Steven E. Landsburg is a complete idiot

Steven E. Landsburg (armchair *at* troi.cc.rochester.edu) is apparently an "economist" who writes the Everyday Economics column for Slate magazine. His latest is called "How much is an immigrant's life worth, exactly?" Read an excerpt and a partial discussion here, and the following is adapted from a comment I left at Slate's Fray:

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Obviously, it's extremely sleazy for him to use loaded phrases such as "three-fifths of a full-fledged citizen" and his reference to hunting Mexicans. But, let's ignore all that and concentrate on how his economic analysis is at the grade school level.

Landsburg completely fails to note other issues involved in this matter, such as the fact that there are billions of people poorer than Mexicans. He fails to ask what their lives are worth, implicitly assuming that there are only two countries on Earth.

He also completely fails to note the other economic issues involved in this matter, such as Robert Rector's estimated net retirement cost of $2.6 trillion if the Senate bill passes. How much would you have to save on lettuce to pay your share of that?

And, he also completely fails to note non-economic factors, such as massive immigration from Mexico leading to increased political power not only for far-left racial demagogues (e.g., Fabian Nunez, Gil Cedillo, Tony Villar), but also increased political power inside the U.S. for the Mexican government. In fact, many non-profit orgs in the U.S. have direct or indirect links to the Mexican government, including well-known orgs like the ACLU and the SPLC. Doesn't such a spectrum from useful idiots to Fifth Columnists have a price?

What of increased political corruption? Massive illegal immigration is a strong indicator of political corruption, yet Landsburg left that out of his "analysis".

Like the title says: Steven E. Landsburg is a complete idiot.

Comments

I just wrote an article/blog post that referenced Landsburg's filth. You might like it, it is entitled "America: Doing the Job Mexico Won't Do." http://kennedysmusings.townhall.com/g/1b44ce5c-ccd5-49a3-930a-99c2dae89e0a

out of topic but : how come you don't have an e-mail address to get news tips ?

Don't overanalyze it. He just wants to smear opponents of illegal immigration. That's all.

I listened to an NPR report on illegal immigration a few months back and the first words out of the reporter's mouth was: "White supremacists recently made their opposition to illegal immigration known..." Could you imagine NPR doing a story on gay rights with a similar emphasis on the pro-gay-marriage position of NAMBLA? Don't expect an honest shake.

"He bids down wages, but that's a two-edged sword: It's bad for his fellow workers, but it's good for employers and good for consumers." This is the quote out of this "idiot's" article. The sad thing is that people will read it. This idiot must be a republican. It's always about how much more money you can make. And the republicans who always talk about being a patriot but they will sell their own countrymen down the tubes and sell their souls to communist china and mexico.