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EMPLOYER'S CROCODILE TEARS. For what it's worth, I'm with Dean Baker on thinking the employer complaints about the immigration bill sound much more like an attempt to influence the legislation than scotch it. As Baker writes, "[t]he article asserts that employers complain that the bill will not 'cure the severe labor shortages they foresee in the coming decade.' Unless the reporter who wrote this story has ESP, he does not know what the employers actually foresee. He knows what they claim to foresee, which unfortunately (sorry kiddies) is not always the same thing." Indeed, the businesses quoted are all saying one of two things: Larger guest-worker program or less regulation. Color me shocked!
--Ezra Klein
COMMENTS (4)
On immigration, the Gordian Knot, is disconnecting citizenship from employment.
However, the dilemma is in the following:
Anglos see their world view through the prism of Individualism and Corporate America.
And,
Hispanics see the world view through the prism of Family and Community.
Thus, to fully understand the dilemma for Hispanics, one should read Juana Bordas book titled, "Salsa, Soul, and Spirit". The book is about Leadership and the emphasis is on the "collective We" that permeates the behavior of the Hispanics, African Americans, and Native Americans.
In any event, it's a good place to start when it comes to crafting "good" public policy on immigration. But it will all be for naught, and immigration will be revisited again and again.
Jaango
Posted by: Jaango | May 21, 2007 7:29 PM
I wonder if Jaango gets that a sizable portion of people here don't want this deal at all. We don't merely look at it as not being good enough, we look at it as being outright bad.
Suggesting that we craft "good" policy without suggesting what that policy is, seems like the kind of vague crap the Democratic party has been shoveling ot us, it's base, for 2 decades now.
Posted by: soullite | May 22, 2007 8:32 AM
Soullite,
Obviously, you haven't read the thread in which Ezra suggested that he was in need of a "sketch". I did fill in the blanks for my "sketch".
As to the "good" public policies versus the "bad" public policies, disconnecting citizenship from employment, simply means that we as a nation are not "shaping" our future, but we are being dragged along as per the Invasion of Iraq. Thus, the "mass delusion" of white America is at odds with those of us who reside in America's "racial and ethnic" communities, and consequently, permits folks to continue espousing the denigration of the Commandante Trancredo clones. And having to defend ourselves against the "potential for a fifth column", distracts from our constructive and engagement of a political activity for "good" public policies relative to immigration, and for all things of importance.
Posted by: Jaango | May 22, 2007 10:07 AM
You know if there are "severe labor shortages" where are all those free market economists telling them that the solution is to raise wages?
Posted by: Fledermaus | May 22, 2007 11:34 AM