Saturday, November 28, 2020

Politics And Immigration

 Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
—Verse engraved on the base of the statue of liberty

Readers of my blog know that I am overall very pro-immigration. I have a strong belief that immigrants are a net plus, both for this country and for the immigrants themselves. In economics, there are hardly ever such win-win situations as there are with immigration and our country.

One of my biggest pet peeves is, when discussing politics and my views on immigration, for someone to automatically refer to my immigration views as ‘liberal’, or to imply that I am not conservative on immigration issues. The reason this bothers me so much is because immigration is much more complicated than simply reducing it to a liberal/conservative or Democrat/Republican issue, and frankly, I don’t think a pro-immigration view is a liberal tenet, rather it’s more of a conservative tenet. I have refrained from discussing this topic before because it is one of those topics where it is very difficult to explain and the likelihood that someone will read into my posts what I did not mean is high. So up until now, this has been a conversation I usually only bring up over a few beers with friends. However, because of the rise of the minutemen and President Bush’s immigration plan, I have decided to write on this and explain exactly why I think immigration is more a conservative issue.

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

The Real Public Service

The Real Public Service

Thomas Sowell
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Posted: Jun 01, 2010 12:01 AM

Every year about this time, big-government liberals stand up in front of college commencement crowds across the country and urge the graduates to do the noblest thing possible-- become big-government liberals.

That isn't how they phrase it, of course. Commencement speakers express great reverence for "public service," as distinguished from narrow private "greed." There is usually not the slightest sign of embarrassment at this self-serving celebration of the kinds of careers they have chosen-- over and above the careers of others who merely provide us with the food we eat, the homes we live in, the clothes we wear and the medical care that saves our health and our lives.

What I would like to see is someone with the guts to tell those students: Do you want to be of some use and service to your fellow human beings? Then let your fellow human beings tell you what they want-- not with words, but by putting their money where their mouth is.

You want to see more people have better housing? Build it! Become a builder or developer-- if you can stand the sneers and disdain of your classmates and professors who regard the very words as repulsive.

Would you like to see more things become more affordable to more people? Then figure out more efficient ways of producing things or more efficient ways of getting those things from the producers to the consumers at a lower cost.

That's what a man named Sam Walton did when he created Wal-Mart, a boon to people with modest incomes and a bane to the elite intelligentsia. In the process, Sam Walton became rich. Was that the "greed" that you have heard your classmates and professors denounce so smugly? If so, it has been such "greed" that has repeatedly brought prices down and thereby brought the American standard of living up.

Back at the beginning of the 20th century, only 15 percent of American families had a flush toilet. Not quite one-fourth had running water. Only three percent had electricity and one percent had central heating. Only one American family in a hundred owned an automobile.

By 1970, the vast majority of those American families who were living in poverty had flush toilets, running water and electricity. By the end of the twentieth century, more Americans were connected to the Internet than were connected to a water pipe or a sewage line at the beginning of the century.

More families have air-conditioning today than had electricity then. Today, more than half of all families with incomes below the official poverty line own a car or truck and have a microwave.

This didn't come about because of the politicians, bureaucrats, activists or others in "public service" that you are supposed to admire. No nation ever protested its way from poverty to prosperity or got there through rhetoric or bureaucracies.

It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader.

Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing "compassion" for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.

The wonderful places where you are supposed to go to do "public service" are as sheltered from the brutal test of reality as you have been on this campus for the last four-- or is it six?-- years. In these little cocoons, all that matters is how well you talk the talk. People who go into the marketplace have to walk the walk.

Colleges can teach many valuable skills, but they can also nourish many dangerous illusions. If you really want to be of service to others, then let them decide what is a service by whether they choose to spend their hard-earned money for it.

Thursday, November 12, 2020

I LOVE Diversity

 I absolutely love it. Here is a recount of my day today...

I arrived at work to find my Indian/Canadian office mate in the office, we chatted a little about martial arts and what not, than I immediately went to the lab to do some work. As soon as I arrived in the lab, I started talking to an Iraqi friend, this friend is from northern Iraq, and overall supports the war in Iraq. He is always up to date on all the news, and fills me in on what it's like to be in Iraq. Today's topic of choice was the movie I let him borrow, Voices of Iraq, he hadn't watched it yet, as I was interested in his perspective on the movie.

Soon after that, I bumped into another friend at work, a native of Canada. This is a friend that I have long economic conversations with. He grew up amongst anarchists (damn Chomsky!!) and has leanings towards communism (yikes!!!). Needless to say, I immediately proceeded to talk about the wonders of Capitalism. Today's topic was some books I had recommended him (Friedman, Sowell, and Hazlitt). He is a smart cat, with a huge heart, it won't be long before he connects the dots.

Later, I chatted with a different Indian friend, not my old house mate, but a friend that is part of my group at work. We chatted about work stuff here and there, but overall touched on the topic of colonization (Queen Elizabeth, give them their Diamond back!!!) and what it does to a country. Nothing too long, just simple conversations.

I than headed to class (UCSD) with my other office mate (it's a big office, ok!!), who I have known since I started college, and who happens to be a Vietnamese refugee. His father, after the USA withdrew from Vietnam, was imprisoned for 10+ years for fighting with the USA for South Vietnam. President Reagan (may he rest in peace) went to Vietnam, and gave every family that had a family member imprisoned for a certain number of years (can't remember the exact number, I think it was 2 or 3 years) for fighting with the USA, free passage to the United States. My friend came, worked for a few years, saved saved and saved. Eventually enrolled into college, while still waking up at 4 amish to deliver newspapers, and graduated top of his class (I was second :-( ). He is now one of the top Engineers at our company. Imagine, with no help but his own will and dedication, in fact, there were many times where he had to go out of his way to support him and his father. Yet he did it, with no complaints and nothing but love and joy for this country. He never stops telling me how absolutely horrible it is to live under a communists regime, and always reminds me how lucky I am to be in the United States (God Bless America!!).

Upon arriving at school, I got the updates from our (school) lab partners. There are five of us, myself, my Vietnamese work mate, two foreign exchange students from Iran, and one Sikh from India (btw, Turbans in the USA pretty much means Sikh NOT Muslim). We chatted a bit, and than headed back to work.

When I got back to work, another friend of mine was in the (work) lab. This is another Mexican/American friend who, like myself, speaks fluent Spanish. When I was younger my dad used to give me a 'coscoron' everytime I spoke English to someone who you could clearly tell spoke Spanish better, and it's no different with this friend. I don't care how many people are around that don't know Spanish, when me and him communicate it is always in Spanish (Remember the Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo, before giving me an English Only lecture ;) ). Sometimes we talk about his kids, who btw, were raised by him and his wife of SEVERAL years (they were married very early, both are natives of Mexico). His oldest son just completed, at age 25ish, his Masters in Electrical Engineering from UCSD and now works for Nokia (making BIG bucks), and his eldest daughter is a public school teacher, his second oldest daughter is getting her bachelors degree at UCSD in Physics. Yeah, you heard that right, I am very proud (on a side note, my 13 year old sister is very good at math, I have high hopes for her, more news in a few years)!!!

While walking down the hall, I chatted with a white friend, about another Chinese friend who had been in a bicycle accident. Everything is ok, he will be back to work on Monday.

After this, I came home and chatted with my white roommate about this upcoming weekend. You see, I have friends coming over this weekend, mostly old college friends, but some friends I knew outside of college. As a matter of fact, I have a very close college white friend of mine driving from San Jose as we speak, he is due to get here at 3am in the morning. Who is coming you say, well if everything works as planned, it should be possibly two black guys, two white guys, four Mexican guys, two Cubans, and a guy from Peru. And those are just the ones staying over my place. I invited some friends from work, friends from school, and just friends that live in San Diego (Oso and Derek, you guys are invited too).

All in one day. I haven't even started talking about how my meetings at work are...It's almost a mini United Nations (except we get things done, and don't steal from the poor).

For all the crap some people give to California, this is certainly not part of it. This is the America I've known, the America I love, and the America that makes this country great. Sometimes I think it is even better than all the hot women here (ok, you're right, the hot women are better, but it's a close second). And it is very enriching.

With that out of my system, see you all on Monday, I got some partying to attend too.

PS: I also got A LOT of work done in the blank spots above...don't want anybody getting the impression... (Originally published: 1/21/2005)

Monday, November 9, 2020

Environmental Progress vs Economic Growth

 Many people try to frame environmental debates as debates between those who care about the environment and those who simply do not. This is not an accurate picture.

The tug of war between environmentalists and 'non-environmentalists' is not a tug of war between those who care for the environment vs those who do not care for the environment. It is between the environment vs economic growth and personal income (be it in the form of more money in your pocket or having a job).

I can not think of one contentious environmental law that doesn’t either harm economic growth or people's pocket book. For example, if you want to place higher taxes on gas, something that John Kerry was very fond of, that would disproportionately hurt my friends back in Compton than people in San Francisco. Why? Because the poorer you are, the more those extra cents a gallon matter. Or think of emission regulations, like those here in California. If those place a burden on companies, who bears the brunt of those burdens? Not the rich CEOs, but the people at the bottom of the economic ladder. For example, if the company decides to leave California because the restrictions are so high, that hurts primarily those w/ less economic capital, those that have less experience and education to bargain with. They lose that job, and they will have a much harder time getting another job than me and my Engineering friends. Or assuming the company doesn’t leave, say those regulations cost the company some extra money, hurting their bottom dollar, who are the first to go? Not the CEOs, but those at the bottom. In addition to personal income, economic growth is also (severely) restricted. Estimates say that it would cost us as much as $150 billion a year to transfer to a more environmentally regulated system.

This is especially evident when you look at underdeveloped countries. The last thing underdeveloped countries need is environmental regulations. At such low levels of economic growth, the first thing they are concentrating on is economic growth and feeding their children. This is the primary reason that underdeveloped countries are usually left out of environmental treaties.

This is primarily why the most pro-environmental people tend to be wealthy. All them Hollywood liberals, for example, are a lot less concerned with economic growth and bottom dollars than the poor. Or, for example, if you were to take a sample of the Sierra Club members, you would see that they are largely upper-income city dwellers (and tend to be anti-immigration, but that is a story for another day). This is why you see limousine liberals much more pro-environmentalist than say, inner city liberalism. Inner city liberals, being on the lower end of economic growth and income, tend to benefit more from the other side of that tug of war.

Of course, both sides are important. We need to preserve the environment and encourage economic growth and care for the poor. The question is where in the middle do you draw the line? The poorer you are, the more you want the line to the right; the richer you are, the more you want the line to the left. Conservatives/Republicans tend to err on the side of economic growth (and, indirectly, personal income for the poor), while liberals/Democrats tend to err on the side of the environment, both ideally wanting the best of both worlds. (Originally Posted: 5/11/2005)