SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Adam Davidson at The New York Times has a story debunking the myth of the job-stealing immigrant:
When I was growing up in the 1980s, I watched my grandfather — my dad’s stepdad — struggle with his own prejudice. He was a blue-collar World War II veteran who loved his family above all things and was constantly afraid for them. He carried a gun and, like many men of his generation, saw threats in people he didn’t understand: African-Americans, independent women, gays. By the time he died, 10 years ago, he had softened. He stopped using racist and homophobic slurs; he even hugged my gay cousin. But there was one view he wasn’t going to change. He had no time for Hispanics, he told us, and he wasn’t backing down. After all, this wasn’t a matter of bigotry. It was plain economics. These immigrants were stealing jobs from “Americans.”
I’ve been thinking about my grandfather lately, because there are signs that 2015 could bring about the beginning of a truce — or at least a reconfiguration — in the politics of immigration. Several of the potential Republican presidential candidates, most notably Jeb Bush, have expressed pro-immigration views. Even self-identified Tea Party Republicans respond three to two in favor of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Every other group — Republicans in general, independents and especially Democrats — is largely pro-immigrant. According to Pew, roughly as many people (18 percent of Americans) believed in 2010 that President Obama was a Muslim as believe today that undocumented immigrants should be expelled from the United States. Of course, that 18 percent can make a lot of noise. But for everyone else, immigration seems to be going the way of same-sex marriage, marijuana and the mohawk — it’s something that a handful of people freak out about but that the rest of us have long since come to accept.
(Score: 5, Informative) by khchung on Saturday March 28 2015, @04:23AM
The summary quoted two full paragraphs from the article, but didn't include this?! (emphasis mine)
And yet the economic benefits of immigration may be the most settled fact in economics. A recent University of Chicago poll of leading economists could not find a single one who rejected the proposition. [...] Rationally speaking, we should take in far more immigrants than we currently do.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @06:29AM
That is a poll of economists, a group of people that also believe both markets and people are rational. If they were right about half of their opinions within their own field, not a one wouldn't be a billionaire. Think about that.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 28 2015, @02:01PM
That is a poll of economists, a group of people that also believe both markets and people are rational. If they were right about half of their opinions within their own field, not a one wouldn't be a billionaire. Think about that.
Economists don't believe that. Second, why in the world would their field have billions of dollars of personal gain in it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @05:48PM
Um, forewarned=forearmed much? Kind of like ivory tower insider trading, only on a macro scale.
Really, the only people worth listening to in finance are the ones with bank accounts to show for their expertise. The rest are dilettantes.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 28 2015, @10:14PM
Um, forewarned=forearmed much? Kind of like ivory tower insider trading, only on a macro scale.
So what? Where's the billions of dollars that an economist can allegedly get?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @02:03PM
That is a poll of economists, a group of people that also believe both markets and people are rational. If they were right about half of their opinions within their own field, not a one wouldn't be a billionaire. Think about that.
That's the same sort of fallacious logic that conflates weather with climate.
Also you've over-simplified the "rational" thing to a ridiculous level. No one, other than retards on internet forums, believes that people are perfectly rational, if for no other reason than the fact that no one has perfect knowledge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @03:39PM
And your comments are what I'd expect to hear from someone who hasn't worked in HFT their entire careers. I have, and let me assure you, economists DO believe that human beings are rational actors in the economy. So many forms of economic theory are based upon that fact. Every economist and quant I work with believes the same thing.
But a guy on an internet forum claims it's not true. Who am I to believe?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @03:57PM
And your comments are what I'd expect to hear from someone who hasn't worked in HFT their entire careers. I have
So in order to post a comment to a story about the effects of immigration on the economy, one has to have worked in the field of HFT.
Think before you post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2015, @05:13PM
One thing is for certain: Economics is not a science, and isn't even close to being one. "Social science" is almost a synonym for "pseudoscience."