President Obama's Ninety Minutes with the GOP House. 
My best House source tells me that the president spoke for thirty minutes to the House Republican conference and then took questions for as much as an hour, though short and
predictable questions. It was not a complicated exchange. The president wants the GOP House to support a stimulus bill that is one large earmark -- a hog farm for the ages. The GOP, having wrecked itself over fourteen years of spending like Democrats, having tolerated ruffians like Duke Cunningham and rascals like Tom Delay, even having recently gone along in a fractured way with the TARP folly last fall, now discovers principle and rises to protest: Mr. President, how can spending $1 trillion on the federal government's fantasies of pork mean anything substantial to the trouble in the banks, the markets and private enterprise? What does $200 million for the lawn in the Washington Mall, or $150 million for face-lifting the Smithsonian, provide for the auto industry, or the pharmaceutical industry, or the newspaper business, or the tens of thousand of jobs under pressure in Silicon Valley? The answer is, Nothing. The president had no answers for the GOP House. The president either realizes that Mrs. Pelosi and Senator Reid have handed him an old trout to sell to the American people as a flying horse, or the president does not realize it is a old trout and is a victim of a gargantuan (and not unwitty) prank by his Democratic majority in Congress.
What Happens Now?
Mrs. Pelosi means to force the House vote on the stimulus bill within the next news cycle. My information as of the evening before the vote is that there are not ten votes for the bill in the House GOP. Amendments will be offered, and at least one GOP leader has been told
that his amendment will be ruled out of order. Chair of the House Republican Conference Mike Pence of Indiana (right, with House Minority Leader John Boehner), who is likely running for the Senate seat from Indian in 2010, spoke bluntly late in the day that the bill "won't stimulate anything but more government and more debt." No one in the House GOP disagrees. The scale of the pork is staggering. Mrs. Pelosi can pass the bill with her clear majority, but she will not get all of her caucus, and she will be lucky to get as many GOP votes as she loses Democratic votes. This is a partisan dog fight, and Mrs. Pelosi aims to win ugly. The Senate takes up the bill for markup next week, however early indications are that there is no solid support for the bill with the GOP. Senator John McCain says he will not vote for the bill as is. Senator Chuck Grassley issued a statement today that he disregards the Democratic tactics of elbowing out GOP comments and contributions -- and that there is a rumor that no GOP amendment will be accepted, that Democratic members are told now to vote against them.
Rahm Emanuel Convinces the President?
What may be happening is that the notorious partisan attack terrier Rahm Emanuel, newly aggrandized as chief of staff at the popular White House, has convinced his boss the
president that he, RE, can deliver the House for the stimulus bill. RE may have left out the detail that he can only deliver what Mrs. Pelosi delivers. Mr. Emanuel is vaguely ironic. Perhaps he told the president that he could deliver "the vote." Who knows? The results will not support the fairy tale of post-partisan politics, or bi-partisan politics, or beyond partisan politics. The stimulus bill vote in the House begins the end of the honeymoon. But ever so politely. The GOP will be excessively cheerful and generous and companionable, overflowing with praise for the president, as they file forward to register their "no" vote. The guess at this time is that Mrs. Pelosi or Jack Murtha or one of the exuberant whips on the winning side will comment to the media something rudely colorful about the GOP vote, such as "GOP, drop dead."
Tax cuts are the best economic stimulus invented by man, alas tax cuts are heresy at the DNC.
Madame Pelosi must be in a terribly vindictive mood to get no GOP support for the stimulus package. Money thrown towards GOP districts can easily change votes.
POTUS BHO is looking for bi-partisan support/shelter when the stimulus package shows negligible impact on the economy.
It seems to me that the Democrats can pass anything they want without Republican votes. The fact that Dems feel they need Republican support means that they are not confident that their approach to 'stimulus' will work. Then, when it all hits the fan and unemployment goes to double digits, they can spread the blame around and show the American people that there's really not a dime's worth of difference between the parties. All things being even, they might as well stick with the Dems (who have the added advantage of having an international rock star to lead them).
Republicans should seize this opportunity to stake out their positions with an eye towards the next election cycle. They will be branded 'obstructionist' in the short run (along with the bad press this would entail), but in the long run, Republicans would be seen as a viable alternative to failed policies.
Unfortunately, Republicans currently have no leadership. Individual members of the party are weak and easily seduced by the promise of favorable treatment by the press. They also enjoy being invited to Washington dinner parties. They would much rather "just get along" with their political adversaries and save themselves the stain of stigma that comes from being labeled 'outsiders'. Look how much mileage McCain got from being a constant thorn in the buttocks of his own party! I hear some Republicans are now even toying with the idea of "fairness doctrine". This is not revolutionary; it is simply going with the flow, never mind the roar of the rapids just up ahead.
Bipartisan endorsement of current policies is the worst of all possible ideas for Republicans at present. It would absolutely doom the party forever. It will give rise to a new party with real alternatives. This new party may not win the next time around but two cycles hence cannot fail to cement it as a force to be reckoned with.
I think the republicans are responding to public sentiment. I think politicians have a genius for sensing public mood and know that there are alot of people out there desperate to believe in the fairy tale of Obama and his supernatural powers to pull us back from teh abyss. We are collectively in a bipolar manic-depression phase where some of us are in abject fear and others are giddy/euphoric. I don't think that our politicians want to be the ones to stick their necks out to tell everyone the truth which is that Obama ain't gonna save us - noone likes to be the bearer of bad news. I think that they are happy to let Rush and others do that.
The funny thing is, that this crap-sandwich stimulus bill (a favorite term over at hotair.com and Michelle Malkin's site) was written by Pelosi almost single-handedly to be sold by Barack with his rock star status - boy - is Barack ever being played - to get Republic acquisence. A crap sandwich made by Pelosi, with Obamas name on it with Republican support giving it the bipartisan stamp of approval so that we the taxpayers get to eat it - Lovely!
Just heard that the "crap sandwich" passed the House. Not a single Republican voted for it; some Democrats voted against it. This makes the vote against it bi-partisan. Good job, Republicans! Now let's see if we can do it again in the Senate.
Re "Tax cuts are the best economic stimulus invented by man..."
The Laffer Curve and all that, sure. But the public, rightly or not, perceives tax cuts as primarily benefiting the super-rich, who aren't all that popular just now thanks to the hajillion-dollar bailout of the big banks. You might as well peddle ham sandwiches in downtown Tehran as try to sell middle America on tax cuts.
So here's another idea that would definitely play better, at least my part of the country: A freeze on legal immigration. Simply to create jobs for the huge numbers of foreigns who settle in America each requires that the economy grow two to three percent per year.
(How much is GDP expanding right now, anyhow? You mean to tell me thatit's actually shrinking?)
Word is, had such a moratorium, which costs absolutely nothing, been in effect during 2008, 300,000 fewer citizens would be looking for jobs at the moment.
Tax cuts are heresy at the DNC, but doing something about immigration--I'm really talking about uneducated Third Worlders, who at best displace blue collar Americans and at worst suck our welfare system dry--is anathema to the Republicans.
The GOP ought to disgust all Americans who still have their sense of smell.
Ken - If we stopped legal immigration, our country would grind to a halt. We do not educate our own to be able to fill the jobs we have available. If you ever visit the corporations that handle our financial infrastructure or those engaged in computer or IT work, you would see mostly Asians there. In many parts of Asia young people are still able to get a good education. Good schools exist here as well, but they are few and far between. Only 47% of the kids graduating from Chicago's public schools, for instance, can read. I mention this only because our new Education czar hails from there. Also consider this; the fastest growing outsourcing assignment currently is tutoring. Tutoring is being outsourced to companies in India. Their biggest client is the Department of Education. This is not because it's cheaper for Indians to correct our test papers and essays. It's because our own (so-called) educators can no longer handle it.
So, who's gonna be the first to say that THIS IS an immigration bill?
Or has Herr Reich already said it, sorta?
exitus acta probat
It may be better described as an "Assimilation Bill"
And if we might protract it out... it will reinvigorate the impetus for more "Third Worlders" to risk the very dangerous journey to the "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave."
I think it's mistaken to speak of "uneducated" as if they are "not smart." Most of these peoples are very good survilalists and they can speak of such things in words only they understand.
Concrete, asphalt, steel, and dirt. These are not blue collar jobs. They are sun up to sundown, enduring the exposure in sweaty brown collars jobs that our over- educated, soft, and entitled young people can't even imagine.
For decades it has been the "reality" that one must obtain a degree from the most prestigious institution possible and enter the work fair feeling deserving of a management position and in debt to "guess who"?
Entitlement is built in the system, though it may be more manifested in the "I have a degree and I am entitled" person, than the "I am just a worker and I deserve more than I am paid" person.
When there are more managers than there are people to accomplish what the manager's dictate, then what happens? We have seen this before.
In retrospect, I have to retract the "over- educated" part about the young people... I mispoke while trying to make a point>>>>
Let's PARRTTEEEEE!!!
“If we stopped legal immigration, our country would grind to a halt.”
Legal immigration continues, yet our country has ground to a halt nonetheless, In fact, to judge from all the minus signs in front of the recent economic numbers America hasn’t so much ground to halt as shifted into reverse and then hit the gas. Therefore, recent events prove that immigration does not guarantee prosperity, do they not?
Indeed, the opposite may well be true. I pointed out in an earlier post that the “sand states” of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida possess half the bad mortgages in this country. Not coincidentally, these “sand states” also contain untold millions of legal and illegal immigrants, mostly Hispanics, who by their very numbers drove up the cost of housing and thereby got the real estate bubble started. Then even more immigrants moved into these areas to build yet more houses as part of that same bubble. Eventually the bubble popped when it became depressingly clear that these same hardworking folks couldn’t actually afford to buy the very houses that they had constructed.
“We do not educate our own to be able to fill the jobs we have available.”
An excellent argument for better vocational training, that. It is no argument at all for maintaining the current unsustainably high levels of immigration, particularly when one considers the massive resources that go into attempting to educate the immigrants’ children, many of whom don’t know word one of English. And since their parents either don’t work or make very little money, they end up consuming more tax money than they pay into the system.
“If you ever visit the corporations that handle our financial infrastructure or those engaged in computer or IT work, you would see mostly Asians there.”
Thank you for so succinctly making my point for me. Bill Gates would rather pay an Indian software engineer $40,000 dollars a year than $80,000 a year to his American counterpart. To this end Gates lies about the need for an expanded H1B visa program. Of course, as wages go down fewer of America’s young people major in these fields, since it has become increasingly difficult for them even to make enough money to pay off their massive student debts.
There is much more I would lke to say about this, but I will limit myself to two points.
Without the last four decades' worth of immigration America's population would be about two hundred million souls, a manageably low number. But if present immigration trends continue some people now reading this blog will, by mid-century, live to see that number balloon to a horrifying 450 billion. Some much for picket fences and cheap land and fishing holes and the other small, human pleasures of America 1.0. America 2.0 will be crowded and dirty and illiterate, just another Third World mega-slum from sea to shining sea.
And finally, Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam has shown quite conclusively that "diversity"--that is, a heavily multicultural society--breaks down the bonds of trust between people, and decreases overall happiness. Too many people of different ethnicity and languages and religions jammed together will turn the United States into a nation of strangers.
Here is more information about Putnam's work: http://tinyurl.com/68wm3b
So, Kenneth, after decades of mismanagement, what do you propose for a remedy?
Re illegal immigration:
Erect a structure between us and Mexico that would make the Berlin Wall look like a speed bump in the parking lot at your local Unitarian Church. Spend some of that stimulus money to hire out-of-work Americans to build it.
Use more of that stimulus money to pay bounty hunters, oh, two thousand dollars for each illegal alien that they turn in to the cops for deportation. When enough illegals have been hustled into the backs of unmarked vans by burly guys with shaved heads and tattoos, the ones that haven't been caught yet will begin to self-deport. (No excessively rough stuff allowed, though, which means that the bounty hunters wouldn't collect money for the ones who are injured--we're not animals, and don't want to behave toward anybody the way that Mexican cops treat Guatemalans desperate enough to sneak north into their country.)
Put a number of businessmen who knowingly hire illegals in jail for a long, long time, pour encourager les autres.
My black heart can easily come up with lots more ideas along those lines.
Re legal immigration:
Admit far fewer immigrants. And we should only take in the ones that have useful skills--I'm pretty sure we already have enough people who can put up drywall and scrub toilets. Give preference to Europeans for the sensible, non-racist reasons that Professor Samuel Huntington outlined in his book "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity."
Since the above would likely be prove to be too controversial, at least call a time-out on immigration for the next twenty-five years, to give us a chance to try to assimilate the many people who have come here over the last four decades.
And yes, I know there's not a chance in hell that any of the above notions will be acted upon any time soon. But who knows what political changes a prolonged depression might bring?
Remember that multicultural societies tend either to be violent or oppressive. America has already had one Civil War, and we don't need another.
Ken - Your argument lacks nuance. You fail to draw the distinction between legal and illegal (immigrants); between educated and unskilled. Gates has nothing to do with it. He will pay whatever it takes to get people who are capable of doing the job. You discount the fact that our monopolistic educational system has dropped the ball. Fact: We are not educating our own to fill the jobs we have available. We'd rather hold our hand out for what we believe to be our fair share of entitlement than better ourselves. We all expect to receive something for nothing. That way, the pittance we may petition from (our perceived) government’s largesse is worth exactly nothing – mere paper promises based on nothing of value we ourselves have contributed. The foreigners who are here have already done far more than we ourselves are willing to do. They have worked hard to educate themselves; they are willing to work; they have crossed oceans in search of opportunity - while we sit at home and play video games and think up clever slogans to denigrate the very things that inspire others to reach our shores.
Yes, we have failed to uphold our own vision of America. But this is not the immigrants’ fault. It’s ours.
Re "Your argument lacks nuance. You fail to draw the distinction between legal and illegal (immigrants); between educated and unskilled."
Not true. I took pains to distinguish between legals and illegals, between the uneducated and the educated, and between those who come from cultures compatible with our own and those who do not; and I specifically noted that controversies regarding immigration should not be conflated with questions of education reform. You also utterly disregarded the question what the living conditions in this country will be like when the population shoots past the 450 million mark half a century hence.
For further enlightenment you need merely reread--or is that read?--the actual post that I actually posted on this actual website, this time with a semblance of care.
Re "[Gates] will pay whatever it takes to get people who are capable of doing the job":
That's right, Mr. Koelliker. And not one rupee more.
Re "...[W]e have failed to uphold our own vision of America":
Does your vision of America include the admission of additional illiterates to swell the ranks of those we already have, as well as the admission of tens of millions more potentially murderous Muslims and polygamists and practitioners of female genital mutilation and chicken blood-spattered believers in Santeria?
That's not a vision of America, that's a bad LSD trip.
Uh ... guys.... psst... the Mexicans are going back home. In droves. Have been for a few months now. If you tighten the border now you'll keep more in than out. The rats are always first to leave a sinking ship.(Lest someone accuse me of racism here, I love and respect both rats and Mexicans - really.)
And, by the way, it won't be long before the walls and fences built around this country will be used to keep us in. They can't pass universal healthcare or raise taxes much at the state level because you can always move to another state. The obvious solution to this is to make everything the Federal government's jurisdiction, and the current pork ERRR stimulus package does that in many ways. Then the only escape valve will be to leave the country entirely, and obviously they'll have to fence us in sooner or later. They have plenty of time because the average American has such hubris that they believe nobody would have to be forced to remain here, but they ain't seen nuthin' yet. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall".... Robert Frost
Your points are very well taken, especially the possibility that the gun turrets on my proposed Darth Vader Wall will point in the wrong direction.
All I can say is that if this country ever becomes Police State USA, the chaos created by tens of millions of Third World immigrants may well be the major contributory factor. Thanks to just nineteen Middle Easterners angry because they couldn't get laid we now have to take off our shoes and refrain from backtalk to Federal airpot goons, and a geeky friend of mine of Indian descent no longer dares to go planespotting for fear of arrest.
Imagine how much power the government would seize if an Islamic nuke went off in Manhattan, or if a Somali immigrant unwittingly carried into this country a new strain of drug-resistant super-TB, or if thousands of unemployed Mexicans began to riot in our in our metropolitan areas. It would be like something out of Mr. Batchelor's "The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica."
Given the vast numbers of illegals in this country, somewhere in the ten to twenty million range, we will still have a big problem on our hands if just half of them stay. How many, I wonder, are actually leaving? (That's not a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely curious.)
And despite Washington's best efforts this depression won't last forever. Then the Mexicans will start trudging north again. We had best use our respite wisely.
Actually, it's spurious to argue about the status (or lack of) of all people found in the land. There are already populations representing all of the diversity that mankind offers. And all populations have their "undesirables" as described so well.
Regardless of the rhetoric, the proposed stimulus plan is meant as a works project. A workers project that only includes high and mid level expertise on the periphery. Engineering firms, for example, have long been reaping the benefit of available Federal grants by representing Cities and Towns to acquire funding for public works and utilities improvements. Naturally, the firm that can present and deliver the best deal for the entity also gets to manage and oversee the project. The contractors take the risks of providing quality, meeting deadlines, and at great expense, guaranteeing the safety and health of workers and the public.
Also, consider the imminent transition of analog to digital transmissions of television broadcasts and government dictating what manner of wave invades the air. But, because government undoubtedly has the citizen's best interest in mind, the consumer can have a coupon for a converter. Just ask for it... you got it. What does it benefit? No special interests here (yeh right). Me myself, I am content with my rabbit ears.
Nothing new in this. This is government doing business as usual and business as usual equates to a competition for funds that are derived from a mandated directive. Pass the law and require the States to meet or beat the Federal mandate for qualifying funds.
States and their Cities, under mandate, have been struggling to justify providing services to the public. Exempting Law Enforcement, what has been thought of as the most efficient manner to fulfill these obligations has been the establishment of State/ City offices with State/ City employees. The citizens would be better served if these tasks were let out to businesses and entrepreneurs staffed with citizens who have reputations and interests to preserve.
That would leave the administrators to just administrate the affairs of government... not to oversee the operations of business models like plumbing, road building, refuse collecting, health service, staffing service, etc etc etc
Ken, Ken - I read your post pretty carefully. You called for a moratorium on immigration for the next 25 years. All I'm saying is that this would put us out of the running, given our educational system. I agree with you that illegals need to be sent back. As for the wall you propose: be careful what you wish for. Walls have a dual purpose: one, to keep people out; two, to keep people in. Nuance.
The threat to "American core culture" (in Huntington's book you cite) does not come from the outside as you (and he) suggest. It comes from inside America's borders. It stems from the unrelenting effort by the left to deconstruct our heritage and culture. They do it through the schools and the media. They also use the immigration issue as a straw dog to incite and distract us. They are totally committed to their Marxist utopian vision. In Alfred North Whitehead’s terms, it is “religion” to them. They are sincere in their belief that only their vision is the one that will save mankind from itself. "Imagine there's no countries... Nothing to kill or die for - And (ironically) no religion too..."
If they should achieve their vision of America, any solution re our immigration problems will be moot. Nobody will want to come here anymore.
Peter, Peter, Punkin eater- (("))
"They" do not envision a Marxist era for America. That would make most all practitioners in government complicit in conspiracy. And when do newly elected legislators receive enlightenment and indoctrination to the conspiracy?
Wait a minute... this explains why Obama was actually sworn in in private. Yeh, Justice Roberts let him in on the real deal (like he didn't already know) the day after the inauguration was supposed to happen, but, there was a glitch so we were without a President for 18 hours while all the conspirators were dancing and having a ball or eleven (officially) of them.
Wow... this is getting scary. I don't know what to read again to get prepared: Mein Kampf or Manifesto? Arrrgghh!!! Maybe, Aztec?
Help!!! John Lennon, where are you??
Again, control over our own borders does not mean that we automatically become the next East Germany. Lack of control over our own borders, however, means that we eventually cease to be a people. That's why we have, you know, armies and stuff.
Ask the few surviving American Indians what happens when your land becomes overrun by swarms of aliens.
Re "[The threat} comes from inside America's borders. It stems from the unrelenting effort by the left to deconstruct our heritage and culture."
One quick and effective way to accomplish that is, in Brecht's phrase, to "elect a new people," one that doesn't share our values and beliefs, one so ethnically divided that it cannot unite to fight tyranny. That's why Tito left the border between Kosovo and Northern Albania open after the Second World War, and why this country's ruling class, who find ordinary Americans insufficiently docile, now emulate him in this matter.
And you still haven't answered my point about what sort of country this will be when 450 million mutually distrustful NeoAmericans find themselves living cheek-to-jowl in mega-slums short of water and energy, watched over by a vastly expanded Federal security apparat too busy putting down ethnic riots quickly and brutally to give a damn about something as quaint as the Bill of Rights. I don't know what this land will be like in 2050, but I'm pretty sure it won't much resemble Mayberry.
We have come full circle here on this... O
In reality, this is an Assimilation Bill. It doesn't save Starbucks. It doesn't save Kodak. It won't keep the industrials from digging deep in the pocket for misplaced nickels and dimes.
Freshen your coffee, sir? Free with a doughnut!
Buy FORD!!
Spencer, Kenneth - Good parry, both. I do hope you're right, that there's no conspiracy and that immigration is all we have to worry about. I won't be around in 2050, that's for sure. Mayberry has always been fictional; so, you're probably right about that one too. We'll talk about it again when the smoke clears - when would that be - in four years, perhaps? It just seems to me that Obama is moving awfully fast, and it's not even been a fortnight.
Peter- you are gracious, but, in all good fun, "Mayberry" was real and still is.
Re "Mayberry has always been fictional": Guess again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Airy,_North_Carolina
Ken said:
"Thanks to just nineteen Middle Easterners angry because they couldn't get laid we now have to take off our shoes and refrain from backtalk to Federal airpot goons, and a geeky friend of mine of Indian descent no longer dares to go planespotting for fear of arrest."
I disagree, and this is the crux of it. We have to take off our shoes not because of what you said, but simply because we are a nation of neutered males (and females) who will bow down to our rulers out of fear. We can't have a free society and live in fear, any more than a camel can pass through the eye of the needle.
Spencer mentioned "Aztec", by Gary Jennings, one of my favorite books. In fact, my daughter's middle name is Zyanya, after one of the characters in the book. It means "Forever" in Zapotec. Anyhoo, one has only to compare the behaviour of the Uey-Tlatoani Motecuzoma II (the one who foolishly believed Cortez was the second coming of Quetzalcoatl) with that of his cousin and successor-but-one, Cuauhtemoc ("Smoldering Eagle") who rose up in anger and put Cortes' men in chains. We need more Cuauhtemocs and fewer Motecuzomas, and it begins on the individual level. BE FIERCE.
"Bill Gates would rather pay an Indian software engineer $40,000 dollars a year than $80,000 a year to his American counterpart. To this end Gates lies about the need for an expanded H1B visa program."
You're an idiot. Show me one software development job on Microsoft's career page that pays $40,000.
We've seen this type of nativist anti-immigrant crap before and it's sadly usually associated with tough economic times.
Great hyper powers have always required diversity throughout history.
Blaming people that don't look like you on your country's economic failings is stupid and won't help things. But it will make things worse.
Thanks, Kilroy; you've put it ever so succinctly. Why would ostensibly the most powerful man in the world single out a mere talk show host for the sole purpose of disparaging him? It's because we, the plebes, are no longer buying it. There's a black market out there - a thriving black market of ideas. Every one of the propaganda mills are going belly up. Only the most rabid cool-aid drinking drones still take the New York Times seriously.
They're afraid. They think the black market needs to be shut down. They'll give it their best shot. They might even succeed. But it won't save the Times, MSNBC and the others. A new day is dawning and we're still not all racists. And we don't give a damn about being called names anymore. We're patriots and we know which side our bread is buttered on (and its not on the side of those pissing in our river upstream). We still have some semblance of common sense. And we can see when something is terribly wrong. ...and it is.
Consumerism is not sustainable in the long term... Servicism is.
No matter what is recompensed for an idea of improving the design of something already in use, the demand for the improved design falters under critical mass. Do we actually need 100M Gigs to equate to a richer, more blessed life? What for? It's not sustainable and enhances life by zilch... of course, unless the goal is to morph organics into polymers.
A can opener is a can opener. A pull top can is better and that about takes it as far as it can go except for eating each other as in Soylent Green or something like that.
Economics is local. It is providing a service that is needed daily to those that require it on a local level. Local governances should get out of the business of trying to be provide services that only people in the business should provide. Governments don't pay taxes, either.
This is the future, barter or not... 20 foot plasmas on every wall is not. Got a garden? Need some dirt?Consumerism is not sustainable in the long term... Servicism is.
No matter what is recompensed for an idea of improving the design of something already in use, the demand for the improved design falters under critical mass. Do we actually need 100M Gigs to equate to a richer, more blessed life? What for? It's not sustainable and enhances life by zilch... of course, unless the goal is to morph organics into polymers.
A can opener is a can opener. A pull top can is better and that about takes it as far as it can go except for eating each other as in Soylent Green or something like that.
Economics is local. It is providing a service that is needed daily to those that require it on a local level. Local governances should get out of the business of trying to provide services that only entrepreneurs and experts in the business should provide. Governments don't pay taxes, either.
This is the future, barter or not... 20 foot plasmas made in Chin on every wall is no solution.
I have a design for a multi functional home that has wheels with tires that never need inflating, has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, seating for 12, runs on air, generates electricity, recycles plastics, has 4000 satellite channels (optional for a nominal fee), compensates for leap year (milleniums, too) on all electronic components, will track all the Mars Rovers sent out in the search for life, makes potable water out of urine, and comes complete with invisible shield that alerts you when someone gets within 10 feet of the thing, and most clever of all, requires no maintenance. Please consider that there are many more features available that cannot be listed here, but, rest assured, anything you want, we can do. Please allow 2 years for delivery, so, place an order now!! Terms are prepaid in advance and any Warranty implied null and void when you write the check.
Got a garden? Need some dirt?
Whoops! Sorry 'bout that... I submitted before I previewed.
Anyway, we all seem to be repeating ourselves on this particular string.
Want to complain about this driver? Call 2345678901
Kilroy, this was the first paragraph of your most recent comment prior to the one above, time-stamped January 25, 2009 2:08:
"I have stopped listening to this show and visiting this site for the most part as there really isn't anything fresh that I haven't already heard 5-10 times repeated on the blogosphere - but this is a good post and thoughtful for the most part."
In the rest of said post you denounced whininess, told us to stand by our President, then, not for the first time, urged us with evangelical fervor to listen to the same stale NPR piece that everybody who visits here must already have stumbled across on the radio or in the blogoshere half a dozen times, as I did.
Believe me when I say that I felt cheated that you did not also go on to offer us multilevel marketing opportunities or perhaps declaim, "Behold! I bring you the gift of fire!" I share Gore Vidal's genial fascination with bores.
And now, just when I had gotten over my disappointment, you bestir yourself once more to contribute to public discourse, and a such a warm feeling of contentment settles over me that I find myself in your debt. Therefore I shall repay you with this interesting tidbit from Workpermit.com:
"...Miano's report shows that wages paid to H-1B workers in computer programming occupations had a mean salary of $52,312, while the OES mean was $67,700; a difference of $15,388. The report also lists the OES median salary as $65,003, or $12,691 higher than the H-1B median.
"When you look at computer job titles by state, California has one of the biggest differentials between OES salaries and H-1B salaries. The average salary for a programmer in California is $73,960, according to the OES. The average salary paid to an H-1B visa worker for the same job is $53,387; a difference of $20,573."
http://tinyurl.com/28pzqg
I trust that this settles our accounts.
Kenneth,
Sorry to get in the way of your nativist rantings, but you attacked Bill Gates and then supported your attacks against him with stats about Microsoft? No. You use stats that are industry wide. MSFT is a far cry from an avg company.
fyi, an entry level job at MS starts at about $135,000 regardless of who your parents are or where you are born.
btw - ad hom's are my favorite fallacy as they are tantamount to a white flag signaling the exhaustion of the opponent's "argument" (or more often the lack thereof).
have a good day, and go easy on people that don't look like you or weren't blessed to have been born with the privileges you have.
Re "MSFT is a far cry from an avg company."
So all the more reason to use industry-wide figures, no?
Quibble all you want about what Microsoft pays. The point is, the law of supply and demand always holds.
It goes something like this:
Step 1) Use an enormous fortune to promote H-1B visas with a spurious claim that software is simply another one of those Jobs That Americans Simply Won't Do, such as construction, even though we invented the computer industry. (And skyscrapers too, come to think.)
Step 2) Watch the supply of software developers expand.
Step 3) Then (pay close attention here, because this is the part that you seem to find really tricky) watch the increased supply of software developers depress wages throughout the industry--Google, Microsoft, the grungy little start-up across the street. Some companies will pay a lot, some not so much; but across the board none of them has to pay as much as would otherwise be the case, since the pool of software developers has now grown.
Step 4) As the salaries in the software development field become depressed, watch the number of Americans willing and able to take up massive college debt loads to study occupations in which they will be be underbid by immigrants decrease.
Step 5) Act surprised.
Step 6) Repeat.
Oh, and before I sign off, I have to admit that I got a kick out of your accusation of ad hominem, given that your posts contained the following witticisms:
--You're an idiot
--Nativist anti-immigrant crap
--Blaming people that don't look like you
--Stupid
--Nativist rantings
--Blaming people that don't look like you or weren't blessed to have been born with the privileges you have
What next? Will Paris Hilton denounce rampant promiscuity and wretched excess in today's youth?
Now, if you'll pardon me, I must finish up here at the Yacht Club, as I dare not be late to my klavern meeting yet again.
Kenneth,
Very amusing. I enjoyed that.
Here's the bit you don't understand: not all software developers are equal.
Google isn't looking for bargains, neither is MSFT.
They simply want the BEST.
If they cannot find skill sets they NEED to compete in this country, they MUST seek them elsewhere.
The "demand" you so patronizingly refer to is for SKILLS, not warm bodies.
There is no glut of expertise, I assure you (although that may yet happen if we see a Depression, but the cause won't be H1B or immigration).
Atzecs...Aztecs... Yeah, I remember hearing something about those guys. Didn't they have one of those bland, homogeneous societies until a bunch of Spaniards showed up, bringing with them the twin gifts of vibrancy and diversity? How'd that work out, anyhow?
IAWKS 100%
Re "Google isn't looking for bargains, neither is MSFT":
Then they don't really care about how much their labor costs them? Not at all? Not even maybe, you know, just kinda sorta a teensy-weensy little bit every once in a while, like, say, when they're preparing those pesky profit and loss statements that the mean ol' shareholders are always bugging them for? The bosses at Google and Microsoft must be one swell buncha fellas, to not worry about stuff like that. Are they into group hugs, too?
Kilroy, I take it all back. I mean, I haven't been this stunned by anybody's keen grasp of economics since I came across that copy of "Dow 36,000" in the remainder bin!
I have absolutely no idea what that means. I'm telling you, they just can't pass that English-only law fast enough.
I will observe the following wise proverb:
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him.
"Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit." Proverbs 26:5.
IAWKS100% = I agree with Kenneth Stevens 100%
Re: Pass English only law - John would have to delete 2/3rds of the posts on this blog.
It's sad to see you guys blaming "the other" for lack of economic opportunity.
We have the best grad schools in the world. Those schools need the best minds. Having these institutions here leads to American innovation and American competitive advantage.
I agree with Tom Friedman - we should staple a visa on every degree earned at these world class institutions.
If companies can't find the skills they need here and you prohibit qualified applicants entry to the US, what do you think will happen? Will Google accept a non qualified US applicant as the best they can do? Or will they move operations to Europe?
Also, what about mentoring to young workers?
If you do not allow the world's best minds to work in the US because they are not native US citizens, who will be mentored by those gifted people? Answer - whoever is smart enough to allow them to work here.
Your "US born" only policies would have kept Albert Einstein out of Princeton.
This doesn't sound very conservative to me and it doesn't sound very American.
It's very stupid.
Re "Your 'US born' only policies would have kept Albert Einstein out of Princeton."
Clearly you lack not only the self-restraint to keep your promise to drop this matter, but also the simple ability to comprehend my post time-stamped January 29, 2009 2:20 AM, a portion of which goes as follows:
"Admit far fewer immigrants. And we should only take in the ones that have useful skills--I'm pretty sure we already have enough people who can put up drywall and scrub toilets. Give preference to Europeans for the sensible, non-racist reasons that Professor Samuel Huntington outlined in his book 'Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.'"
The above proviso would clearly include Albert Einstein, don't you think, Kilroy?
Ah well, perhaps Mr. Koelliker can put you in touch with one of those outsourced reading tutors in India that he keeps referring to. I hear that their rates are quite reasonable.
Kenneth,
I have no idea what "promise" you are referring to, but on one thing you're right:
Had I read that earlier comment of yours I would have assumed there was not enough hope of persuading you on the benefits of diversity to warrant expending energy. You live in a very small world and I am relieved that (for now anyway) yours is an extreme minority opinion. There is no point of further discourse with you.
So now that you grasp--finally!--that I take the the position that great scientists such as Einstein are welcome in America, you think me more of an extremist than when you falsely held that I didn't want anybody whatsoever allowed in. Do I understand you correctly?
Why, I believe that I do.
Talk about a warm feeling of contentment. I feel like lighting up an American Spirit.
Kilroy, from the bottom of my heart I thank you for this time we've spent together. Be well, my friend.
Kenneth,
Did you ever assume that maybe I was Asian?
Glad you don't want any of those votes in your National Identity GOP.
Welcome back, Kilroy! Thnaks to your return I just won a ten dollar bet!
Say, before you even had even bothered to read my posts you were already referring to me as an idiot and a nativist ranter, as well as one who blames people who don't look like me, that is, a bigot. Then, when it turned out I actually take a less restrictive view of immigration than the one you had imputed to me, you viewd me as an even worse thought criminal. Go figure.
So why on God's green Earth would I assume you to be an Asian? The Asians that I know are intelligent and well-mannered.
Dang... this is a throw your hat down slugfest here with the 2 "K's" going at it.
Who will win? I got 50 cents to start the betting...
This from The Naked Gun 2 1/2:
Lt. Frank Drebin: Hector Savage. From Detroit. Ex-boxer. His real name was Joey Chicago.
Ed Hocken: Oh, yeah. He fought under the name of Kid Minneapolis.
Nordberg: I saw Kid Minneapolis fight once. In Cincinnati.
Lt. Frank Drebin: No you're thinking of Kid New York. He fought out of Philly.
Ed Hocken: He was killed in the ring in Houston. By Tex Colorado. You know, the Arizona Assassin.
Nordberg: Yeah, from Dakota. I don't remember it was North or South.
Lt. Frank Drebin: North. South Dakota was his brother. From West Virginia.
Ed Hocken: You sure know your boxing.
Lt. Frank Drebin: All I know is never bet on the white guy.
[Nordberg nods in agreement]
Nah... I think Judge JB is going to put an end to this and call it a draw.
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