Ed Dodson resonding to a message from mid-September... Erik Burns wrote: > > i suspect the concept of borders is more about keeping people in than > keeping people out. keeping people out is just the more common consideration > at present. Europe, that most xenophobic of places, is now starting to mull > "importation" of people to make up for what it sees as a coming falloff in > population. they, of course, would like to control this immigration. we'll > see. Ed Dodson here: A problem for modern social-democracies continues to be the inability to achieve sustained full employment and by this means effectively end poverty. The safety net benefits of the welfare state are, in one sense, a disincentive for the so-called "native" population to accept employment at low wages and poor working conditions. Businesses argue, therefore, that without the influx of people from countries where conditions are considerably worse, many of the least desirable, lowest paying jobs would go undone. In industries where salaries are high and benefits good, native workers resent the importation of people with equal or superior training from countires (e.g., India) because these foreign workers are generally willing to accept much less compensation. To add even greater complexity to the subject is the natural inclination of people who complete 16 or 18 or 20 years of formal education to marry later and have fewer or no children. The high cost of living in many European countries has resulted in very low birth rates and rapidly aging populations. Either native citizens need to be encouraged to work longer, the country needs to provide incentives for people to have more children, greater investment must occur in capital goods to replace the labor component of both goods production and services, or the country must accept greater ethnic diversity. This, I am sure most will agree, requires a degree of planning (social engineering?) that is largely beyond the institutions of most societies.
begin:vcard n:Dodson;Edward tel;fax:215-575-1718 tel;home:856-428-3472 tel;work:215-575-1819 x-mozilla-html:TRUE org:Fannie Mae;Housing and Community Development, Northeast Regional Office (NERO) version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] title:Senior Affordable Housing Business Manager note:If you need to reach me during non-business hours, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] adr;quoted-printable:;;1900 Market Street=0D=0ASuite 800;Philadelphia;PA;19103;U.S.A. fn:Edward J. Dodson end:vcard
