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Monday, February 10, 2014

The Immigrant Song

        George Will has always been a favorite of mine.  Unlike many commentators, he has a Burkean style to his commentary.  When Estase gets a little more caught up on his reading list (2042, maybe?) he intends to read Statecraft as Soulcraft.  However, I think in his recent remarks about immigration he is showing signs of having lived in D.C. too long.
       Immigration is of benefit to big business.  Why?  Because corporate America loves having low skilled workers that will come in and do degrading, unglamorous jobs for $8.25/hr.  This is why every employer who pays minimum wage longs for amnesty.  It isn't born out of some kind of altruism.  It is borne out of a desire to have cheap labor.
      The idea that cheap labor equals economic growth is nonsense.  Skilled labor and entrepreneurship cause economic growth.  This is why India has a growing economy.  If just the presence of hordes of cheap labor caused economic growth, Bangladesh and China would be much more wealthy than they are. 
        Add to this the costs of cheap labor.  People who work for minimum wage, and especially people who work part-time at minimum wage (as many are forced to do in this economy) will require food stamps, Medicaid, and other costly social welfare benefits.  So explain how increasing the number of unskilled workers will grow the economy, when you are talking about also increasing the number of people recieving social welfare benefits? 
         On a purely partisan note, anyone who thinks amnesty will not kill the prospects of conservatives is a fool.  George W. Bush thought Hispanics were potential Republican voters.  He also thought John Roberts was a good pick for Chief Justice.  He also did some very un-conservative things to education.  Without No Child Left Behind, would we be staring down the barrel of Common Core?  Clearly, the former governor of Texas was a mixed bag, and no one's idea of a prophet.  If Hispanic voters favored Republicans, the entire southern border of the U.S. would have been fortified with a thirty foot electrified fence during the Clinton presidency.  Laura Ingraham is right.

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