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Mickey is back and he speaks truth Rand Simberg pointed out this link over on Transterrestial Musings. Mickey Kaus has gone back to his old Kausfiles blog and is trashing Fox News on a topic on which they very richly deserve it. They have joined the Democratic controlled media in burying the story of the congressional immigration fight.
My suspicion is the Golf Club Republicans do not want a fight on immigration because that will play more to the strengths of the populist side of their party. The Golfers want to keep their toys and really do not want to share them with the unwashed masses.
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If only all the government benefits – such as “Food Stamps” and “Emergency Healthcare” and “free” education, were done away with. Then we would be able to see who wanted to come to America because they really want to be Americans – and who wants to come to loot the taxpayers.
The United States has had a border with Mexico for the best part of two centuries.
Yet only since the late 1960s has there been mass immigration from Mexico (and the rest of the Latin America) to the United States.
The modern Welfare State also started to get really out of control in the United States in the mid 1960s.
This may be as least as important as the 1965 Kennedy Immigration Act.
There is also the obvious political loyalty point.
If people really do regard the American flag (and so on) as “offensive” and prefer the Mexican flag (and Mexican Independence Day and so on), I have a suggestion for them….
Stay in Mexico.
Only if people really want to adopt a new loyalty (and let go the “old country”) should they move nation.
That’s it really. Immigration is about incentives.
Singapore has an immigration policy tied to a job offer, an income threshold and very few welfare incentives. They get immigrants who contribute more economically than residents.
Canada – while it purports to have a points system – sees immigrants becoming among the poorest members of society among single mothers and aboriginals and yet accessing free health and other services. The net annual cost is over $22 billion a year.
Open the borders one day after the incentives have been fixed.
“Celebrate Diversity” my ass. Diversity is divisive; it is the polar opposite of unity. Diversity is the face of Divide and Conquer. This is part of the whole milieu of multiculturalism, which is proving to be just as disastrous for the US as it has been for the UK. It is Babel.
As for Fox, screw them. I’ve been accused many times of being a Fox News viewer; sorry, not so. I do have their early morning show on when I get up, at 4am in the morning (at that time of day, CNN and MSNBC are about the only alternatives), but I’m no fan. They were doing an over the top diversity fest a month or so ago, they sounded just like every other member of the lamestream media. I changed the channel.
Watch “Network”, and note Dianna’s description of the news, then see what she turns it into when she gets control.
Appallingly prescient.
As Milton Friedman said: “Open borders. A welfare state. Pick one.”
First, make English the single official language of the United States….
SD – correct.
But I am going to stick up for Fox News (and Fox Business).
To say that not everyone in FNC is wonderful is missing the point.
Fox News is the only network (in the English speaking world) where dissent to the left line is allowed.
Specifically on immigration, Neil Cavuto has been explaining the problems for many years.
Yes I am a Fox News watcher.
And, much though I do not rate some people at FNC (“Shep” Smith the only good thing about you is your accent), I am proud to be so.
Even without a welfare state, the First World would attract enormous numbers of Third World immigrants, and with open borders would quickly cease to be the First World.
As it is, even with the partial restrictions that the bien-pensants allow, both Europe and America are in danger of being submerged.
In America, the Left is all-out for immigration, though not explicitly.
The Right is compromised.
First, a large chunk of business makes money off illegal immigrant labor.
Second, many libertarians are “useful idiots” on this issue. Ilya Somin, for instance, who argues that the U.S. Constitution provides no power to control immigration. (I.e., in adopting the Constitution the American people bound themselves to open borders.)
And “establishment” Republicans are all terrified of being labeled of racist meanies by the Left-controlled press.
Even in Sg, we see a massive backlash against legal immigration.
Does it really benefit the citizens in the long run if say… two million workers come in to work for extremely competitive wages (ie cheap), driving out already existing native professionals, imposing social costs such as overcrowding, ethnic tensions, and pollution?
There are other costs in the long run too. For businesses, why bother automating processes and innovating in technology when you can just hire cheap foreign labour to do the work of a machine? It’s for this reason that I never quite believed the economic argument for slavery – these business owners would eagerly own slaves if they could.
You can see a similar backlash in Hong Kong too, but against mainland chinese.
Simply put, the direction and arguments against unlimited immigration aka open borders are only getting stronger – a global phenomenon against globalisation!
Golf Club Republicans. I don’t know, the first thing that popped up was this.
In case it’s not clear, this is “ha-ha-only serious”.
Rich, you said a mouthful. Unfortunately he’s not the only one, and immigration’s not the only issue. 🙁
Read ‘Camp of Saints’ by Jean Raspail. I read this as science fiction back in the early 1970’s. Can’t believe it is actually happening virtually as he laid it out in his book.
The term is “Country Club Republicans”. And yes, most country clubs had golf courses, but they usually also had tennis and occasionally swimming pools. And a restaurant and bar. Most importantly the bar.
I’ve spent years getting a PhD in the hope of one day being able to move to the US on a H1B work visa. I worked my ass off, at least party because I believed America was worth it. Frankly it kind of pisses me off that Obama has essentially given de facto citizenship away to huge quantities of people with no qualifications and whose very first act in the US was to violate the laws of the land (specfically immigration law). It also annoys me that because I’m the wrong colour (white) I am not eligible for the greencard lottery programme. If you’re from a brown skinned part of the world, you can enter a lottery to just be given citizenship.
The US government clearly doesn’t think permanent resident status in the US is at all valuable, if it is willing to just give it away. It was my dream for a long time, but as I’ve reached the point where I’m finally qualified for a lot of H1B jobs, I’ve found myself wondering if it is even worth it any more…..
On the broader theoretical issue I read an article once, it might of been on LibertarianHome or possibly the Cato institute, which offered a neat solution to the whole problem. If you want people who wish to work and who will treat citizenship as something valuable a) immigrants should not be eligable for the welfare state and b) citizenship in the US should be sold openly. I believe they suggested a figure of $5-10,000. Of course right now some people do indeed buy citizenship through the “Investor Visa” programme, it’s just that it costs $250,000 so it’s only open to millionaires. I thought it was a fairly neat idea. Additonally I would make it a hard and fast rule that you can only apply from your countries of origin. Offerng a path to citizenship for illegals makes a mockery of the law of the land. Of course, such an approach would select for people who were unlikely to vote Democrat, so I doubt Obama would go for it……