The opinions expressed in guest columns posted on this site do not necessarily reflect the opinions of AmericanPatrol.com. Visit the Alamance Independent to read Mark Andrew Dwyer's weekly column posted every Sunday. -- Click here for more Mark Andrew Dwyer columns.

WASTING AMERICAN MINDS

1/8/04

Yesterday, January 7, 2004, was a day of great disappointment for all those who looked up to George W. Bush as a defender of the American nation against foreign and domestic forces that threatened its integrity and dwarfed the progress towards liberty, happiness, and abundance. By announcing his "new temporary worker program", Bush gave out to "cheap labor" lobby and de facto refused to protect the American border, ostensibly, in order to recognize reality of million man traffic that illegally crosses it as if it were but an imaginary line that no one is serious about anymore. Unfortunately, the fact that Ma. Bush has left the law-abiding and hard-working Americans vulnerable to all (except those few he and his administration consider a threat to national security) who have appetites for our land and the fruits of out work and ingenuity, is only a part of the bad news.

What Mr. Bush and his advisors don't realize, or, perhaps, don't care about, is the long-term devastating effect that his proposal, if implemented, will have on technological progress that has been the main reason of the strength of American economy that Mr. Bush purports to promote. By opening the American border to virtually unlimited supply of "cheap labor", his program will remove incentives for American entrepreneurs to develop new technologies that would, eventually, make machines perform "the jobs Americans won't do." And it is not that, in America, we have a shortage of talented and educated people who could invent such technologies; it's just that their minds, their creative potential, and their willingness to contribute to America's future are being wasted as hundreds of thousands of engineers and scientists are desperately looking for hi-tech jobs that are being sent offshore in hundreds of thousands each year.

Why should businessmen in labor-intensive industries invest in research and development if they can continue lowering their production costs by hiring "cheap" laborers, billions of which are willing to come to America in search for jobs and better life? Why should they hire alumni of American colleges and universities who command higher salaries and better working conditions than foreign laborers, particularly, if the results of their work (invention of economically feasible new technology, at is) is less than certain? The answer is that they will not. And if you think that it's the government's job and not the private sector's job to stimulate progress in science and technology, think twice. The government is already overextended by spending disproportionately many tax dollars on the least talented Americans (e.g., per Herrnstein and Murray [1], page 434, about 92.5% of federal education grants are being spent on intellectually "disadvantaged" students), and will need to shift even more funds from advanced research to education, health care, and housing of millions of uneducated workers and their families as they pour in millions into America under the auspices of Mr. Bushes "temporary worker program".

In his recent article [2], Craig Nelsen wrote: "Immigration moderates reject the common assertion by the cheap labor profiteers that immigrants take jobs Americans don,t want. They point out that during the last time-out from mass immigration, which lasted the 40 years between 1925 and 1965, Americans not only invented computers, had a healthy labor movement, initiated the space program that put men on the moon, made great strides in civil rights and environmental legislation, built the largest economy the world has ever seen and successfully prosecuted WWII against two great powers on two fronts simultaneously, we also managed to get our dishes washed, our meat packed and our children cared for."

That's right. During the period of limited supply of imported labor, Americans made the most stunning inventions that made our living standards what they are now. If Mr. Bush's alikes were in charge of dictating economic policies from the very beginning of our Western civilization, we would be still building Pharaohs' pyramids using the "cheap" laborers form neighbor countries. If they worked twice as hard, or we employed twice as many of then we would have, perhaps, twice as many pyramids, but this would hardly contribute to the strength of America's economy and living standards of her citizens, never mind conquering the Moon and exploration of Mars.

History will judge you harshly, Mr. "W" Bush. For selling us out to those who, be it for profit or political clout, want to push this country back to the dark times of replacement of advanced technology with low-skilled labor. For wrecking American immigration laws and policies that were supposed to give preference to the most desirable immigrants with exceptional talents, competitive skills, and unquestionable commitment to fundamental principles of American republic. But above all, for recklessly wasting the minds of hundreds of thousands best educated and most talented Americans so that you and your party can gain few "Hispanic" votes in coming presidential elections.

REFERENCES

[1] Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, "The Bell Curve", Simon and Shuster, 2nd Edition, 1996.

[2] Craig Nelsen, "Bush Amnesty Plan Raises Immigration Concerns", FOX News, January 8, 2004, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107692,00.html

|  | | |