigrants.
The main problem with the undocumented is that they are here IN VIOLATION OF THE LAW, to say nothing of how they overcrowd the schools, strain social services, etc.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
If we were to assume 100% of them were employed? That would be 11 million Jobs that they are taking away from Americans. That means that our unemployment rate would be around .7 % instead of 4.7%. Billions and billions of dollars needlesly spent on welfare and other social services.
Probably. And who would benefit from that inflation? The poorest working citizens.
As a matter of fact, we could further reduce inflation if we brought back slavery.
I doubt the BLS inquires about immigration status when they are conducting the Current Population Survey which determines the unemployment rate.
However illegals would probably be less likely to participate.
Participation is one problem. The main one is no one really knows how many there are. Believe me, what you saw on the streets today, is a very small percentage.
That wasn't really the point I was trying to make.
The BLS calculates the unemployment rate through a scientific survey of 60,000 households each month.
I'm not sure of the statistical significance of the illegal population when the labor force and unemployment rate is extrapolated from that survey.
Households
We don't even know where the illegals are living. Many with no phones. No country ID. Quite a few live inside someone else's house. The head of that household does not want you to know there are illegals living in his rooms. I know cause I have seen it in person. So the survey cannot by definition get an accurate sampling. Probably a good thing since most of these illegals are part time and/or self employed.
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