Joanna
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Pollak" <mpollak at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Sunday, May 2, 2010 3:38:08 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] On immigration
On Sun, 2 May 2010, Doug Henwood reposted his great 2006 article on the non-costs of immigration
> http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Immigration.html
This is great damn article. I thought so when I first read it four years ago. But of course since then, memory being what it is, I forgot all the particular names and facts that made it so watertight, and it devolved simply into a vague but strongly felt conviction that conventional economics was dead wrong on this point. Which conviction was surrounded and constantly bombarded by the conventional wisdom that everyone knows. Which made me peevish and insecure.
Memory being what it is, especially in fields in which you are not an expert, it takes an awful lot of repetition to maintain a point against the CW. Or a lot of individual effort. No wonder so most people get worn down and give it up and forget what doesn't fit. And those who don't feel stressed.
Perhaps you should think of compiling some of your short, sweet, solid articles like this into a list of links: [10] Things Everyone Knows That Aren't True.
This and the social security argument certainly belong on there. (And maybe the NCLB thing when it becomes an article.) I'm sure there are many more. You have a basic disposition towards summing up and examining perennial questions.
I for one could certainly benefit from reading through it once a year. And perhaps through citing such a list could eventually become a counter-hegemonic monument on the internet. Which is something we need. Being tied to the news cycle is against our interests because everything we say, no matter how good, gets washed away.
Michael ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk