New York Times' immigration editorial is so obviously absurd they must think their readers are four years old

Posted Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 5:25 am

Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times offers the editorial "Immigration and the Unions" (link). He makes the usual mistakes and smears, and then shows that he thinks his readers are all four years old:

"Workers don’t depress wages. Unscrupulous employers do," said Terence O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers' International Union of North America. Unemployment in his industry is above 21 percent. Nearly two million construction workers are out of work. So what does Mr. O’Sullivan want? Reform that allows immigrants to legalize. "If we can free them so they can come out of the shadows, we can not only improve their lives, but all workers' lives," he said.

1. Apparently Sullivan has never heard of supply and demand; an excess of workers (such as from massive immigration) will indeed depress wages.

2. With two million construction workers out of work, O'Sullivan and the NYT want to increase the swamping effect on that labor market by legalizing millions of potential construction workers rather than supporting enforcement of our laws in order to encourage those illegal aliens to return home over time.

Tags: 
nyt editorial
andrew rosenthal
laborers international union
terence osullivan

Comments

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Wed, 04/22/2009 - 14:41

No 24Ahead the people who are running the new York Times are 4 years old.

Chas. Brickell (not verified)

Wed, 04/22/2009 - 18:25

If that is the case, then I think we have the reciprocal right to take over Baja California, our capital developed it. We might as well take the Gulf Oil fields too.

D Flinchum (not verified)

Wed, 04/22/2009 - 18:56

This idiotorial was the pits. Meat-packing used to be one of the best paid industrial jobs in the US. Not only did workers hang on to these jobs but they pulled any strings they might have access to to get their family and friends jobs in the trade. Now the turnover rate is about 40-100% a year. So what happened? Read all about it below! The massive influx of illegal aliens AND legal immigrants, often refugees, forced the wages in 2007 down to about half of what they were in 1980 after adjusting for inflation. Health and safety rules hit the skids. It wasn't so long ago that employers believed that a job that was dirty, dangerous, and basically unpleasant deserved to have these things considered when wages were set. No more. Now they just recruit and import hordes third-world workers, many illegally here, and drive wages down and profits up. The law of supply and demand sees to the rest. http://www.cis.org/articles/2009/back309.pdf

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Wed, 04/22/2009 - 21:35

Chas Brickell is right, but sad to say the same pigs that are running the oil and the system are our enemies. today a government report states that our military computer and civilian computer system on all levels can-be-take-down at any time and see if the news pigs report that one, only on savage nation and its not from Art Bell but as real as hell. by the way the chinese say that they have nothing to do with this attack last week, when 10 nation's had the same computer attack at once on both military and civilan system. war is coming and our enemies are here inside this nation.