That way we can give ‘em an ID card they can use for business purposes or for dealing with governmental agencies. We should let them choose whether to come here as a student, tourist, visitor, permanent resident or whatever.

Letting any of them work towards becoming a citizen is an entirely separate issue and is probably already well established.

Right now our economy looks as shaky as an AIDS patient with pneumonia and a Republican congressman shaking his hand. But, down the road we are likely to need more new citizens to grow the economy. This isn’t unusual for America.

Bush: Dems are like teenagers with their first credit card.

Spit!

I’ve been a Democrat a long long time.

I’ve NEVER had a credit card!

[ Note: I do use a Debit card. ]

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. So, maybe Dubya should look at his credit card statement. It says he’s 9 Trillion dollars in debt.

The only debt problems I have ever had have been in recent years because of outrageous health care costs.

Many owners and managers who employ recent immigrant labor, whether the workers are documented or undocumented, do not want to hire white or African-American workers because US citizens of any color tend to insist that bosses treat them with respect for their dignity.

Ian Welsh @ 158

Since I’m still around, I’ll just note that I’m reasonably sure that the 60’s wasn’t the only post war period in which wages rose robustly. The entire post war period (with the exeption of recessions) was pretty darn good overall.

Chart in this post:

http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..long-suck/

ian – do you have a chart (or know where i can go to get the data) of unemployment rates to lay over your favorite chart of all time on hourly wages?

I don’t have a chart, no, but http://www.bls.gov is where you need to go. Look for the population survey and from there look for “make own charts” (or something like that.)

Ian,

Is it correct that there were wage increases in the 50’s with little inflation, but that the wage increases in the 60’s were partially taken back by inflation?

Of course from the perspective of the blowout inflation of the 70’s the previous decade looked pretty tame.

In the 60’s we started paying for having both a war and expanded social programs, then the bill came due in the 70’s.

Are we facing an equivalent period in a few years, where the costs of the war and the deficit collide?

I’m only semi-here (in a conference call) but the chart I linked is real wages. Inflation did get worse every decade iirc.

When I was a Wall St. economist, I had a different theory about how wages were determined than you’ll ever read in textbooks or hear from other economists. My hypothesis was that corporations had all the power and workers had very little, until they got so scarce that corporations were forced to bid them away from each other. In the 1960s (the only postwar time that real wages rose robustly), it took an unemployment rate that rounded to 4.

Since I’m still around, I’ll just note that I’m reasonably sure that the 60’s wasn’t the only post war period in which wages rose robustly. The entire post war period (with the exeption of recessions) was pretty darn good overall.

Chart in this post:

http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..long-suck/

ian – do you have a chart (or know where i can go to get the data) of unemployment rates to lay over your favorite chart of all time on hourly wages?

Is it correct that there were wage increases in the 50’s with little inflation, but that the wage increases in the 60’s were partially taken back by inflation?

Of course from the perspective of the blowout inflation of the 70’s the previous decade looked pretty tame.

In the 60’s we started paying for having both a war and expanded social programs, then the bill came due in the 70’s.

Are we facing an equivalent period in a few years, where the costs of the war and the deficit collide?