Author Topic: Atlas Sneered: Working Poor Deserve a Lecture and Beating (in the labor market)  (Read 2201 times)

roo_ster

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http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/26/the-ugly-side-of-open-borders/

The Ugly Side of Open Borders

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Atlas Sneered: I’ve been struggling to unearth what I think is the obnoxious inegalitarian scorn that lies at the end of the devotion to seemingly free and equal open borders (on the part of the Wall Street Journal, the Cato Institute and some on the left like Matt Yglesias). A recent Twitter exchange with Cato’s immigration expert Alex Nowrasteh revealed … well,  I thought it revealed a lot.

The wonderful guy at Cato thinks that the working poor (note: working) need a lecture from their betters at Cato for not being born smart enough to get a nice job at Cato.  And that my charity dollars ought to support them after the borders are opened to all comers and the working poor lose their jobs.

Gee, thanks Alex.  Do you also want me to sodomize myself with a pinecone dipped in habanero salsa ?  Do you have any other modest proposals?

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Okay. Maybe I don’t come off quite as well in this exchange as I remembered. But the point is how CATO comes out! We now know Nowrasteh’s position on Americans who work full time but can’t make it when low-skilled immigrants swarm into their lines of employment: They don’t get trade-adjustment style “transfer payments.” They don’t get welfare.*** They don’t get any government aid. They get private charity and (what so often accompanies private charity) scorn–social “shaming” for their “horrible life decisions.”

Now, it’s one thing to do that for paradigmatic welfare recipients who don’t work- I’ve promoted something similar myself. It’s another to do it for Americans (and lots of immigrants) who get up and work every day. In the ideal version of America that’s been dominant in my lifetime, at least until now, these stubborn working people may not get rich, but they get something as valuable, namely respect and the minimal wherewithal needed to participate in mainstream life.

In Nowrasteh’s America they get pretty much the opposite of respect (which is what shaming is). There’s just no place for them in the global labor market of the future! Serves them right. They should be smarter.

Do read the whole post, it is not long.  Quite enlightening, if depressing.
Regards,

roo_ster

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”
----G.K. Chesterton

AZRedhawk44

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We now know Nowrasteh’s position on Americans who work full time but can’t make it when low-skilled immigrants swarm into their lines of employment: They don’t get trade-adjustment style “transfer payments.” They don’t get welfare.*** They don’t get any government aid. They get private charity and (what so often accompanies private charity) scorn–social “shaming” for their “horrible life decisions.”

Now, it’s one thing to do that for paradigmatic welfare recipients who don’t work- I’ve promoted something similar myself. It’s another to do it for Americans (and lots of immigrants) who get up and work every day. In the ideal version of America that’s been dominant in my lifetime, at least until now, these stubborn working people may not get rich, but they get something as valuable, namely respect and the minimal wherewithal needed to participate in mainstream life.

Meh.

No high school degree?

Yes, you're SUPPOSED to be shamed for falling that low in the social hierarchy. 

That's what an F-grade is for.  Shaming you into doing better.  That's why we have commencement ceremonies.  So that those who graduate get celebrated and acknowledged for having just enough of a pulse to complete public skrewel, and those who do not graduate... don't.

If you're competing with illegal aliens for minimum wage unskilled labor... you made some really poor decisions.  And maybe you can't dig yourself out of that situation... but maybe you can.

My little brother screwed up just like one of these idiots that Nowrasteh is digging against.  Restaurant busser and waiter, unskilled labor, competing with illegals for bad jobs.  From age 18 to 26 he played that game.  His solution?  Remove head from rectum and pursue increased skillset as an AC installer/repairman.  Because he KNEW it was a losing fight, and ultimately it's like wrestling a pig in the mud: pointless, unless you LIKE getting all covered in mud and pigshyt.

"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
--Lysander Spooner

I reject your authoritah!

AZRedhawk44

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Furthermore, I'm a bit offended at the notion that the "working poor" are entitled to not suffer somehow.

Being poor should suck.  Having no marketable skill should make you strive to be better, not complacent and whiny that someone should somehow give you something.

If you don't like where your charity dollars go... give to another charity that you do like their mission statement, or get involved in the management of your charity of choice so you can influence those dollars.  Would you rather it be tax dollars, where you get no choice in their distribution at all?

I also note the author has a massive chip on his shoulder, selectively bolding portions of the conversation and decides the conversation is "over" with his final bolded selection in the twitter exchange and negates to actually research the prior writings of Nowrasteh.

http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/building-wall-around-welfare-state-instead-country

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2013/07/nowrasteh_on_so.html


Yes, Nowrasteh hates welfare, and welfare users.  Especially systemically dependent ones.  Those tend to be high school drop outs raised by high school drop outs, rather than immigrants (legal or illegal).  And his writings suggest eliminating State welfare and encouraging private charity to get involved instead, exactly because the private charity will keep leverage on the recipient to strive to better his or her life and leave the charitable system, rather than just hand it out as a nonjudgemental entitlement like the current system.
"But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."
--Lysander Spooner

I reject your authoritah!

RevDisk

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Quote
Okay. Maybe I don’t come off quite as well in this exchange as I remembered. But the point is how CATO comes out! We now know Nowrasteh’s position on Americans who work full time but can’t make it when low-skilled immigrants swarm into their lines of employment: They don’t get trade-adjustment style “transfer payments.” They don’t get welfare.*** They don’t get any government aid. They get private charity and (what so often accompanies private charity) scorn–social “shaming” for their “horrible life decisions.”

If the US government allowed unrestricted immigration, flooding out the domestic labor market, it would be overthrown by angry mobs of unemployed in short order. Aside from a handful of twits like Nowrasteh and business folks without any shred of honor or ethics, no one wants the floodgates truly opened.
"Rev, your picture is in my King James Bible, where Paul talks about "inventors of evil."  Yes, I know you'll take that as a compliment."  - Fistful, possibly highest compliment I've ever received.

cordex

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If the US government allowed unrestricted immigration, flooding out the domestic labor market, it would be overthrown by angry mobs of unemployed in short order. Aside from a handful of twits like Nowrasteh and business folks without any shred of honor or ethics, no one wants the floodgates truly opened.
Meh.  "Angry mobs of unemployed" aren't doing a damn thing right now, are they?

dogmush

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Meh.  "Angry mobs of unemployed" aren't doing a damn thing right now, are they?

They won't get angry until they are hungry. 

RevDisk

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They won't get angry until they are hungry. 

Bingo.
"Rev, your picture is in my King James Bible, where Paul talks about "inventors of evil."  Yes, I know you'll take that as a compliment."  - Fistful, possibly highest compliment I've ever received.

TommyGunn

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They won't get angry until they are hungry. 
Bingo.

And by then it will be too late ..... >:D
MOLON LABE   "Through ignorance of what is good and what is bad, the life of men is greatly perplexed." ~~ Cicero

Perd Hapley

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They won't get angry until they are hungry. 

When will that be? When we stop feeding them?
Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?
--Thomas Jefferson

Ned Hamford

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When will that be? When we stop feeding them?

When easy credit goes away.
Improbus a nullo flectitur obsequio.

dogmush

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Yeah, when we stop feeding them.

I'm convinced a part of the reason that Congress won't seriously consider ANY slowing of fed.gov handouts is they know that no one stabs the hand that feed that feeds them with a pitchfork.

RevDisk

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And by then it will be too late ..... >:D

Yea, I'm sure the French aristocracy thought so, prior to the Reign of Terror.
"Rev, your picture is in my King James Bible, where Paul talks about "inventors of evil."  Yes, I know you'll take that as a compliment."  - Fistful, possibly highest compliment I've ever received.