Immigration: The Economics View
Paul A. Samuelson, US economist and author who was awarded the Nobel prize for economics in 1970, makes a couple of points for the wall-builders of America.
People migrate across traditional political boundaries, mostly to gain economic well-being:
the fungus that destroyed Irish potato harvests sent migrants by the millions to the streets of Boston, New York and Chicago. Their descendants are part of our current mainstream
Noting that there is now a critical mass of permanent Spanish speakers, by legal or illegal entry, Samuelson reminds us that 50 years ago he:
predicted that freer trade could be an alternative to migration of people as a generator of higher European and Asian real wages. The economic effects of trade in goods are similar to migration of peoples, but the sociological tensions can be less from trade
That alternative of paying people properly for their work in their own country so they might not feel the need to leave it, or even because it might be the right thing, is still available.
Samuelson finishes by observing that the US is not an island nation with the insularity that affords, so immigration debates will continue for decades. Perhaps the wall could be a tourist attraction, like Hadrian’s Wall, or the Maginot Line
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Irish Flags in US Political Demonstrations
Irish Place Names & Illegals
Nobody Gets Upset with the Irish on St Patrick’s
Timmy McVeigh and the Mexican Wall Climbers
Kansas Irish To Go Home?
The Irish American Dream
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
It’s a lot easier to blames Hispanics for all your troubles than to sit down and understand economics from that Samuelson man. Besides, he’s got that European pat-on-the-back from Nobel so what would you expect? He’s not going to agree with deporting people from another country after he got an international award.
You cannot trust economists because they can make statistics say what they want. On the other hand, I know people who have lost jobs to lower-paid workers and one way to prevent that from happening again is to build a big wall down south, keep all foreigners inside American airports where they can shop in big malls there, and block television and radio coming in from Canada.
If we don’t start now, our children will be living in poverty!
Our children? Given your obvious Native American name, Bernie, I was surprised that you posted your comment from Ireland.