Comments on: Immigration: Strike while we are down

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:33:17 +0000

There is nothing to get “in place”. The system is there, it is used by hundreds of thousands of employers now. It just takes a web connection.

The answer on demand vs supply is that fighting the supply side doesn’t work. So try the demand side. I don’t need “evidence” – it hasn’t been tried.

By: Carl Nelson

Carl Nelson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:16:33 +0000

I agree that it might work in the long run, but my observation was about the near impossibility of getting it in place without noticeable costs and delay in the time frame of the stimulus. Starting and adjusting wide scale government programs do not happen quickly. The government is NOT a small entrepreneurial software company. It is a complex web of overlapping jurisdictions that does not respond to profit motives nor do-or-die demands of efficiency. At least three or four US departments would be involved along with their Congressional oversight committees.

I’d also like to see the compelling evidence in support of the claim that E-verify and demand suppression works as advertised. Although it is true that illegal head count has dropped dramatically, that could be completely explained by the fall in economic activity. What do the economists say about demonstrated cause and effect of E-verify?

By: Ken

Ken — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:37:52 +0000

E-Verify and enforcement against employers will make the cost higher than it is worth to those seeking to profit by having me pay for the social problems they import.

You say it can’t be done, but the evidence is clear – E-Verify and going after demand works. It would work in drugs too.

By: Carl Nelson

Carl Nelson — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:35:42 +0000

Oh, the temptation to want a neat, well regulated employment system. Unfortunately, realism, the profit motive, and economics say it won’t happen. Your entrepreneur compatriots will find a way to use the cheapest available labor while avoiding legal niceties. Otherwise, the bill for the work will skyrocket and the time to finish it will be drawn out by administration. The cheapest labor will appear from across the border, even in the northern states, since passing out money for jobs creates a giant vacuum.