Lobby's Arguments Don't Add Up
Written by Paul Fromm
Sunday, 29 January 2012 20:06
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Lobby's Arguments Don't Add Up
by Salim Mansur, The Calgary Sun
January 29, 2012
http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/01/27/lobbys-arguments-dont-add-up (
http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/01/27/lobbys-arguments-dont-add-up )

The main argument of the pro-immigration lobby, as I pointed out last
week, is the net economic benefits from immigration outweigh social
costs over time.

This argument has been turned into an axiom — self-evident truth —
by the pro-immigration lobby, and is broadcast by the mainstream
media.

Anyone or any group who dare question this axiom are intimidated,
silenced and marginalized by the pro-immigration lobby, through the
media, as reactionaries, or worse, as bigots.

That was the lesson taught to Enoch Powell, the British MP who warned
of the negative consequences of open immigration in his April 1968
speech to a Conservative party gathering in Birmingham, England. He
was branded as a mad hatter and a bigot, and his destroyed political
career stands as a warning by the pro-immigration lobby to politicians
questioning its agenda and what it can do to them.

But the axiom needs to be examined, since an economy such as
Canada’s is complex and social costs are real.

Moreover, long before Powell’s Birmingham speech, western societies
had begun to change as the blueprint for a social welfare state was
adopted. This meant net social costs — universal health care or
old-age pension — in the short and medium term would outweigh
economic benefits from immigration in the long term.

In a completely free market society, it can be argued, open borders
allowing for unrestricted capital and labour movements will reach
equilibrium over time in which benefits outweigh costs of adjustment.
A social welfare state is not an unrestricted free market society.
Consequently, social and economic costs of open immigration in a
welfare state, when aggregated, outweigh benefits.

Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in
economic sciences, was a long-time champion of free-market economy and
open society. His book Free To Choose (1980) remains a huge
international bestseller.
Yet Friedman, despite being a staunch advocate for freedom, warned,
“You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare
state.”
Two Canadian economists, Herbert Grubel and Patrick Grady, with
distinguished careers in academia and politics, prepared a detailed
analysis of the economic cost of immigration. Their study was
published by the Fraser Institute in May 2011, and it can be easily
accessed on the Internet.
Grubel and Grady looked at the fiscal burden of immigration by
examining the average incomes and taxes paid by immigrants over the
period 1987 to 2004 (according to government sources and the 2006
census database) in comparison with the rest of Canadians.
According to this study, “in the fiscal year 2005/06 the immigrants
on average received an excess of $6,051 in benefits over taxes
paid.”
Furthermore, taking into account the number of immigrants who arrived
over the 17-year period under study, and after adjusting this number
for emigration and mortality, the authors found immigrants received in
fiscal year 2005/06 net benefits worth $16.3 billion.
This study severely weakens the pro-immigration lobby’s contention.
And if the economic argument for higher levels of immigration is
unsustainable, social costs in a welfare state with multiculturalism
make it indefensible.

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Lobby's Arguments Don't Add Up
Written by Paul Fromm
Sunday, 29 January 2012 19:58
**
*Lobby's Arguments Don't Add Up*
by Salim Mansur, *The Calgary Sun*
January 29, 2012
http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/01/27/lobbys-arguments-dont-add-up
The main argument of the pro-immigration lobby, as I pointed out last
week, is the net economic benefits from immigration outweigh social costs
over time.

This argument has been turned into an axiom — self-evident truth — by the
pro-immigration lobby, and is broadcast by the mainstream media.

Anyone or any group who dare question this axiom are intimidated, silenced
and marginalized by the pro-immigration lobby, through the media, as
reactionaries, or worse, as bigots.

That was the lesson taught to Enoch Powell, the British MP who warned of
the negative consequences of open immigration in his April 1968 speech to a
Conservative party gathering in Birmingham, England. He was branded as a
mad hatter and a bigot, and his destroyed political career stands as a
warning by the pro-immigration lobby to politicians questioning its agenda
and what it can do to them.

But the axiom needs to be examined, since an economy such as Canada’s is
complex and social costs are real.

Moreover, long before Powell’s Birmingham speech, western societies had
begun to change as the blueprint for a social welfare state was adopted.
This meant net social costs — universal health care or old-age pension — in
the short and medium term would outweigh economic benefits from immigration
in the long term.

In a completely free market society, it can be argued, open borders
allowing for unrestricted capital and labour movements will reach
equilibrium over time in which benefits outweigh costs of adjustment. A
social welfare state is not an unrestricted free market society.
Consequently, social and economic costs of open immigration in a welfare
state, when aggregated, outweigh benefits.

Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in economic
sciences, was a long-time champion of free-market economy and open society.
His book *Free To Choose* (1980) remains a huge international bestseller.

Yet Friedman, despite being a staunch advocate for freedom, warned, “You
cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.”

Two Canadian economists, Herbert Grubel and Patrick Grady, with
distinguished careers in academia and politics, prepared a detailed
analysis of the economic cost of immigration. Their study was published by
the Fraser Institute in May 2011, and it can be easily accessed on the
Internet.

Grubel and Grady looked at the fiscal burden of immigration by examining
the average incomes and taxes paid by immigrants over the period 1987 to
2004 (according to government sources and the 2006 census database) in
comparison with the rest of Canadians.

According to this study, “in the fiscal year 2005/06 the immigrants on
average received an excess of $6,051 in benefits over taxes paid.”

Furthermore, taking into account the number of immigrants who arrived over
the 17-year period under study, and after adjusting this number for
emigration and mortality, the authors found immigrants received in fiscal
year 2005/06 net benefits worth $16.3 billion.

This study severely weakens the pro-immigration lobby’s contention.

And if the economic argument for higher levels of immigration is
unsustainable, social costs in a welfare state with multiculturalism make
it indefensible.
 
High Fashion in the Mosque
Written by Paul Fromm
Sunday, 29 January 2012 19:58
This just has to absolutely tick you off . . . . . . .
High Fashion<http://feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=61532904&f=26412&u=25573022&c=4117925>in
the Mosque
*We're constantly clubbed on the head with the claim that the Muslim world
condemns 9/11, abhors 9/11, etc. - Yet every day Shirts like this are mass
produced, marketed, and sold by street venders thru out the Middle East and
it's simply OK. The mass-murder of 9-11 is a celebrated event by millions
of people. *
*Now a few of our military guys, after months of sleeping on the cold
ground, eating MREs, not having a good hot shower, and away from their love
ones, get caught peeing on a couple of dead Al Qada types, and they are
condemned by the world. What they did wasn't right, but the huge outpouring
of condemnation doesn't compare (in my mind) to someone who would wear a
shirt like this that glorifies the murder of over 3,000 innocent Americans.*
 
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