--- Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If it does, shouldn't it be measurable? For > example, I'd argue that > comparing the difference between white non-Hispanic > and white (including > Hispanics) rise in median income to the difference > between the white median > income and the median income of the top 5% of white > households could give > us a handle on how important the increase in > immigration is. Further, I'd > argue that the number of poor uneducated, white, > non-Hispanic immigrants is > actually lower now than it was in the '50s and '60s. > > Is this a reasonable measurement to indicate trends? > If not, why not? > > Dan M.
First, the impact has been measured - George Borjas's book _Heaven's Door_ attributed half of the difference between American and German income inequality to immigration. Second, I don't understand how your metric would measure the impact, which comes from two different factors. The first is the constant influx of a large pool of largely unskilled labor (of largely Hispanic ethnicity), which has an impact. But more than that, the simple presence of these number of laborers will decrease the price of low-skilled labor for everyone, white, black, and Hispanic alike. This may, in fact, explain why opinion polls suggest that Hispanics are just as eager to limit immigration as everyone else. Hispanic _leaders_ are strongly opposed, but the average Hispanic is not. This is a classic example of the principal-agent problem, actually, because the interests of Hispanic leaders (whose power is increased the more Hispanics there are in the country) clearly conflict with the interests of Hispanics in general (whose economic well-being would be best helped by limiting the number of immigrants coming into the country). ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you’re looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
