Approximately not so much

Economist Steven Landsburg calculates Americans who oppose immigration must think immigrants are “worth less than one-fifth of an American citizen.” Obviously a more apposite calculation would be determining how much immigrants’ value the lives of American citizens - to the average immigrant, is an American’s well-being worth three-quarters as much as his, or half as much, or one-quarter as much? I say obviously, but for some reason it did not occur to the great mind of Steven Landsburg, possibly because he’s tired from all the charity work someone as altruistic and unselfish as he is must surely be doing.

Comments

  1. James13/6/07 7:10 AM

    What a twat. Wikipedia says he has a daughter and that his asking price for her is upwards of $3 million or 10 times the price of a Mexican.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous13/6/07 3:54 PM

    JW Holliday eviscerates Landsburg over at Majorityrights.com.


    http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/lets_do_the_math_landsburg/

    ReplyDelete
  3. C. Van Carter13/6/07 8:04 PM

    See also Mangan, and see Landsburg's reply to Ross Douthat where he sneeringly reveals his contempt for American's who care about their countrymen:

    "you're certainly entitled to prefer the bunch of strangers with whom you share a nationality (personally I'd feel vaguely icky about that, but we each have our idiosyncracies)"

    It's obvious Landsburg's animus toward ordinary Americans derives from his Jewish identity politics and its accompanying set of irrational fears. But public policies shouldn't be premised on phobias.

    ReplyDelete

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