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« Another Case for Index Funds | Main | Long-Term Care Insurance, Again »
A Good Rant
While working my way through various stories this morning, I came on this piece written by Steve Hamm of Business Week. It's on his blog.
Steve has also written a book I highly recommend, Bangalore Tiger (McGraw-Hill, 2006). Anyway, I couldn't agree with Steve more on Lou Dobbs and his ilk. Here's what he wrote:
It's true. I admit it. I harbor ill will towards Lou Dobbs, the bloviating CNN anchor. Every time I see him promoting himself as the hero of the American middle class, I practically choke. While he may have some sincere concern for Americans who suffer the negative effects of globalization, he operates by exploiting hate and fear. In my book, that makes him dangerous--not just to the Latin Americans and Indians and other foreigners that he demonizes, but to the middle class Americans whom he claims to care about.
This came up today because I made a speech about the rise of the Asian economies at a state university in New Jersey this morning, and one of the faculty members asked me if I think we're in for a wave of protectionism. I worry that we are. Dobbs' scheme for building walls on our borders to keep out people from Mexico and the rest of Latin America are just plain crazy. And the fact that nobody seems to be calling them crazy is even crazier.
Here we are locked in two wars in the Middle East, and the Bush administration seems intent on starting another one, and Dobbs and his allies decide that the big threat to our society is brown people sneaking into our country to mow our lawns and take care of our children.
My big concern is that a number of politicians, Republican and Democrat, will decide that the Dobbsian platform is one they should run on. And, if they win, we'll `have all sorts of new knee-jerk protectionist policies designed to pander to a fearful middle class rather than promoting a rational and well-balanced globalization policy.
Besides, it seems to me the American middle class is pretty well off. It's the working class and poor who have plenty to complain about. We'd all be better off if the Congress would forget about the phony crisis of immigration and concentrate on doing things that improve the health, education, and job opportunities for America's less fortunate masses. That would be a worthy cause for Dobbs to get behind, too.
Amen to that.
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Comments (3)
April 6, 2007 3:39 PM
Has anybody estimated the cost of sending illegals back where they came from? I don't think it is possible to even "catch" have those in existence ( like how many speeders are actually caught.?) Did the Berlin Wall work? But the real question is how many living-wage jobs are there for how many workers (in the world, not just the U>S.) Soon society will have have a few impenetrable castles (we have a lot now) and the kings and queens will not even have to depend on the serfs to live (Calcutta grows all the food it needs within it's city limits) Ford Motor Family still has such a set-up in the U.P. of Mich. etc. So, I agree with this comment above and let's get to work on solving the crisis a different way.
April 7, 2007 12:47 PM
The current war on illegal immigration is nothing more than bigotry under another name, the contributions of documented/undocumented immigrants far outweight any negative consequences,unfortunately, it is a lot easier to score political points against a group with no PAC monnies.
This society is so brain washed with fear that everything is seen throught that glass.
We need every single brain that we can get our hands on to help us out of the mess we are in.
April 9, 2007 10:30 AM
I don't have Steve's problem because I lack cable and must rely on NPR and PBS. First I question why anyone wastes time listening to CNN or Fox; it only serves to irritate and elevate ones stress. Last night 60 Minutes interviewed some guy who gets his jollies by badmouthing the government for overregulating our lives. I spent my time wondering why "60" would waste expensive airtime on such an irrelevant person. It was worth having the program on though because it ended with
Andy's comment about England's monarchy and the Queen's 50 plus years reign followed by his sarcastic queery: "How would you like to have George Bush for fifty years?" To the immigration problem, I cannot get beyond the legality issue. Bring them in by the thousands or the millions but do it orderly and legally. Why should the geography of one group give it an unfair advantage over other equally needy and deserving group's?