Archive for May 16th, 2011
These are my links for May 16th from 13:35 to 16:21:
Tags: #catcot, #tcot, Pinboard Links
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Mark Krikorian explores the myths over at National Review.
I appreciate Prof. Codevilla’s responding last week to my response to his article on the futility of border controls in the Claremont Review of Books (the original article now appears to be online). (…)
I’ll address several other misconceptions in his article below the fold.
Jobs Americans won’t do: At the center of Prof. Codevilla’s jeremiad is the hoary claim that there just aren’t enough Americans suited to do the hard work our society needs to function, and therefore Mexican workers are necessary to fill the vacuum.
Simply as a matter of numbers, this is incorrect. There are perhaps 7 million illegal aliens in the labor force (the other four million or so don’t work), but there are three times that many native-born Americans of working age, with no more than a high-school education, who aren’t even in the labor force. And this doesn’t count those who are unemployed (i.e., actually looking for work) or underemployed (for instance, they have a part-time job but want a full-time one).
What’s more, a detailed look at immigrants by occupation shows that virtually every occupation contains a majority of native-born workers. Some examples:
- Maids and housekeepers: 55 percent native-born
- Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 58 percent native-born
- Butchers and meat processors: 63 percent native-born
- Grounds maintenance workers: 65 percent native-born
- Construction laborers: 65 percent native-born
- Porters, bellhops, and concierges: 71 percent native-born
- Janitors: 75 percent native-born
How can an occupation be described as “a job Americans won’t do” when most people who do it are, in fact, native-born Americans?
Nor is this just the tail end of some better time, with Americans represented by aging holdovers still willing to do blue-collar work; fully one-third of the native-born in high-immigrant occupations are under 30.
What’s more, the presence of large-scale immigration appears to exacerbate the exodus of Americans from blue-collar occupations. One of my colleagues frequently drives from Washington to central Pennsylvania and notes that it’s remarkable how, as you leave the immigrant-heavy Washington area, the fast food places at each subsequent interchange seem to somehow find a larger and larger share of American kids able to flip burgers.
The data on teen employment bear this out. While it is true that labor force participation for teenagers — the “swarms of youth in malls and campuses” Prof. Codevilla sniffs at — has been declining across all ethnic groups and levels of education, immigration accelerates the process. My colleague Steven Camarota has estimated that “On average, a 10 percentage-point increase in the immigrant share of the labor force reduces the labor force participation rate of U.S.-born teenagers by 5.79 percentage points in 1994-95 and 4.57 percentage points in 2006-07.” More immigrants means fewer teenagers working.
Read all of the rest and the destruction of the other myths.
Tags: Illegal Immigration
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As I said before eBay doesn’t care much for Amazon.com but business is business.
Unsurprisingly, eBay has not been enamored with such efforts which would hit eBay sellers, and has been seeking to work into legislation a threshold designed to ensure that at least some of its out-of-state sellers will not be subject to California sales/use tax collection and remittance obligations where they sell to customers in the Golden State (California-based sellers who sell to Californians are already on the hook).
A possible threshold of $10,000 a year or less in sales to Californians has been reported, but sources say that eBay and/or some of its sellers want that limit raised higher– potentially up to $2 million per year.
EBay has its California sellers engaged in a grassroots lobbying effort aimed at forcing amendments to the legislation, which would defang it. No doubt eBay sellers located outside of California, who are currently not obliged to collect and remit sales tax on purchases made by Californians, are ecstatic about this. California-based sellers would not benefit from building in a sales threshold, though, especially a high one that could tilt the eBay marketplace distinctly to the advantage of out-of-state sellers. However, their legislators are being urged to make amendments that, if put through, could seriously reduce the already rather pitiful revenues that backers of the legislation claim they would obtain by ramming it through.
The very best case scenario, according to a Board of Equalization staff analysis produced earlier this year, was that this “revenue
enhancement” measure would bring in a measly $200-or-so million maximum in 2012-13.
Let’s see as we repeat – no real, substantive tax revenue for California, a loss of California jobs and a costly litigation. The Skinner Bill (AB 153) et. al is a loser all around.
But, it WILL proceed because the POLS will milk those who have a stake in the legislation for campaign contributions.
Eventually, this will die a quiet, but expensive death.
Previous:
An Amazon Tax Lesson for California Legislators – Businesses Move and Job Loss Occurs
eBay Says Let’s Make a Deal to California’s Internet Sales Tax Legislation
Democrat Senator Dick Duban to Introduce Bill to Tax Internet Sales
Poll Watch: 63 Per Cent Oppose Taxing Online Transactions
Video: California and the Amazon Internet Sales Tax
Video: How Amazon Internet Sales Tax Legislation Hurts California Small Business
Overstock.Com Threatens to Terminate California-Based Affiliates Should Internet Tax Legislation – AB 153 Passes
Amazon Internet Sales Tax WILL Require Super Majority in California Legislature
Video: California Board of Equalization Casts Doubt on Amazon Internet Sales Tax Legislation
The Amazon Tax Returns to California
Tags: Amazon Tax, Internet Sales Taxes
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Posted by Flap in Dilbert
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These are my links for May 16th from 04:39 to 13:23:
Tags: #catcot, #tcot, Pinboard Links
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Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is out before he was ever in the 2012 Presidential race with his criticism of Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan.
This morning Republicans are just beginning to assess the damage that former House Speaker and current presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has done to the GOP budget plan currently before Congress. On “Meet the Press” Sunday, Gingrich denounced House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan’s plan to restructure Medicare, saying, “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”
On his radio program Monday morning, former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, who knows Gingrich well but is also close to Ryan, reacted angrily to Gingrich’s remarks. Referring to Ryan’s Medicare plan as “right-wing social engineering” is, Bennett said, “an unforgivable mistake, in my judgment.” Bennett went on to say that Gingrich “has taken himself out of serious consideration for the [2012] race.”
Yeah, I would say Newt is toast for his hypocrisy alone on ObamaCare.
The individual mandate is unconstitutional and is at the heart of ObamaCare. Newt understand this and in efforts to stand out from the GOP Presidential crowd has shot himself in the foot.
Say good night, Gracie.
Here is today’s video of Gingrich trying to climb back after his Meet the Press performance yesterday.
Tags: Newt Gingrich, Obamacare, President 2012
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Is Sarah Palin getting ready to duke it out in the 2012 Presidential primary election?
Perhaps or may be just a player.
Former Alaska governor S arah Pali n is sending direct mail solicitations nationwide to raise money for her political action committee titled “2012 Can’t Come Fast Enough,” a move that is certain to re-stoke talk of whether she will run for the presidential nomination.
The copy of the letter sent to The Fix came from South Carolina, and SarahPAC Treasurer Tim Crawford said that about 400,000 solicitations were sent out nationwide. While the mailing, which aims to raise contributions for Sarah PAC, says nothing specific about Palin’s own political future the decision to send it will surely raise eyebrows.
“Taking back control of the House last year was only the first step,” Palin writes in the mailer. “Now you and I must fix our eyes on 2012. Our goal is to take back the White House and the Senate.”
I don’t see Sarah running but she is unpredictable. As I said before, she risks her brand with a loss, but maybe with so many good Republicans waiting in the wings for 2016, maybe she feels it is now or never.
Her recent polling against President Obama is very weak, however.
Tags: Polling, President 2012, Sarah Palin
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