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Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Fear of innoculations

Some people still fear innoculations. But when innoculations first were introduced, a lot of people didn't want anything to do with them.

Today's Exite Poll is as follows: "The Bush administration announced Monday that sending U.S. factory and white-collar jobs to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time. (Los Angeles Times)

"Do you think that outsourcing American jobs to other countries will help the U.S. economy over time?"

As of right now, 73% => 12986 votes say "Heavens No, Good Sir, the corpuscules of innoculation shall spread disease, not contain it" Ooops, old poll, the 73% said, "No, it will hurt the economy." 12%, a mere 2294 votes said "Yes".

Last Week's New Republic had an article on outsourcing high tech jobs. A notable claim: "According to the McKinsey Global Institute, for every dollar a U.S. company spends on offshoring to India, the U.S. economy gains $1.14, thanks to a number of factors: savings from the increased operational efficiency, equipment sales to Indian outsourcers, the value of American labor reemployed to higher-wage jobs, and repatriated earnings by U.S. companies that own Indian outsourcing firms. "

I frequently encounter people on the right and left that think the sky is falling. Only my libertarian friends have faith in free markets that goes deep enough to defy anxiety over change. Conservatives fear for American economic power, and the benifits therefrom, Liberals fear the standard of living of working families. Considervative anxiety is heightened illegal immigration, though I don't hear any plans from them about how to solve the immigration problem. I should mention that many conservatives don't like the President's plan. Victor Davis Hanson, whose opinion I respect on this and many other issues writes against it, mostly on the basis of it being only part of what need to be a comprehensive program, and being based on some questionable assumptions. His plan:

"Reasonable advocates can set a realistic figure for legal immigration from Mexico. Then we must enforce our border controls; consider a one-time citizenship process for current residents who have been here for two or three decades; apply stiff employer sanctions; deport those who now break the law--and return to social and cultural protocols that promote national unity through assimilation and integration."

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