OxBlog

# Posted 5:48 AM by Taylor Owen

BROOKS FISKS DOBBS:

And if Dobbsianism is winning when times are good, you can imagine how attractive it’s going to seem if we enter the serious recession that Larry Summers convincingly and terrifyingly forecasts in yesterday’s Financial Times. If the economy dips as seriously as that, the political climate could shift in ugly ways.

So it’s worth pointing out now more than ever that Dobbsianism is fundamentally wrong. It plays on legitimate anxieties, but it rests at heart on a more existential fear — the fear that America is under assault and is fundamentally fragile. It rests on fears that the America we once knew is bleeding away.

And that’s just not true. In the first place, despite the ups and downs of the business cycle, the United States still possesses the most potent economy on earth. Recently the World Economic Forum and the International Institute for Management Development produced global competitiveness indexes, and once again they both ranked the United States first in the world.
...
Second, America’s fundamental economic strength is rooted in the most stable of assets — its values. The U.S. is still an astonishing assimilation machine. It has successfully absorbed more than 20 million legal immigrants over the past quarter-century, an extraordinary influx of human capital. Americans are remarkably fertile. Birthrates are relatively high, meaning that in 2050, the average American will be under 40, while the average European, Chinese and Japanese will be more than a decade older.
...
Third, not every economic dislocation has been caused by trade and the Chinese. Between 1991 and 2007, the U.S. trade deficit exploded to $818 billion from $31 billion. Yet as Robert Samuelson has pointed out, during that time the U.S. created 28 million jobs and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.6 percent from 6.8 percent. That’s because, as Robert Lawrence of Harvard and Martin Baily of McKinsey have calculated, 90 percent of manufacturing job losses are due to domestic forces. As companies become more technologically advanced, they shed workers (the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs between 1994 and 2004).

Who said the NYT oped page is avoiding the blogosphere?...I say they are now, post wall take-down, starting to adopt some of its best elements...but that is another post...

Labels: David Brooks, Lou Dobbs

(6) opinions -- Add your opinion

Comments:

It's great to talk about how well the U.S. economy is doing when you talk about averages. But when you look at wages for the typical working family, they haven't budged in 40 years -- for many they have gone down.

And about that high American birth rate Brooks takes comfort in, it only applies to our huge -- and growing -- legal and illegal Mexican population, which is low-skilled, uneducated, and shows no signs of getting less so.

Free trade makes the American pie grow bigger, but shifts the shares from labor to capital, including the highly educated and intelligent, such as read and write this blog. You are living in a bubble.

Wake up and be responsible.

# posted by

Luke Lea : 12:59 AM

Oh, and about all that technological progress, since when are all its fruits supposed to go to the privileged few? Those machines were dug up and built by working stiffs, who also grew the food that fed the scientists that thought them up. When do we get our share of the goodies?

# posted by

Luke Lea : 1:04 AM

BTW, did you know it can be shown that immigration from poor countries to rich countries invariable hurts the poor majorities in the poor countries, and therefore should be opposed on moral grounds. (Look at per capita GDP for Mexico for the last 60 years.)

Think about that while you are sipping your latte.

I'm telling you, for your own good, you guys better wake up.

# posted by

Luke Lea : 1:11 AM

Oh, and lest you think I'm just an angry Yob with no constructive suggestions, check out the Born-Again Democrat platform.

Wake up, I say, wake up! Before it's too late. Think!

# posted by

Luke Lea : 1:19 AM

I agree with Luke.

The US government has established a private market for high-technology labor that excludes domestic workers.

The US government has established intentionally a disorderly system of work law enforcement that harshly penalizes legal workers while rewarding illegal workers.

The US government has taken sides in the market: it favors non-citizens.

A nation-state cannot long survive open betrayal of its citizens.

# posted by

Jeff Y : 2:02 AM

Lou Dobbs, Mark Steyn and their sister in spirit Michelle Malkin have actually made great careers just by playing on people's fear of the unknown, unseen, unforeseen etc. It is interesting that since millions of immigrants came to America they did not really steal jobs from Americans. Why would unemployment rates drop then? Maybe they created more jobs instead!

Reasonably paid and hard working skilled or unskilled workers are needed by American businesses, small or big. Despite the fear mongers, immigrants are valued, sheltered and employed by millions of Americans because, eventually, ''Business of America is business.''

# posted by

Rajiv Thind : 2:38 AM