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Funny how the word "immigration" never appears in these articles. Any intellectually honest assessment of the waning American middle class needs to consider the

by User23 8y ago

Funny how the word "immigration" never appears in these articles. Any intellectually honest assessment of the waning American middle class needs to consider the overwhelming post 1965 demographic changes. Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, adding tens of millions of very poor people to a population over the course of decades is, as a mathematical certainty, going to reduce the median wealth of the population. Then add to that dynamic effects such as increased demand for housing and other necessities, higher taxes to cover increased costs of health, education, welfare, and so on, and it's no wonder the fading middle class is getting squeezed.

kylehotchkiss 8y ago
https://www.recode.net/2018/1/12/16883260/trump-immigration-us-america-tech-companies-immigrants https://www.recode.net/2018/1/12/16883260/trump-immigration-... "Immigrants and their children have helped found 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S"
- User23 8y ago
  I was very careful not to make any value judgments or even prescriptions. I'm simply looking at facts and reasonable inferences from them. Some people will prefer to conclude that immigration is bad and should be reduced. Some people will prefer to conclude that immigration is great and should be increased. In the vast majority of cases people's preferences appear to align with their own perceived self interest. The people down-voting this post and my original one are assuredly members of the latter class. Immigration isn't a binary issue. One can reasonably conclude that tens of millions of poor uneducated foreigners are bad for the US population median wealth distribution, but tens of thousands of educated entrepreneurial foreigners are good for it. One can also do so without succumbing to the puerile some's good more's better pseudo-reasoning that dominates the Overton approved discourse on the subject. Also, supporting my original post, that massive influx of affluent foreigners has observably greatly increased the cost of living in the bay area. A person can make 6 figures and still be considered in poverty. This is clearly germane to any discussion of the middle class withering away.

by User23 8y ago

kylehotchkiss 8y ago

https://www.recode.net/2018/1/12/16883260/trump-immigration-us-america-tech-companies-immigrants https://www.recode.net/2018/1/12/16883260/trump-immigration-... "Immigrants and their children have helped found 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies in the U.S"

User23 8y ago
I was very careful not to make any value judgments or even prescriptions. I'm simply looking at facts and reasonable inferences from them. Some people will prefer to conclude that immigration is bad and should be reduced. Some people will prefer to conclude that immigration is great and should be increased. In the vast majority of cases people's preferences appear to align with their own perceived self interest. The people down-voting this post and my original one are assuredly members of the latter class. Immigration isn't a binary issue. One can reasonably conclude that tens of millions of poor uneducated foreigners are bad for the US population median wealth distribution, but tens of thousands of educated entrepreneurial foreigners are good for it. One can also do so without succumbing to the puerile some's good more's better pseudo-reasoning that dominates the Overton approved discourse on the subject. Also, supporting my original post, that massive influx of affluent foreigners has observably greatly increased the cost of living in the bay area. A person can make 6 figures and still be considered in poverty. This is clearly germane to any discussion of the middle class withering away.